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[haele]

6. Practical solution is to try and pay the debt that's gathering interest while still in school.

And try not to pay only the minimum payments, which will have you paying for decades. If you have extra money at the end of a month, put it on the principle.
There are two types of student debt; the one that starts gathering interest 6 months after you graduate, and the one that starts gathering interest 30 days after the money disburses. Take care of the latter while you're still in school if you can. After you graduate, there's no real difference other than the interest rate - but don't take out another loan to pay both off, unless you can get a really, really low rate. YMMV, but most student loans are less expensive than a signature loan, and only a home equity line might have a lower rate than what you're paying now.

I'm going to be in the same boat soon; luckily my employer has a tuition assistance program that is allowing me to at least pay half of each semester off, so I'm only $3K in the hole for the $7K GreatWestern has "lent" me up to this point, with another year to go before I get my degree. The subsidized Perkins loan is sitting at around $9K, but the interest rate is half that of GreatWestern, and it won't start collecting interest for another year and a half.
I'm also still eligible for grants and scholarships, which I have taken whenever I can. My loans are only for the undergraduate classes, which end up costing around $2K for 4 units classes ($500 per semester unit - these are business courses). I didn't take loans out for the Jr. College classes I took before, even though I could have, and that move probably saved me a lot of money right there; instead of ending up ~ $40K in debt for a bachelor's, I should only be around $18K.

And you'll never be lucky enough to combine your loans and be paying the subsidized federal rate instead of the unsubisdized or plus loan rate, unless someone in Congress is kind enough to push for new FASFA program in which graduates who had applied for loans under FASFA and have made enough payments to match the funds lent can then combine all existing outstanding student loans intoto a new loan at the lowest current FASFA rate.
Considering that the lenders have usually already gotten their interest and principle out of most graduates two or three times over while former students are still being struggling under the debt, this can only help the economy.

Call it "Responsible Graduates Student Loan Program" My suggestion that might be able to pass this f'd up Congress is a two-criteria program. 1) You have paid the servicer the equivilent of the money lent you, even though it may have only knocked the principle loan down by 10% and your 10 - 18% interest keeps piling up and 2) you have or are in danger of falling behind because your payments are over 10% of your household income.

If both criteria are met, you fill out an application that FASFA "buys" the loan at face value from all existant student loan servicers, and you pay the government back at 3.75% through a program that pays principle and interest directly into the Treasury.

The banks aren't making as much money (there's a trillion dollars of debt which includes interest out there), but the lenders have at least doubled their initial investment, the graduates get a break, and the government gets interest revenue. Win, Win, Win.

That's my suggestion, but I doubt that will happen.

Good Luck.

Haele