I graduated law school in 2007 (so I also have private loans) and consolidated my federal loans into the Direct Loan program to do the PSLF program. I made a few years of payments under the IBR plan. I am thinking of a career change and getting a Master’s in Teaching, which will involve more student loans. I know from information I found on your site that generally the advice is to not consolidate the new loans with the ones I have because it would restart the clock. But I have a couple of questions. 1)How will my payments be calculated? If they are both IBR will my payment on each be calculated separately so that the total I owe per month will be double? ex: if my payment now were $300 a month and my income doesn’t change, will the next loan also be $300 so that I’d owe $600 a month? 2)Some programs such as PAYE were not available because they came later-how does this affect me? Is it better to consolidate and get a lower monthly payment, or is there anything I should know re the new programs? Thank you so much.