Graduating from medical school brings with it the rewards of a vast amount of knowledge about the human body, disease and wellness. It can also bring the promise of a stable, if not always well-paying, career as a medical doctor. Unfortunately, graduation from medical school also brings with it hundreds of thousands of student loan debts for the majority of students.

With med school tuitions on the rise and doctors’ salaries on the decline, it can take longer and longer to pay off medical school student loan debt than it used to.

There is one thing that can help graduates who have multiple outstanding medical student loans: medical student loan consolidation.

Medical Student Loan Consolidation

Loan consolidation can prove to be an excellent option for med school grads. In short, consolidation simply means rolling two or more outstanding student loans into a single loan. With loan consolidation, med school grads can simply their monthly payments into one single payment. They can also potentially reduce their monthly payments significantly by accepting a consolidation loan with a longer payback period of up to 30 years.

Choosing Between Federal And Private Loan Consolidation

There are two primary choices for medical student loan consolidation: federal and private. Federal loan consolidation is appropriate when the loans to be consolidated are themselves federal loans such as Stafford Loans, PLUS Loans, Federal Perkins Loans, HEAL Loans, FFELP and Direct Loans.

Meanwhile, private loan consolidation is the right choice for consolidating two or more private loans.

Tips For Med School Grads Who Want To Consolidate

Medical school graduates interested in consolidating their loan need to take the following steps:

1. Find out whether your current loans federal or private loans.
2. Decide what your optimum repayment period would be. Remember, a longer repayment period will result in lower monthly payments, but at the same time they involve paying more money in total interest payments over the life of the loan.
3. If you selected a federal consolidation loan, fill out the designated application, which is available online.
4. For grads choosing a private consolidation loan, it is important to apply via multiple lenders so that you can be sure to get the best-possible interest rate, as well as overall loan terms that are favorable to you.