Questions/advice about deferring my student loans? Please help!

Hello all! I have never had anyone in my life teach me about loans or finances, so please be patient with me here while I try to describe my situation.

I am a 26 year old female who finished nursing school in December! I already have a job in the field I want, and my projected income annually will be around 80-90k depending on how much overtime I am available to work for. Monthly, I’ll make a minimum of $6,000.

I don’t have much else to pay for, just my car which is $500 and the insurance which is another $160.

When I was applying for nursing school, I was not able to apply for a federal loan. I don’t really remember the reason why, something about my co-signer I think.

My only option that I was aware of at the time was Sallie Mae.

Through my schooling, for all the semesters combined I had to take out 3 separate loans through Sallie Mae. I got a great interest rate for my first loan (my largest one, around 80k), but my second loan was close to 16% (50k), and my third one was 17% (20k). I refinanced through earnest and now have a fixed rate on the second and third one of 8%. My first loan I left untouched because the interest rate sits around 4%.

In total, my debt is around 150k from my nursing program. My estimated monthly payments, starting in August, are about 1,800 all together.

I decided to enroll back into school to become a nurse practitioner. The program cost is 55k total.

This time, I was able to apply for a federal loan.

The program begins in June.

My questions are-

– Can I and should I defer my loans because I’m returning to school? I can pay them monthly, because I’ll be able to work full time still, but it would be nice to finally have some money in my pocket.

– If I defer them, should I continue paying interest?

– Do I have to defer the two I refinanced through Earnest and the one I left alone through Sallie Mae, or do I defer them all through Sallie Mae?

– How do I go about deferring my loans? Is there a link within my account/portal? Do I have to call?

– When deferring my loans, does it stop them for the entire length of my schooling? Do I set an agreed date to continue them? Do I have to renew it each year? How does that work?

Thank you guys so much for your advice and help.

I know some of these questions may be silly or dumb. I appreciate any advice for any of the questions above!! <3