I am hoping someone can help me. I am about to graduate law school and I am beyond overwhelmed with loan consolidation. I have read so much stuff on the internet but I just feel completely lost and am so confused.

I have a $15k deffered federal loans with ACS from undergrad (2.something interest rate)
9k with my school (no idea the interest rate, I dont even know who is holding it.)

Then, with Access Group....
Federal

(variable, I think)
From 05-06 - Fed Subs Loan $8,500 with 7.22%
Unsub $10k with 7.22%
From 06-07 - Fed Subs Loan $8,500 at 6.8%
Unsub $10k at 6.8%

(fixed)
Federal Subs Consolidation Loan $8,500 at 4.75%
Fed Unsub Consolidation Loan $10,500 at 4.75%

(fixed rate)
From 07-08 - Fed Subs Loan $8,500 with 6.8%
Unsub Loan $12,000 at 6.8%

private
From 05-06 - Law Access Loan $18,000 at 9.51% VARIABLE
FFELP Grad Plus Loan $23,000 at 8.5% FIXED


PLUSSS.... yet ANOTHER pending loan for the bar of $6k at 7.95% interest.

I am lost. The online calculators confuse me. Which ones can be put together and consolidated? Or will I need 4 different payments, the ACS loan from undergrad, Fed Access Group loans, Pvt Access group, and the school one?

Where is the best place to consolidate? I have heard bad things about Sallie Mae. Credit scores are in my siggy. Parents have VG credit and may be willing to co-sign, but only if absolutely necessary.

Thank you so much for looking. I would appreciate any help.

Your school has a Financial Aid officer. Make an appointment with them. This is a service your tuition is already paying for so for heaven's sake use it! Educating yourself is good but as a future professional yourself you need to learn how to use other professionals to assist you. The Financial Aid officer should be able to answer all your questions and direct you to the best options for you; that's their job.

Good luck with the bar exam.

Actually most financial aid officer have very limited knowledge of consolidation programs...it is not in the scope of their job. The best resorce is the Department of Education Website.


To the OP....all of your federal loans, including your Perkins, FFELPs, Directs and Consolidation loans can be consolidated into one neat package. Again, I always recommend the Direct Loan program for the most favorable payment plans.

Wow! We are in the exact same boat! I am about to graduate law school next month and have over $100K in student loans. (Ugh!). From what I understand, you can consolidate all of your private loans into one and all of your federal loans into another. So you should only have to pay 2 loans. But I am still searching for the best way to handle all of this.

I was told that after July 1, the interest rates for the fed loans will be going down, so it will be best to consolidate those loans at that time. For the private loans, they are based on a credit score basis. So I am currently trying to get my score up so I can consolidate at a lower rate, hopefully after July 1 as well.

If you find any info. out there that you can share, please do.

When you consolidate federal loans, your interest rate is the weighted average of the rates on your current loans. A drop in federal student loan rates will have no effect on the rate you pay if you consolidate them.

ETA: I did overgeneralize a bit there, because it does depend on whether your loans have fixed or variable rates, which has changed in the last few years. Just make sure to do your research before assuming that a rate cut would affect your consolidation.

What on earth are you talking about????

http://www.nasfaa.org/Home.asp

This is their handbook of ethical principles.

http://www.nasfaa.org/subhomes/MediaCenter...deofConduct.pdf

You are just plain flat-out wrong. Any FA Officer who tells you that that don't know anything about consolidation should be immediately reported to the director of financial aid. It is there JOB to know about consolidation and the student's tuition is paying for it.

As a former FA officer at a major university, I can tell you it was NOT our job to to educate the students on consolidation. In fact that came from our Director of FA. I knew all about consolidation loan programs from working collections and I offered to educate my coworkers but the opinion from my director and other collegues was that so few students even bothered with the online exit interview where it was covered, that in depth training was not necessary. Since we were a DL lending school, we simply refered any questions to the DL website site. Quite frankly, students very rarely came to us with consolidation questions and the honestly with the workload that we had to deal with, it was not something that was high on the flagpole. So consequently most FA advisors are know about consolidation loan programs and know where to refer the student, but it is not their job to advise them. The student has to educate themselves with the tools available.

To address the financial aid comments, they are somewhat helpful, but there are only a couple of officers (who deal with a lot of things besides the consolidation) and over 300 students in a class. Their past advice as basically been call Access group or Fannie Mae. Like I said, they are helpful, but just to point you in the right direction.

I too happen to be a former financial aid offer at a university. I can totally believe what you are saying is true at your former institution. It doesn't change the fact that what your director told you violated the ethics of the profession. There is nothing in the ethical guidelines for the FA profession that excepts consolidation questions from the ethical guidelines. I suspect the reason you got so few questions about consolidation was because students figured out a long-time ago not to ask because they wouldn't get good information. Word spreads.

The reason I replied the way I did is because it is important for students to be their own advocates. This is especially true for someone who is becoming a lawyer and will be expected to be an advocate for others. Unfortunately, too many universities push students around and get away with whatever they can. Students need to fight to stop that; and one reason the FA profession created the ethical guidelines was to assist student in that endeavor. Your comments discouraging this student from holding university professionals accountable does a disservice to the profession you once held, as well as being a disservice to the student themselves.