I know that I will have to start paying back student loans within the next 6 months.

The smart thing to do is start researching strategies in hope to lower my interest rate. Student loaninformation offers a variety of options. A solution is to consolidate student loans. Consolidating student loansbasically means clumping student loans together in order to pay one low interest rate over a longer period oftime.

There are different kinds of student loan consolidations. One of which is federal student loan consolidation which includes Stafford Loans, PLUS Loans, and Federal Perkins Loans. Another kind of loan consolidation is private loan consolidation.

Although the advantage to consolidating student loans is a fixed low interest rate over a long period of time, the disadvantage would be that the interest paid may amount to much more than non-consolidation, since payments occur at a much longer time and may add up to a bigger cost.

Remember, consolidating student loans isn't for everyone. Some people may rather not consolidate and pay less interest over the time of the loan. Others may want to consolidate and pay smaller interest over a long period of time.