Student Loan Consolidation Lowdown

For 90 percent of Americans, a college degree comes with student loan debt. Fortunately, there are a number of occupations that allow students to work off all or part of their debts in return for a few years of service. These jobs, almost all in the public sector, are designed to attract qualified professionals to work in areas and professions that are short-staffed. Read on for a comprehensive list of jobs that can help you overcome your student debt.

The U.S. Department of Education (ED):

Students under the umbrella of Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL), William D. Ford Direct Loan Program (DL) (Stafford Student loans) and the Federal Perkins Loans are eligible to have their loans forgiven by the U.S. Department of Education. If you’ve borrowed a Stafford loan, the various positions that allow you to clear your debts are:

1. Teaching in elementary schools that cater to the needs of children from low-income families ($5,000 in five years).
2. Providing child care in facilities that serve low-income communities for five years (20 to 30 percent).

If you fall under the Perkins loan, the jobs available are:

3. Teaching full time in elementary schools for low income students for five years (15 percent each in the first two years, 20 each in the next two and 30 in the fifth).
4. Teaching full time in secondary schools for low income students for five years (15 percent each in the first two years, 20 each in the next two and 30 in the fifth).
5. Taking on the responsibilities of a full-time Head Start staff (15 percent each year).
6. Teaching special education full-time (15 percent a year).
7. Providing early intervention services for the disabled (15 percent each year).
8. Serving in the Armed Forces in hostile areas allows you to clear 50 percent of your debt in four years (12 ½ percent each year).
9. Serving in AmeriCorps, you will receive $7,400 in stipends for a year and $4,725 that you can use towards loan repayment.
10. Volunteering in Vista allows you to clear 70 percent of your debt in four years (15 percent each in the first two and 20 each in the last two).
11. Volunteering for the Peace Corps alllows forgiveness of 70 percent of your loans in four years (15 percent each in the first two and 20 each in the last two).
12. Working as full-time law enforcement officers for five years (15 percent each in the first two years, 20 in the next two and 30 in the fifth). 
13. Working as full-time as corrections officers for five years (15 percent each in the first two years, 20 in the next two and 30 in the fifth). 
14. Teaching full time in areas where there is a shortage of qualified teachers for five years (15 percent each in the first two years, 20 in the next two and 30 in the fifth). 

Federal Agencies:

There are a number of federal agencies that offer student loan repayment programs. From the military to healthcare, check out these jobs that let you serve the greater good while earning back money for your student loans.

15. Working as a civilian in federal agencies for at least three years (Up to $60,000, up to $10,000 per year).

Under The Army College Repayment Program, you are entitled to debt forgiveness by:

16. Enlisting for full-time active duty in the Army for three or more years (Up to $65,000).
17. Joining the Army National Guard for six years (Up to $20,000).
18. Signing up for the Army Reserve for six years (Up to $20,000).

You can avail debt forgiveness through The College Loan Repayment Program (CLRP) for Auxiliary Loan Assistance for Students (ALAS), Stafford Student Loans, Parents Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS), Consolidated Loan Program, Federally Insured Student Loans (FISL), Perkins Loans and Supplemental Loans for Students (SLS) by:

19. Enlisting for active duty in the Air Force for four years (Up to $10,000 for non-prior service persons).
20. Signing up with the Navy Reserves for six years (Up to $10,000 for non-prior service persons).
21. Joining the Air National Guard for designated shortage Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC) enlisted jobs Reserve for six years (Up to $20,000).

Under the National Institutes of Health’s intramural and extramural loan repayment programs, you can have your debt forgiven by:

22. Working as a clinical researcher for two years ($35,000 per year of qualified educational debt and an additional 39 percent of the repayments to cover Federal taxes).
23. Signing up as a contraception and infertility researcher for two years ($35,000 per year of qualified educational debt and an additional 39 percent of the repayments to cover federal taxes).
24. Working as a Health Disparities researcher for two years ($35,000 per year of qualified educational debt and an additional 39 percent of the repayments to cover Federal taxes).
25. Working as a pediatric researcher for two years ($35,000 per year of qualified educational debt and an additional 39 percent of the repayments to cover Federal taxes).
26. Working as an AIDS researcher for two years ($35,000 per year of qualified educational debt and an additional 39 percent of the repayments to cover Federal taxes).
27. Working as a general researcher for three years ($35,000 per year of qualified educational debt and an additional 39 percent of the repayments to cover Federal taxes).
28. Working as a permanent employee or as a Title 42 employee serving on indefinite appointments at NIH.
29. Serving on term or excepted appointments at NIH with a minimum of three years of appointment left.
30. Serving on excepted appointments that may become term or career-oriented.
31. Working as a temporary employee under 5 C.F.R. 315.704 and serving appointments that may become term or permanent.
32. If you’re with the National Health Service Corps, you can have your loans repaid quicker by working as primary health providers in areas identified by the Department of Health and Human Services as facing a shortage of health professionals for two years (Up to $50,000).
33. Under the Nurse Reinvestment Act, you can have your loans forgiven by working as a nursing faculty for a certain period of time.
34. Under the Nursing Education Loan Repayment Program, you can have your loans repaid by practicing as a registered nurse in areas that do not have adequate medical facilities as well as remote or economically backward areas.
35. If you’re with the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Law (Boalt Hall), you can repay your loans by working at government jobs or public service jobs that use your law degree and pay salaries equal to or less than $58,000 annually over a period of 10 years (Up to $100,000).

Other law schools also offer similar, if not as generous, incentives for loan repayment. You can avail these benefits by earning $50,000 or less per year by working:

36. As a public defender
37. In non-profit firms
38. As a prosecutor
39. Full time for legal aid or legal services organizations
40. For the Judge Advocate General Corps
41. For an academic, law-related, non-legal organization that serves the public.

State Programs:

Different states have their own loan repayment programs that allow teachers and medical professionals to repay loans through their services. Some examples of these programs are:

42. California’s Assumption Program of Loans for Education allows up to $11,000 of your debt to be forgiven if you teach a designated subject four years in a shortage area.
43. Teaching Mathematics, Science or Special Education will allow you to cancel an additional $1,000 every year.
44. Teaching the above three subjects in the lowest performing schools lets you off the debt hook by another $1,000 each year.
45. Teachers in Mississippi who have their Alternate Route Teaching license and teach in shortage areas are eligible for the Teacher Loan Repayment program.
46. The American Federation of Teachers has loan forgiveness options for teachers in various states.

Other Programs:

47. The Office of Statewide Health and Planning, California, the Nicholas J. Pisacano MD Memorial Foundation Inc., the Indian Health Services and the American Academy of Family Physicians’ Foundation have various loan repayment programs for medical and health professionals.
48. The American Physical Therapy Association and the American Occupational Therapy Association allow debt forgiveness for occupational and physical therapists.
49. The Michael Murphy Loan allows forgiveness for students who study subjects like law enforcement, law, probation, parole and penology that allow them to work one-fifth of a year as a State Trooper or related law enforcement official in Alaska.
50. The Baker University’s College of Arts and Sciences allows loan forgiveness for students who complete a bachelor’s degree at the college.

– By Priya Jestin, Staff Writer

The cost of education is putting a heavy strain on you. But you may not realize that it is putting an even heavier strain on your parents. Despite scholarships and gifts, students still need some more money to get through college. And the worst part is that parents with one or more children are finding it difficult to get as much loan as they would like to have because their finances are already stretched to the limit.

This applies to people who belong to the upper strata of society where double incomes help insulate the burden of loan to some extent. However, their finances are hurting and it shows. Today, the top priority for parents is saving for their children’s education. Retirement plans and savings have taken a backseat thanks to the high cost of education.

– By Priya Jestin, Staff Writer

Planning to take a loan? You are probably faced with the two big loan questions: how much and from where. You may have run the entire gamut of loan houses and checked the rates and best options available.

But you probably have overlooked these sites that offer unbelievable amount of assistance to students. These loan resource sites not only offer the best possible terms but also have attractive repayment modes:

National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs (NCHELP): NCHELP’s guaranteed loan assistance consists of four different loan programs: Federal PLUS Program, subsidized Federal Stafford Loans, unsubsidized Federal Stafford Loans, and Federal Consolidation Loan Program.

Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP): IFAP is a Department of Education site, which contains numerous useful publications for professional financial aid counselors.

Project EASI – Named Easy Access For Students and Institutions, this site provides information on topics ranging from how to manage your debt, loan consolidation, and what to do if you default. The site aims to make life easier for anyone who must repay a student loans by providing relevant and useful information.

Direct Loan Program - This is a Federal Student Aid program that provides students with a way to borrow money to pay for education after high school. And the best thing about this program provided by the Department of Education is that borrowers have flexible repayment options.

The Department of Education (DOE) also offers numerous resources on deferment, rehabilitation, postponement and other kinds of financial aid for repayment.

Are you a student who is registered with the Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP)? In the next few weeks, you can expect to see a survey in your e-mail account asking what you would like to change about your insurance plan. Arbiteronline.com reports:

"A lot of students on campus are just uninformed about what is available to them, and then if they do take the insurance what exactly they have available," said Pat Branson the Student Health Insurance Plan manager.

Read more: Student health insurance goes up for bid

While marriage is a time for joy, nowadays, it involves much more planning than choosing a wedding gown, venue, cake and honeymoon destination. Nowadays, many young people enter a marriage with some kind of debt. Usually most youngsters carry a huge student loan debt that they want to repay ASAP and then of course there are the credit card debts, car loans, and what not. All these may be a big drain on your resources.

When tackling debt, try to first pay off credit cards or other consumer loans like a car loan with high interest rates. Since your student loan has a much lower interest rate, don’t be in a hurry to pay it off. These loans can usually wait for some more time. But that doesn’t mean you can tarry them off forever. Always strive to pay off debt as quickly as possible to reduce any troubles in future.

Nowadays, there are loans aplenty for students of almost any kind of subject. You just need to know how to apply and how much to apply for. Medical students have innumerable private student loans available to them. This is mainly thanks to their earning potential, and the fact that few students leave medical school before getting their MD.

Borrowing limits vary by lender, but most lenders offer up to "full-expense less aid". This “full-expense" can sometimes defined rather liberally. There are also unsubsidized Stafford Loans (Federal Student Loans) available to medical students. However, ensure that you get competitive rates for your loan, as a physician’s salary growth is quite slow, at least initially. Studentdoc.com reports:

Medical school loan debt, especially high-interest rate debt, is a growing problem. The AAMC (1) recently reported that over the past two decades, the cost of private medical schools has risen 165% and the cost of public medical schools has gone up 312%. A similar study by the AMA (2) found that medical school costs have been increasing at a faster clip than inflation. On average, medical students graduate with about $100,000 in debt.

Read more: Medical School Loans

Are you considering consolidation. It is a big step and it is okay to be jittery and worried. Any kind of loan is a bit of scary proposition and a student loan more so. Education has become so costly today and repaying those huge loans can even take decades. So probably consolidation is not such a bad thing after all. The best way to consolidate and get the best deal possible is to do it slowly and thoroughly.

It is important for you to check around, and ask many questions before you choose the loan that’s right for you. And the most important question you need to ask even before you begin shopping is: Do you need to consolidate? Not everyone needs to so it is important that you do your math properly and find out if consolidation works for you. If it does, then you can move on to the next step.

If your need is to stretch out the repayment period or lock in the prevailing rates, then you definitely need to consider consolidation. So, if Sallie Mae holds the majority of your loans, then it is best to approach them first.

However, if you are still confused, then it is best that you meet the financial-aid officer at your school and work out your options. So once you’ve worked out all the pros and cons of consolidation and decided to go for it, then the next most important step is choosing the best lender. If you’ve taken out a couple or more loans, then the best lender for consolidation would be the one that holds most of your loans. In case your present lender does not offer consolidation loans, then you can shop around elsewhere.

I’ve kept on harping about the need to repay student loans fast, and I’ve even mentioned methods of doing it. While, it’s all very good to say that you should repay student loans fast, what happens if you just cannot? What if you just don’t have the finances to repay your loan? What should you do then? The problem is that once a student loan goes into "default" status the full balance of the loan becomes due immediately. This also means that you lose the right to use other options for delaying payment, including student loan deferment and forbearance.

The problem is that an unpaid defaulted student loan can have long-term consequences. These consequences go much beyond just the loan directly. One of the first things that will happen is that your credit report will take a hit. You can also lose your eligibility for other types of federal loans. So, how do you recover from a defaulted loan? Studentdoc.com reports:

We recommend working with a company that specializes defaulted student loans. Several such companies exist, and can be found online. In general their services are free - eventually they plan to take you from a defaulted loan to a "current loan" status and consolidate your other loans. The long-term benefit is reducing your interest rate, monthly payments and student loan debt. The short-term benefit is that they will guide you through the processes of "fixing" your defaulted loan.

Read more: Recovering from Defaulted Student Loans

Why do you think lenders are taking so long to return the Loan Verification Certificate to students? One reason could be the high interest rates which are forcing major lenders to hold on to loans and collect interest at the higher rate. Market-day.net reports:

The U.S. Department of Education is the only agency in this instance that can take action to penalize lenders that refuse to cooperate.

Read more: Student Loan Consolidation: NextStudent

People tend to forget that their student loans are the biggest culprits in the debt vice they find themselves in. It is getting even more serious with tuition costs rising yearly as well, and then too we keep on spending, forgetting that we have to pay all that back some day. Bestsyndication.com reports:

Many people these days have more debt than they can handle. Some even have more than they make in a single year before taxes. But how do you know when you have too much debt? And how did you get into this situation? It may not seem possible that you could have gotten so far in debt you feel as if you are drowning in it.

Read more:Warning Signs of When You Are In Too Much Debt