Pay as you earn and FFEL loans

[basal]

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So I'm about to start residency and am looking at repayment plans. Pay as you earn looks like a good option but a small fraction of my med school loans are FFEL (federal family education loans) which don't qualify for pay as you earn. What are my options to get around this? Can I forbear my FFEL loans and then do put the rest of my loans into pay as you earn? Also, what happens if I consolidate all of my loans including my FFEL loans, would that disqualify me from pay as you earn? Thanks for the help.

 

[chillpillman]

I am in the same situation, so I have read up a ton on PAYE. First off you need to not have any loans before 2007 (aka undergrad loans if you are traditional student). Second you have to consolidate to make your loans into a Direct Consolidation Loan. Then you can qualify. This is the best route and not just because of the 10% vs. 15% of discretionary income, but because of the protection from capitalization throughout residency + limitation of capitalization to 10% of original principle.

 

[basal]

Awesome, thank you for the help.