Examining Student Loan Consolidation

I honestly can’t believe I got all hooked up in the whole mess. I mean at 41 years of age I guess I can see how an 18, 19 year old kid that I was would make that kind of mistake, but I think that’s about how old I was when I first heard of student loan consolidation and decided to get involved. I chose a very expensive college and I really didn’t know where the money was supposed to come from. My mother had never sent anybody off to college either, so that didn’t help. I filled out a bunch of “papers” and the next thing you knew I could afford college. All those grants, loans etc., were the same thing as far as I was concerned; it was government money and I was supposed to pay some back at some point. Yeah I know it doesn’t look good 20 years later when I spell it all out like that, but hey, live and learn right?

Cut to; a few years later I had transferred to a new college TWICE. I was looking for a place that had the right-I dunno, vibe. And so I ended up in New York City and applied to and got rejected by NYU. So then quite by accident I took a long walk and discovered Columbia University. That was the place. Finally! I had found the right place. At that point a few years had passed since my first college experience and I understood those “loan” and “grant” words better, but I was still pretty much without money. And I knew I was going to eventually need a student loan consolidation. No question.

What I had learned is that while you’re out of school, and definitely after you graduate, the creditors start looking for you. And those creditors were sending me gigantic amounts to pay every month, so I knew I was going to have to consolidate them to make them more manageable. Amazingly these types of Federal Student Loan Consolidations have only been around since 1986 and in 22 year we’ve dug this gigantic hole! So check out the other articles and you’ll see I’ve compiled some ideas on how best to consolidate-or if you even need to.