Loan consolidation and grad school
Many people think that they are done with school when they are done with their undergraduate degree. They will then begin the process of doing loan consolidation so that they can get the most out of their loans and repayment plans. However, what if grad school gets in the way and you decide that it is something that you would like to do – whether or not you have started to pay back your student loans? There are a few things to keep in mind so that you know what you are doing with grad school, and so that you can figure out how to do it right.
First of all, if you go directly from your undergraduate degree to your grad school, you will be able to do this quite easily and you will never have to worry about your loans in between. The national clearinghouse will get information that you are a student at your grad school, especially if you apply for loans for grad school as well. Your loans will never go into repayment because as far as the government is concerned you are still a full time student. Your loans will stay in the deferment that they have been in until you are finished with grad school, when all of your loans will come due. Therefore, if you go straight from undergraduate school to grad school, you don’t have to worry about anything when it comes to your loans and repayment.
If you don’t’ decide to go to grad school right away, your loans are probably going to become due. At this time, you will go through a consolidation process so that you only have one payment to make each month. If you decide to go to grad school in the middle of this process you will have to contact your lenders and make sure that the loans get put back into deferment. If you decide to go to grad school after you have already started to pay back your student loans, you will actually need to apply through each of your consolidation companies for a deferment because of school. This will need to be verified through your school, and once it is done you will be able to have your loans go back into deferment. Remember that some loans will actually require you to pay back parts of the interest rate while you are in school, so check about this.
student-loans.net @ May 4, 2008