When you apply for a Federal Direct Consolidation Loan, you are taking out a new loan to pay off all or a portion of your original eligible federal student loans. The Direct Consolidation Loan has a fixed interest rate and a repayment term of up to 30 years — depending on the total amount of your student loan debt.

Health Professions Loans are eligible for consolidation. You can consolidate all or a portion of your eligible loans. Even if a loan is eligible, you may not want to include it in a consolidation package.

For example: Perkins Loans have a nine-month grace period and cancellation benefits that would be lost if consolidated. Federal Nursing Student Loans and Health Professions Student Loans also have benefits that would be lost if consolidated.

For a complete list of eligible loans, visit Federal Student Aid's Loan Consolidation page.

(meaning one bill each month for all of your federal student loans), as well as a longer term of repayment, which can lower your required monthly payment. For more potential benefits, click here.

If you consolidate immediately upon graduation, you may forfeit a portion of your grace period since repayment begins immediately after disbursement of the newly consolidated loan. For an estimate of the size and interest rate of a Federal Direct Consolidation Loan, sign in to studentloans.gov.

In other words, you need to have at least one eligible loan that you did not to consolidate in the prior Consolidation Loan, or at least one new eligible federal student loan that you borrowed after the earlier consolidation. In these cases, the prior consolidation loan can be included as one of the loans you are consolidating into the new Federal Direct Consolidation Loan.

NOTE: Combining additional loans will impact your fixed interest rate. Using the Department of Education's consolidation loan calculator can provide you with an estimate of the interest rate on your new consolidation loan before you proceed with consolidation.

To consolidate, you need to be enrolled for fewer than 6 credits or no longer be enrolled in school.

Disclaimer: This information is to address student borrower concerns; the Office of Student Financial Assistance and Education can not and will not take a position on this matter. This decision will be strictly between you and your lender.

For more on repayment, see Loan Repayment Calculators.

REMEMBER: It is your responsibility to contact your loan servicers if you have had a change of address. If you have questions regarding your loan repayment, go online and check your personal account with your loan servicer.

To find MOST of your servicers, go to https://nslds.ed.gov 

• You can link right to your servicer's website.