Dental School Loans & Residency

[fishey5884]

I just graduated last month and will be enroll in a 1 yr GPR program in NYC. Do residents usually defer their loans? Is this done automatically? Will it be possible for me to pay a little bit each month during my residency? Or will deferring it until after the residency be best?

Also can I consolidate my loans? Or is that not possible with federal loans? I only took out Federal sub and unsub Stafford loans during dental school.

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[furcation]

This is something I would definitely recommend consulting your financial aid office at your dental school about. Few things though... You will most likely have to defer the majority of your loans. You could set up with one of your loan companies an income based payment plan for part of your loans, hopefully your grad plus, or whatever has the highest interest. Deferment is NOT automatic. Reps from the loan companies are generally very nice and well do what they can to help and to explain things to you. Make sure you have a list of all your lenders and all your loans, fin. aid should be able to hook you up with this. contact the different lenders and talk to them. sooner rather than latter. taking care of yourself financially is your responsibility, dont rely on SDN to tell you what to do. 😉

 

[daisy25]

I was able to defer all of my loans even consolidated ones except for my private loans. You need to call your lender and ask what the process is. Of course your GPR director needs to fill out a form or confirm you are in a residency for a year, then it takes 3-4wks for the paperwork to go through so expect to pay some of it. Also, some loans have a grace period (meaning you don't have to pay anything for x months) so you should check on that too.