Reply #10: when I was in grad school... [View All]

[mike_c]

...the financial aid office put together loan "packages" that were a mix of federal student loan money and private, federally guaranteed loans. Most, but not all of those could be consolidated under a Dept of Education program (in my case), but some, for reasons I've never fully understood, did not "qualify" for that program. They were consolidated under a separate, commercial lender at the original interest rate, about 8 percent. None of my loans were originally with Sallie Mae, but after I finished school the commercial loans were bought and sold like candy-- I never paid the same people for more than a year. Sallie Mae currently owns them.