For Those With Student Loans...Possibly Breaking News!

I am an MS1. I consolidated with Direct Loans (the only borrower with whom you can consolidate while you are still in school).

The 6-month grace period is still in effect, and I do not have to make any payments over the summer.

DcS said:

Well that's great news for you, thanks for sharing with everyone. For the rest of us w/ FFEL this is very good news. The loss of the grace period is for my lender, others may still grant it.

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This is definitely good news; thanks for the heads-up. Who's your lender, out of curiosity?

Can I consolidate my undergrad loans now or is this just for current dental students?

Sallie Mae won't let me

anyone can consolidate any loans now. I am a first-year med student with no other loans, only the ones from this year. I thought I didn't need to consolidate, until I looked into it. It's basically locking in a 2.77% rate on every federal loan you have (EXCEPT PERKINS! DO NOT CONSOLIDATE THE PERKINS!), which is a fantastic deal and unlikely to be seen again in my lifetime.

MeowMix said:

anyone can consolidate any loans now. I am a first-year med student with no other loans, only the ones from this year. I thought I didn't need to consolidate, until I looked into it. It's basically locking in a 2.77% rate on every federal loan you have (EXCEPT PERKINS! DO NOT CONSOLIDATE THE PERKINS!), which is a fantastic deal and unlikely to be seen again in my lifetime.

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so why did they tell me no?

Brocnizer2007 said:

Sallie Mae won't let me

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sallie mae said no to me today also!
is this true?

DcS said:

I do not claim to be an expert on student loans, but I do think I follow them a lot more closely than most people do. Recently there had been some discussion here about consolidation. Unfortunately (in the past hopefully), you could not consolidate loans until graduation. For those graduating in 2005 (now), they have the great opportunity to consolidate at the current record low loan rates. Unfortunately, judging by the most recent T-Bill, the loan rates will be increasing to about 4.6%, a considerable jump. I think for a 125k loan that is a 40k difference in interest, which is substantial. Well, I got an email from graduate leverage with breaking news, I will let you read it below. Basically, for those on FFEL school loans (which most are), you will probably have the chance to consolidate your loans NOW, in school, at 2.87%, if it's done by July 1st. Here is the email I received, when I get the specific update on Thursday I will be sure to post.

Dear fellow students,



Graduate Leverage is excited to announce a change in student lending policy which will allow virtually every student attending a FFEL school to complete an in-school consolidation. Previously, only students with Direct Loans were eligible to complete an in-school consolidation. Given this recent development, you should now have the ability to fix your loans at the pre-July rate of 2.875% (vs. the likely post-July rate of 4.625%).



As of late Monday, the major lenders have announced their willingness to allow in-school consolidation, and we expect that the remaining lenders will follow suit. Given this substantial rate difference, you can expect to save the following amounts in interest payments over the life of your loans dispersed to date:

* Medical/Dental/Vet Student Savings approximately $43,000
* Law Student Savings approximately $15,000
* MBA Student Savings approximately $4,000

We wanted to communicate the message immediately as we know many of you are leaving school for break or entering rotations. We will send you an email on Thursday informing you of all the necessary steps to complete an in-school consolidation. If you could, please save your questions for us until after you have received and read Thursday's email as it will provide you with a clearer picture of the necessary steps to take.



Lastly, if other classmates would like to receive Thursday’s email as well they can sign up to receive it at the following link: http://www.graduateleverage.com/reservation.



Best regards,

The Graduate Leverage Team

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What a ploy. Another way to screw you into consolidating loans.

OSUdoc08 said:

What a ploy. Another way to screw you into consolidating loans.

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This is part ploy, part truth. The key points have already been stated.

1. While in school, you can only consolidate with Direct Loans (federal government)
2. A zillion other companies will "consolidate" for you while in school, but they will really just take your information, consolidate with Direct Loans, and hope that you stay with them and keep your business when you graduate
3. Everyone except Direct Loans is a private company, (no matter how official they look or the name sounds).
4. I don't know anything about different companies, and you shouldn't trust a random post either, but just make sure to do your research before picking a company, or going with Direct Loans.
5. Rates are really going to go up, and for most people it is a good idea to consolidate before July 1st. Again, there are some downsides, but the rates are just too mathematically good!

That is what I have picked up. Be careful what you read and look into it yourself!

OSUdoc08 said:

What a ploy. Another way to screw you into consolidating loans.

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Please explain, how is one getting screwed by locking in rates of 2.8% for student loans?

DcS said:

Yes you can consolidate your undergrad loans now.

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Thanks for the heads-up. My loans are all through Direct Loans and it took about 20 min to complete the consolidation form online for both subs and unsubs for anyone who wants to know.

eric275 said:

Please explain, how is one getting screwed by locking in rates of 2.8% for student loans?

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1. If you have perkins loans, it will start collecting interest.
2. You will not be able to consolidate other loans taken out while in school. The rates on these loans will still be the higher rate.
3. If you consolidate after you graduate, it is likely you cannot reconsolidate. If you are able to, all loans will begin to accumulate the highest interest.

No real benefits here.

Also, this is simply another way for loan consolidations to make money. I have been told by my financial advisor that it is a bad idea to consolidate more than once. You should do it once----after you take out your last loan.

Ok I have a question, I'm very ignorant on financial aid/loans as I've never touched them before. I'm starting dental school this upcoming August and I was originally just going to pay everything with cash. But if this loan consolidation can lock everything (stafford subsidized/unsubsidized, and some other weird CitiAssist according to my FA letter) at 2.8%, I would love to do this so that I can leave my cash in CDs and other investment devices since many bank CDs are 3.5% or higher!

Am I missing somethign here? Because it can't be this good right? This is like goign to school for free... so what's the catch that I missed?

OSUdoc08 said:

1. If you have perkins loans, it will start collecting interest.

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OK, so that applies to the folks who have Perkins loans. How about the rest of us?

2. You will not be able to consolidate other loans taken out while in school. The rates on these loans will still be the higher rate.

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So getting an excellent interest rate on some of your loans is worse than getting an excellent interest rate on none of them?

3. If you consolidate after you graduate, it is likely you cannot reconsolidate. If you are able to, all loans will begin to accumulate the highest interest.

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TOTALLY incorrect. Anytime you add a new student loan, you can reconsolidate, and the new interest rate is the weighted average of the individual loans' interest rates, just like the original consolidation.

Also, this is simply another way for loan consolidations to make money. I have been told by my financial advisor that it is a bad idea to consolidate more than once. You should do it once----after you take out your last loan.

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Yeah, it is, but it's also a way for you to make money, so everybody wins. And did your financial advisor offer any evidence in support, or did you just swallow what he told you without a second thought?

aphistis said:

OK, so that applies to the folks who have Perkins loans. How about the rest of us?


So getting an excellent interest rate on some of your loans is worse than getting an excellent interest rate on none of them?


TOTALLY incorrect. Anytime you add a new student loan, you can reconsolidate, and the new interest rate is the weighted average of the individual loans' interest rates, just like the original consolidation.


Yeah, it is, but it's also a way for you to make money, so everybody wins. And did your financial advisor offer any evidence in support, or did you just swallow what he told you without a second thought?

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I smelt a little irony from your signature motto

Brocnizer2007 said:

Sallie Mae won't let me

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Me either.

mvs04 said:

Ok I have a question, I'm very ignorant on financial aid/loans as I've never touched them before. I'm starting dental school this upcoming August and I was originally just going to pay everything with cash. But if this loan consolidation can lock everything (stafford subsidized/unsubsidized, and some other weird CitiAssist according to my FA letter) at 2.8%, I would love to do this so that I can leave my cash in CDs and other investment devices since many bank CDs are 3.5% or higher!

Am I missing somethign here? Because it can't be this good right? This is like goign to school for free... so what's the catch that I missed?

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No catch. The key is to invest in items that have a higher earning potential than the interest rate on your student loans. Heck, even ING Direct Savings has a higher interest rate, at the moment, than my student loans do.

just got the same exact email as the OP did today....thanks for the heads up though.

Brocnizer2007 said:

Sallie Mae won't let me

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They will now.

Visit: http://www.salliemae.com/apply/borrowing/smartloan_rateguarantee.html

If you consolidate while in school, don't you have to begin repayment while in school (I have a year left)? I signed up with Direct Loans but after realizing this, cancelled the consolidation process. How can one afford to do this?

UTDental said:

If you consolidate while in school, don't you have to begin repayment while in school (I have a year left)? I signed up with Direct Loans but after realizing this, cancelled the consolidation process. How can one afford to do this?

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No, normally that would be the case but recent new legislation allows students in school to consolidate and defer loan repayment while still in school. Once you stop attending, you lose your 6-month grace period if you consolidate.

So the downside is that you'll have to begin making payments upon graduation (unless you to post-grad studies), but the upside is you could potentially save yourself thousands of dollars in interest.

ItsGavinC said:

They will now.

Visit: http://www.salliemae.com/apply/borrowing/smartloan_rateguarantee.html

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A huge Thanks!

Although when I go to apply it tells me this. Did you have any luck calling them directly?

"Because you are in an in-school period, your loans may not yet be eligible for a SMART LOAN Consolidation Account. For more information about your consolidation options, please contact the consolidation specialists at Sallie Mae. Our toll-free number is 800/448-3533."

Broc, from that page you need to click on the continuing students page, which then takes you here:

http://www.salliemae.com/apply/borrowing/smartloan/index.html

It works just fine.

aphistis said:

OK, so that applies to the folks who have Perkins loans. How about the rest of us?


So getting an excellent interest rate on some of your loans is worse than getting an excellent interest rate on none of them?


TOTALLY incorrect. Anytime you add a new student loan, you can reconsolidate, and the new interest rate is the weighted average of the individual loans' interest rates, just like the original consolidation.


Yeah, it is, but it's also a way for you to make money, so everybody wins. And did your financial advisor offer any evidence in support, or did you just swallow what he told you without a second thought?

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I'm not picking on aphistis, but both he and OSU prove a point: dentists and dental students in general don't have a clue about money. You each are saying more that is wrong than is right. Since we, as a rule, don't understand money we may take what you say as true and make a bad financial decision.
My point is that our debt is large and if handled wrong could cost us a lot of money:get someone who knows what he's talking about to explain the arcane business of loan consolidation. Don't just spread what you think you know. Your schools might want to consider booking Graduate Leverage for a lunch and learn. They're a bunch of Harvard MBA students who started this as a class project. They negotiate a deal with the banks for their student clientele and take a cut from the banks to cover their expenses. Supposedly anything left over gets split up as profit, but being a red-blooded American I think they deserve this if they do a good job of it.
By the way, the reason you don't consolidate your Perkins loans is because they already are fixed interest loans and you would just lose your borrower benefits.

gumgardener2009 said:

You're schools might want to consider booking Graduate Leverage for a lunch and learn. They're a bunch of Harvard MBA students who started this as a class project. They negotiate a deal with the banks for their student clientele and take a cut from the banks to cover their expenses. Supposedly anything left over get split up as profit, but being a red-blooded American I think they deserve this if they do a good job of it.

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GL (Graduate Leverage) appears to be a fairly good choice, but there are some things about that process that worry me. First, they claim to reduce the interest rate on the Perkins loans to match the current Stafford interest rate, but this isn't factored into any of the calculations they send to prospective clients, nor is it in writing anywhere in the final notice.

Second, they claim they have handled 40 million in student loans, which is an absolutely insignificant amount. If the average student has 100k in debt, they've only handled 400 students.

Thirdly, because they are a new company it's difficult to say whether or not they will go under and be bought out by another company, or at the very least sell your loan to another company. [EDIT: they explicitly state that they will NOT sell the loan or change benefits for the life of the loan.]

Fourth, the paperwork they sent back to me from the bank they recommend to 95% of their applicants (AES) was riddeled with errors. This is stuff that I entered into the website, so there shouldn't be errors in it. For example, total loan amounts were incorrect and the amounts for sub. and unsub. were swapped. Those types of things may or may not be a huge deal, but they do worry me when I realize I could consolidate with other major companies, either federal (Direct Loans) or private (Sallie Mae or UHEAA).

I still haven't decided whether or not to go with Sallie Mae, UHEAA, or GL. For those who have a single Direct Loan in their loan history, I'd look strongly at Direct Loans since they will allow you to maintain your 6-month grace period if you need to.

The big determinent for me is whichever company has the highest % of clients gaining deferement.

I forgot to mention that GL also allows those consolidating with in-school status to maintain the 6-month grace period on Stafford loans.

GL looks like an exceptional deal with all of their benefits, but I don't know if they have the track record for me to just jump in with them.

ItsGavinC said:

I forgot to mention that GL also allows those consolidating with in-school status to maintain the 6-month grace period on Stafford loans.

GL looks like an exceptional deal with all of their benefits, but I don't know if they have the track record for me to just jump in with them.

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I'm not necessarily recommending GL, I'm just saying listen to what they have to say. You may learn something. By the way, they don't own your consolidation loans, they just negotiate with the banks to get you the deal (as a group). The guy who came to our school said that the finance company/bank that they are recommending will not sell your loans.

gumgardener2009 said:

I'm not picking on aphistis, but both he and OSU prove a point: dentists and dental students in general don't have a clue about money. You each are saying more that is wrong than is right.

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I'll take that bet. Where's all this incorrect information I'm giving out?

anybody know about consolidating private loans like deal loans? i haven't been able to find much on those...any info would be appreciated! thanks!

aphistis said:

I'll take that bet. Where's all this incorrect information I'm giving out?

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Like I said, dental students and dentists don't understand money. You recommend reconsolidating low interest loans with higher interest loans and paying a higher weighted average rate. First off I'm pretty sure you can only consolidate a loan once, then all following loans can be consolidated separately (but don't quote me on that). You could "refinance" these loans not "reconsolidate" them. If you could reconsolidate loans then there would be a lot of dentists who consolidated their loans nearly ten years ago at 7+% that would be jumping on this "reconsolidation" gravy train. Secondly, a good businessman would never lose that low interest rate by combining it with a higher interest rate loan to get the higher weighted average. What would be the benefit? Higher total cost just for getting one loan payment a month? He would pay down the higher interest loan faster than he pays down the lower interest loan all things being equal.

gumgardener2009 said:

Like I said, dental students and dentists don't understand money. You recommend reconsolidating low interest loans with higher interest loans and paying a higher weighted average rate.

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Did I say that? Funny, I don't remember seeing that anywhere...I only remember saying to consolidate all the loans someone has right now in order to lock in the excellent interest rates currently available.

First off I'm pretty sure you can only consolidate a loan once, then all following loans can be consolidated separately (but don't quote me on that). You could "refinance" these loans not "reconsolidate" them.

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You might want to do a little better than "pretty sure," then, before you start telling people how little they know about money. Anytime you add a new student loan, you can reconsolidate.

If you could reconsolidate loans then there would be a lot of dentists who consolidated their loans nearly ten years ago at 7+% that would be jumping on this "reconsolidation" gravy train.

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...except that, as I just mentioned, you can't reconsolidate unless you have new loans to incorporate into the consolidation.

Secondly, a good businessman would never lose that low interest rate by combining it with a higher interest rate loan to get the higher weighted average. What would be the benefit? Higher total cost just for getting one loan payment a month? He would pay down the higher interest loan faster than he pays down the lower interest loan all things being equal.

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Once again, where did I say anything about combining low-interest loans with "high-interest" (this is a term I'm employing VERY loosely & relatively, considering we're talking about 4-point-some percent at the high end, which is itself a fantastically low interest rate)?

...but, since you're being so insistent about it, let's consider it just for the sake of argument. Suppose you do combine all these loans and find yourself with a weighted APR in the ballpark of 3-4% (oh, the horror!), anybody with two brain cells to rub together can still make a killing by taking the difference in payments & putting it in long-term investments--in fact, there was an entire thread dedicated to this very subject not too far back.

To summarize the point of that thread, when you're talking about interest rates as low as student loans have offered for the last several years, making minimal payments and taking as long as possible to repay the loans is a good thing, because every day you stretch out that student loan at 2-5%, you're earning north of 10% on that same money over the long haul.

But hey, what does any dentist or dental student (other than you, of course) know about money, right? You just keep educating the masses.

aphistis said:

Did I say that? Funny, I don't remember seeing that anywhere...I only remember saying to consolidate all the loans someone has right now in order to lock in the excellent interest rates currently available.


You might want to do a little better than "pretty sure," then, before you start telling people how little they know about money. Anytime you add a new student loan, you can reconsolidate.


...except that, as I just mentioned, you can't reconsolidate unless you have new loans to incorporate into the consolidation.


Once again, where did I say anything about combining low-interest loans with "high-interest" (this is a term I'm employing VERY loosely & relatively, considering we're talking about 4-point-some percent at the high end, which is itself a fantastically low interest rate)?

...but, since you're being so insistent about it, let's consider it just for the sake of argument. Suppose you do combine all these loans and find yourself with a weighted APR in the ballpark of 3-4% (oh, the horror!), anybody with two brain cells to rub together can still make a killing by taking the difference in payments & putting it in long-term investments--in fact, there was an entire thread dedicated to this very subject not too far back.

To summarize the point of that thread, when you're talking about interest rates as low as student loans have offered for the last several years, making minimal payments and taking as long as possible to repay the loans is a good thing, because every day you stretch out that student loan at 2-5%, you're earning north of 10% on that same money over the long haul.

But hey, what does any dentist or dental student (other than you, of course) know about money, right? You just keep educating the masses.

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Yet again, this is where i would call you an idiot...but i cant....so i'm not....i dont want you crying to gavin again.......

Gavin,
this is not a direct attack, so i'm ok, right?

zdaddy08 said:

Yet again, this is where i would call you an idiot...but i cant....so i'm not....i dont want you crying to gavin again.......

Gavin,
this is not a direct attack, so i'm ok, right?

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It's good to have you back wasting your time nipping at my heel. It's equally amusing to see the irrational, intense hatred for me that you're completely unable to express in a fashion that doesn't threaten you with getting banned.

aphistis said:

Did I say that? Funny, I don't remember seeing that anywhere...I only remember saying to consolidate all the loans someone has right now in order to lock in the excellent interest rates currently available.

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You don't remember writing:

TOTALLY incorrect. Anytime you add a new student loan, you can reconsolidate, and the new interest rate is the weighted average of the individual loans' interest rates, just like the original consolidation.

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Don't feign not remembering what you wrote. It's in your second post. Zdaddy is very perceptive. I shouldn't even bother arguing with you since others may not be able to differentiate us (per your signature). Even if you think you didn't mean what I think you said, it can only be that way. Hypothetically, if you consolidate now at historically low rates, when will you be able to "reconsolidate" according to your terminology. Let's see...I get new loans later this summer at the higher rate of 4+%. So add this to my historically low rate of 2.875% and I get a higher weighted average rate. I've just cost myself money. You don't need two loans to consolidate. You can leave your originally consolidated loan separate, thus keeping the low rate. Your later loans can be consolidated without involving the 2.875% loans. I'll have two different loan payments, but so what. I'm saving money with the 2.875% loans and I can pay the higher rate loans faster to minimize their cost.

You might want to do a little better than "pretty sure," then, before you start telling people how little they know about money. Anytime you add a new student loan, you can reconsolidate.
...except that, as I just mentioned, you can't reconsolidate unless you have new loans to incorporate into the consolidation.

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I use terms like "pretty sure" because I don't have the hubris to think that my fellow posters are always "TOTALLY incorrect". Once again "reconsolidation" doesn't exist. It's a semantical argument, but technically you are correct that new loans can be added to the consolidated loans. This is not "reconsolidation". In an interest rate market where rates are going up, you would not add those new loans to the older lower rate loans. You would just ruin the low rate you're paying, costing you money.

Once again, where did I say anything about combining low-interest loans with "high-interest" (this is a term I'm employing VERY loosely & relatively, considering we're talking about 4-point-some percent at the high end, which is itself a fantastically low interest rate)?

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See above argument

...but, since you're being so insistent about it, let's consider it just for the sake of argument. Suppose you do combine all these loans and find yourself with a weighted APR in the ballpark of 3-4% (oh, the horror!), anybody with two brain cells to rub together can still make a killing by taking the difference in payments & putting it in long-term investments--in fact, there was an entire thread dedicated to this very subject not too far back.

To summarize the point of that thread, when you're talking about interest rates as low as student loans have offered for the last several years, making minimal payments and taking as long as possible to repay the loans is a good thing, because every day you stretch out that student loan at 2-5%, you're earning north of 10% on that same money over the long haul.

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Historically, the inflation rate is 3% and interest rates are 6%, but averages don't tell the whole story they're just benchmarks. Just because rates are above or below historical averages does not make them cheap or expensive. You have to look at current economic factors. When rates were 10% in the early 80's, that was cheap because rates eventually got out to 18%. You would have done well to lock in 10% at that time. Just because your weighted average rate on your consolidated loans will still be below the historical average interest rate does not make it "cheap". Being cavalier the way you are shows me that you don't understand money. Why pay more in interest than you have to? Don't consolidate higher rate loans with lower rate loans, all things being equal.

But hey, what does any dentist or dental student (other than you, of course) know about money, right? You just keep educating the masses.

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I traded bonds and T-notes for 12 years. I think I know a little bit more than you. If I watch my costs better than you, I won't have to work as hard as you will.

does anybody no anything about going through your bank to get loans? for example, wells fargo? thanks

gumgardener2009 said:

You don't remember writing:

Don't feign not remembering what you wrote. It's in your second post.

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Fair enough. I don't feign forgetfulness, and I'm not reluctant to admit when I'm wrong about something when it can be shown conclusively.

Zdaddy is very perceptive. I shouldn't even bother arguing with you since others may not be able to differentiate us (per your signature).

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"Perceptive" isn't the first adjective that leaps to my mind, but for all his crying out for attention, he's not the issue at the moment. Now that we've each had a chance to be snarky to the other, can we both put that aside and focus on the question?

Even if you think you didn't mean what I think you said, it can only be that way. Hypothetically, if you consolidate now at historically low rates, when will you be able to "reconsolidate" according to your terminology. Let's see...I get new loans later this summer at the higher rate of 4+%. So add this to my historically low rate of 2.875% and I get a higher weighted average rate. I've just cost myself money.

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1) If "reconsolidate" isn't the proper financial term, then I'll readily stand corrected, but that's really getting into hair-splitting territory. You understood what I meant.

2) You've just bought yourself an interest rate increase of perhaps, say, 1% or so. But you've also bought yourself an extra 20 years to pay it off, and put that money other places where it can earn you a lot better than 3-5% over that same 20-year period. Also, regarding the issue of holding one consolidation loan vs. multiple, see immediately below.

You don't need two loans to consolidate. You can leave your originally consolidated loan separate, thus keeping the low rate. Your later loans can be consolidated without involving the 2.875% loans. I'll have two different loan payments, but so what. I'm saving money with the 2.875% loans and I can pay the higher rate loans faster to minimize their cost.

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Of course you can do that. I've just been using the example of a single consolidation loan for everything in order to keep things relatively simple; I've never claimed you can't consolidate different batches of student loans separately.

I use terms like "pretty sure" because I don't have the hubris to think that my fellow posters are always "TOTALLY incorrect". Once again "reconsolidation" doesn't exist. It's a semantical argument, but technically you are correct that new loans can be added to the consolidated loans. This is not "reconsolidation".

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[shrug] Like you said, it's semantics & you completely understood my meaning, but if you want to fault me for terminology I can't say you're wrong. Otherwise, careful with the hyperbole, unless you think you can actually support the claim that I think the other people on SDN "are always totally incorrect." That's a tall order, and "occasionally" isn't "always."

In an interest rate market where rates are going up, you would not add those new loans to the older lower rate loans. You would just ruin the low rate you're paying, costing you money.

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Like I said, I was simply lumping everything together for the sake of simplicity. I'm aware that's not the only way to proceed.

Historically, the inflation rate is 3% and interest rates are 6%, but averages don't tell the whole story they're just benchmarks.

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The interest rate is completely contingent on the investment you're looking at. Like I said in the other thread I linked and as I'm sure you already know, looking at the 30-year S&P, for example, gets you an annual yield within a couple points of 11% no matter which period you choose.

Just because rates are above or below historical averages does not make them cheap or expensive. You have to look at current economic factors.

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Right, but interest rates have an absolute floor of 0% (obviously), which means that at the 1.6% or so we'll currently pay if we take advantage of a couple easy discounts, rates are pretty close to rock bottom, which in turn means that whether one considers the loans cheap or not, it's not possible for them to get much cheaper.

When rates were 10% in the early 80's, that was cheap because rates eventually got out to 18%. You would have done well to lock in 10% at that time. Just because your weighted average rate on your consolidated loans will still be below the historical average interest rate does not make it "cheap".

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You're saying that locking loans as high as 10% was a good idea since rates eventually topped out at 18%, but also saying that locking a loan at 3-5% is a bad idea even when rates are climbing in the same fashion? Logically, those contradict each other. As for the third sentence, see my immediately above.

Being cavalier the way you are shows me that you don't understand money. Why pay more in interest than you have to? Don't consolidate higher rate loans with lower rate loans, all things being equal. I traded bonds and T-notes for 12 years. I think I know a little bit more than you. If I watch my costs better than you, I won't have to work as hard as you will.

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I disagree that one's demeanor really says anything of consequence about his/her knowledge. As for which of us knows more about the subject, knowing your background now I have little doubt that you're the expert by a pretty fair margin, so I'm glad you're here to set things straight. My posts can tend toward the blunt, but I try to make a point of recognizing & acknowledging when I'm outmatched. Thanks for taking the time.

I just contacted Graduate Leverage to determine my eligibility for in-school consolidation and one of the statements in their response caught my attention:

The one trade-off put forward by lenders is that you will loose your grace period (6 months after graduation when you make no payments) on the loans you consolidate.

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Does this mean Graduate Leverage is no longer able to retain the grace period for students? They never mentioned anything about that particular benefit in the message.

if I consolidate both subsidized and unsubsidized loans together, will the
government still pay the interest on the subsidized portion? Also, I have
health profession loans but I think they are
fixed at 5%, so I shouldn't consolidate those right? b/c won't that make the
rate for the others go up?

ToothMonkey said:

I just contacted Graduate Leverage to determine my eligibility for in-school consolidation and one of the statements in their response caught my attention:

Does this mean Graduate Leverage is no longer able to retain the grace period for students? They never mentioned anything about that particular benefit in the message.

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I received the exact same message from them, and take it to mean that they no longer grant the grace period.

Based on that, I'm going with UHEAA. Much more well established than GL, in my opinion.

comatose said:

if I consolidate both subsidized and unsubsidized loans together, will the
government still pay the interest on the subsidized portion? Also, I have
health profession loans but I think they are
fixed at 5%, so I shouldn't consolidate those right? b/c won't that make the
rate for the others go up?

Click to expand...

Yeah, it'll make the rate go up but remember that it's a weighted average. For example, my consolidating that would only raise my average 1/8 point. For some that's worth it, for others it isn't.

ecrdoubles15 said:

does anybody no anything about going through your bank to get loans? for example, wells fargo? thanks

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If you are trying to obtain a private loan, then you can certainly do so. If you are trying to obtain a private "educational" loan, chances are that the bank will contact your school to determine your educational status. If this is the case, the school *may* deny you for the loan because it would give you monies over and above your alloted student loan budget.

I hope that made sense.

comatose said:

if I consolidate both subsidized and unsubsidized loans together, will the
government still pay the interest on the subsidized portion? Also, I have
health profession loans but I think they are
fixed at 5%, so I shouldn't consolidate those right? b/c won't that make the
rate for the others go up?

Click to expand...

from what we were told today subsidized loans are still subsidized even if you consolidate.

iudentist04 said:

from what we were told today subsidized loans are still subsidized even if you consolidate.

Click to expand...

I've been told the same thing.