<prompt> Human: Hello rpersonalfinance! There was a comment in one of the discussions yesterday that mentioned that it wasnt a smart idea to consolidate student loans because they choose weighted percentage, etc. Just curious if this was the general consensus of this sub-reddit? As an aside, with undergrad, masters and medical school I have a ton of student loans, and so I cant afford to make payments on them during residency. Was planning on using IBR, but I think that requires consolidation? Thanks for any thoughts!Edit: You guys are awesome. Here are a few more details about the loans I am talking about: They are all Federal loans Max Stafford in subsidized and unsubsidized, with the remainder in Grad Plus Not the parent version. So the interests range from 6.8 for the subsidized to 7.9. When you add up all the above loans the principal is around 300k Undergrad, masters and medical school. Our plan is to pay them off completely in 3-5 years when I finish residency, but we want to get from here to there in the best way possible. My residency is 5 years, and we cant afford the 2500 a month traditional payment, thats why we are thinking IBR! Should have included this information before, hope this helps.  <response>: Because it is better and faster to pay off the most expensive loan first and work your way down. When you consolidate you lose that option. 