<prompt> Human: Im 21 and on track to graduate college in May with a BS in industrial engineering with honors from a pretty good school. I have no desire to go to grad school. Right now Im focusing on getting a job. Heres my situation:I have four student loans one for each year of undergrad. They are all subsidized government Stafford loans. I owe 5500 at 3.86, 4924 at 3.4, 4500 at 3.4, and 3500 at 4.5. All fixed rate. Principal balance is 18424. If I consolidate, the weighted average interest rate should be about 3.75. Should I do it? Im pretty new to this, so any other advice? What do I need to do to pay this off as soon as possible? Thanks.  <response>: I would not recommend consolidation.Your payments will be: 55.32, 48.46, 44.29, 36.27 figured from bankrate.coms calculator Total payments are 184.34. This is pretty low. Leaving your loans not consolidated, you can use the snowball method to pay off the loans. Meaning you make the minimum payments on 3 loans- and a higher payment on 1 loan. Once that loan is paid off- you use that additional amount to pay off a second loan. Each time you pay one off you have that monthly payment amount free to redirect to another loan. This is interest savings in the long run.Remember- with the federal loans, you can always go back and consolidate later if you get in trouble and need to reduce your payments with a longer term. However, you cannot go back and break apart your loans once you have consolidated. 