I’m feeling really overwhelmed right now. I’m graduating from grad school in early May and have over $100,000 in federal student loan debt. I’m planning to consolidate my loans after I graduate, but I’m worried it won’t go through before July 1. Also, on Nelnet, it’s showing that I won't have to start making payments until 2030, which is inaccurate. I don’t know if that means my grace period will be recognized starting in May. From what I understand, I need to be in a grace period for consolidation.
I’m especially stressed because if I miss that July 1 timing, the only repayment plan I’ll qualify for is the RAP plan. Since my husband and I filed taxes jointly and our combined income is over $100,000, my estimated payments would be somewhere between $900 and $1,300 a month, which isn’t remotely affordable for us.
Does anyone have any advice on how to navigate this?
Panicking about student loan consolidation timing and repayment options
byu/Evening_Practice8821 inStudentLoans
Posted by Evening_Practice8821
2 Comments
Don’t consolidate. If all your loans are Direct, then there likely isn’t much benefit to consolidating anyway.
Even if you were reported as graduated the day you graduate, you would still have to wait for your loans to enter grace before you consolidated. There is basically no chance May grads have consolidations done before 7/1.
Do you or a parent have any parent PLUS loans? Because those are the only loans that need to be consolidated before July 1st. Most other loans not only don’t need to be consolidated but may in fact be harmful to consolidate
Also, RAP may not be that far off from what is available from IBR or PAYE at your income fyi. We would need more information like household size, household income to give you a better estimate