Any Reason For Me To Consolidate My Student Loans? Details In Text Below.

[Krancid]

I have about $135k in loans from medical school and undergrad (I took a year off between undergrad and med school).

I am set to graduate medical school in 2 weeks.

All my loans are Direct Stafford loans.

I was just approved for IDR (REPAYE) and I just submitted my PSLF eligibility work form.

My loans from medical school go into repayment starting January 2019 ($113k) since there is a 6 months grace period on them.

My loans from undergrad go into repayment as soon as I graduate in 2 weeks ($21k).

All my loans are serviced with Great Lakes.

My question is...
Any reason for me to consolidate all of these loans or should I leave as is? I guess the only benefit to consolidating is that I would get a 6-month head start on PSLF with my med school loans, but can't I just make minimum payments on them regardless?

I guess I am not sure whether I should consolidate or not. Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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[RangerBob]

You cannot make payments on your loans until your grace period is used up (I asked and tried), so if you do want to get a head start on PSLF then yes, that is a valid reason to consolidate.

There are downsides to consolidating (you can't selectively pay off the highest rate loan anymore, the interest rate is rounded up to the nearest eighth of a percent), but getting six more months of credit towards PSLF makes it worth it in my mind.

 

[TMP-SMX]

I highly suggest you consolidate ASAP if you are considering PSLF. It takes a couple months before a payment qualifies due to required forbearance for one mont. I wish I had the extra 8-9 months towards PSLF (my first qualifying payment was May of PGY-1 due to the changes in repayment plans when I graduated and effects of consolidation. Also REPAYE has some nice subsidy benefits on interest you don't get during your grace period.