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I have a relatively complicated question about IBR (and also PSLF) that I haven't been able to find an answer to anywhere else. Any insight is greatly appreciated.

I currently have about 32k in loans from undergrad. I am making payments on IBR right now, and my payments are easy to handle as my income is under 30k. I will be applying to law school next year and do not expect my income to increase while in school. Even if I am lucky enough to get a well paying summer position down the line, my payments on IBR will be easy to afford.

If I do not defer my undergrad loan payments while in law school, I will have been on IBR for 5 years by the time I graduate law school.

Will I be able to consolidate my law school loans with my undergrad loans when I graduate? Also, will that consolidation restart the clock on my IBR repayment schedule and leave me with 25 years until forgiveness, or will my previous payments still count, leaving me with only 20 years left until forgiveness?

Also, if I work full time at a 501c(3) from this year until I finish law school, make payments that would count towards my undergrad loans (that would qualify for PSLF) the entire time, and then consolidate my law school loans into my undergrad loans after graduation, would those 4 years of payments under PSLF count (leaving me with only 6 years of public service work until forgiveness), or would I still need an additional 10 years of payments after the consolidation?

I know this is a lot of info, so THANK YOU to anyone who takes the time to consider it and offer advice.

I emailed DoED a few months ago, and they told me:

180kickflip wrote:or would I still need an additional 10 years of payments after the consolidation?

This is the case.

Thanks twenty. Not what I wanted to hear, but good to know ahead of time.

180kickflip wrote: Also, if I work full time at a 501c(3) from this year until I finish law school, make payments that would count towards my undergrad loans (that would qualify for PSLF) the entire time, and then consolidate my law school loans into my undergrad loans after graduation, would those 4 years of payments under PSLF count (leaving me with only 6 years of public service work until forgiveness), or would I still need an additional 10 years of payments after the consolidation?

Putting aside the fact that consolidation restarts your clock for forgiveness and offers essentially no benefit, you would have to work full time at a PSLF eligible job for your payment to count towards forgiveness after 10 years.

So if you work full time during law school, you could make three years of qualifying payments--on your UG loans only. Your law school loans would still take 10 years after graduation (though you can not defer PLUS loans and include those in your IBR payment as they are disbursed, so in 6 month chunks).