I am 1 semester away from graduating in Dec 07. My loans are probably in the 99K range. I am desperately trying to purchase a home prior to September or December 07. I believe I will only have 6 months after graduation before my loans will be due monthly. My salary is 50K now and I hope that it will raise at least once or twice before graduation. I am looking for a different positon currently. I believe that if I am unable to pay the monthly loan amount due in May 08 that I could always go back to school is this correct. I am getting nervous that I may not obtain the 75K job by May 08 as planned. I interviewed with a great company but they are still waiting on a contract from the VA before they would make an offer. Now, this job would resolve all of my salary problems. They would offer at least 64-67 and with a 10 year contract. They promised after my first year I could consider becoming a Project Manager, no salary was stated. However, PM make a ton of money. If this dream job does not happen, what other alternatives might I look into with my loan repayment. Is consolidation something that I should do now or later when the payments are due?

Wiser, now.

99k in student loans?

While you're feeling the crunch I think any lender is still going to see the loans that you have taken out, though I might be incorrect. What I'm more concerned about is that you'd be putting money into a mortgage that you would probably be better served putting against your student loans to reduce the amount you owe before interest starts to accumulate on the loans.

It's a real kicker to see how interest works against you over time... at 99k it's going to be an uphill battle, and one that if I were you I would concentrate on before you start thinking about taking on a mortgage.

You can consolidate the loans (someone correct me if I am wrong) anytime 6 months after graduation while they are in the "grace period". What I would be looking to do in your situation is to ride out the grace period until near the end of it, making the largest payments I could afford to make against the loans to get the balance down before consolidation. Consolidate near the end of the grace period and it will usually take the consolidation people 60 days to send you the first payment on the loans plus the amount of time it took to consolidate, although you're supposed to keep making payments on the loans while the are in consolidation if you do this near the beginning of the last month of grace after graduation it will probably work out that you never need to make a payment to them before they recieve payoff from the consolidator.

That should give you the maximum amount of time to make as many payments as you can without having to fight uphill against the balance. I hope that helps but if I were you, I wouldn't want to take on a house, property taxes, repairs, etc etc while trying to pay down student loans. YMMV. Hope thats some help.

I believe that if I am unable to pay the monthly loan amount due in May 08

If you have any inkling that you will not be able to afford your student loan payment in the near future, you should NOT even be consiering buying a home now. Right now your student loan is your mortgage payment and you should be working at getting it knocked down. It should be your first priority!

congrats, me too, im graduating this August, i already got an offer 54k. However, my school loans are only 40k.
Good Luck

Well, let me echo what has been said, don't "hurry" to buy a house if you can't afford the payments on your student loans. Look at consolidation and see what kind of rates/payments you can get and then think about if you can afford a house. My Advice: if you're living at home beg to stay for a couple years, and pay as much down on those loans as possible. Going back to school and deferring them is a bad idea: more $$ to go to school, plus $$ in interest on you 100k. Pay them as fast and furious as you can... especially once you consolidate.

As for when to look at consolidation: right when your grace period ends start talking to people about it. Get all your loans into one, don't forget about one or anything, 1 payment, 1 rate.

At $50k/yr you should be able to figure something out to pay on the loans, esp. after consolidation.

Chris