To consolidate your loans during the six-month grace period, shop around. Many lenders will cut your rate to 2.625 percent if they can deduct payments from your checking account. Check the deals at Sallie Mae (salliemae.com), the Department of Education (loanconsolidation.ed.gov), and banks and specialty-education lenders like Collegiate Funding Services (cfsloans.com) and the College Loan Corporation (collegeloancorp.com). When you’ve nailed that, you can start the job hunt.
