What about your student loans from undergrad...??

[objectivityofcontradiction]

I'm applying for grad school for the fall of 2013. I graduated college in May 2011 and I owe a decent chunk of change to my loan agencies. I was wondering how I am supposed to be able to make payments in grad school if I'm living a modest lifestyle and just getting by through the funding and assistantships/fellowships I am hopefully offered. I know I can defer If I receive a grad fellowship, but just curious if any one has any info on this or advice.

[long_time_lurker]

Until I paid my Master's loans off (I did well on an investment) I just left them in deferment. As long as you are enrolled you do not have to make payments. Remember, though, that the interest does accumulate on the balance.

Something you may want to look into is private loans. The company I did my Master's Stafford loans with (loans that had an interest rate of 6.8%) offers private graduate loans at 3.25% APR. So, you can take a loan from the company (I don't want to make this look like an ad but I'm sure you can find it by Googling or PM'ing me) and use the loan to pay off the higher rate loan. Not even considering compound interest, the difference on a balance of $20,000 is $710 a year.

A potential rub may be if your Master's or undergrad Stafford loans are subsidized during deferment. You will then have to figure out whether paying 3.25% during and after your schooling is better than paying 0% in school and 6.8% when you get out.

[far_to_go]

I had (well, still have, though I've paid some of it off) about 15k in loans from my MA. It's deferred right now, and it's not accumulating interest, since it's a subsidized federal loan. I'm saving up some of my stipend each month, and hopefully will be able to put that twwards the loans once I start paying them again; I'd rather save it up now and then use it to pay the loans later (or other emergency expenses if they come up).

STM Philosophy, you should be able to defer your loans once you're enrolled- it's pretty standard. A word of advice though: try to pay off as much of it as you can before you start your grad program. It WILL be hard to make payments and/or save money once you're living on a grad student stipend.

[sacklunch]

My advice is DO NOT take out private loans. Also being in the humanities, as well as attending expensive private schools, I'm banking on the Income Based Repayment plan the gov has, which is not applicable to private loans. I owe a ton, but at least ill be able to have my payment capped. I imagine if you do actually owe quite a bit, and you're going into philosophy (a poor paying field), you may need to rely on this at some point.