Should I consolidate?
Hi everyone, I would appreciate any guidance on this. Just graduated med school this week and trying to decide whether consolidating my federal loans makes sense.
Current situation:
- ~$362k principal
- ~$60k accrued interest so far
- All federal loans (Direct + Grad PLUS)
- Planning on a long training path: likely ~8 years total of residency/fellowship
- Going into a high-paying specialty eventually
My thinking:
- I’m leaning toward the RAP/SAVE-replacement style repayment option mainly for the interest subsidy benefits during training.
- I also want to keep the option open to aggressively pay the loans off myself once I’m an attending in private practice.
- I’m probably only ~60% confident I’ll ultimately pursue PSLF.
The dilemma:
- If I consolidate now and waive the 6-month grace period, I can start getting qualifying PSLF payments earlier, which could help a lot at the tail end if I stay on the PSLF path.
- But if I don’t end up doing PSLF and instead aggressively repay the loans myself, then the accrued interest (~$60k now, probably ~$70k after grace) would capitalize after consolidation, meaning future interest accrues on a larger balance.
So I’m trying to figure out:
- Does consolidating now make sense given my uncertainty about PSLF?
- How much should I weigh the earlier PSLF qualifying payments vs avoiding capitalization?
- Any attendings/residents regret consolidating (or not consolidating) in a similar situation?
u/Aromatic-String9681 — 22 hours ago