Consolidating student loans?

Here is what I know. Your Perkins Loan is most likely your lowest interest rate and you don't have to begin repayment on it for 9 months after graduation rather than 6 like the stafford loans. That is probably why you were advised not to consolidate that. As far as the Sub and Unsub loans you have you can consolidate those all into one. It will take a weighted average of all the interest rates on those loans and lump them together so you can make 1 payment a month rather than 5 or 10 or however many loans you have. You can choose from a couple different repayment programs, for example one allows you to make smaller payments to begin with and then increase as you may be gradually earning more in your career. Hope this helps.