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According to the U.S. Department of Education, the amount of debt students have when they graduate is on the rise. Total student loan debt has risen to around $18,000 at graduation in recent years. With student loan interest rates set to increase after July 1, 2005, time for students to take advantage of low student loan consolidation rates is running out.

Consolidation allows students to lower monthly loan payment by extending the length of time the students can repay. "The standard payback schedule is ten years, while consolidated loans allow up to a 30 year period of repayment," according to an article in the Johns Hopkins News-Letter.

"Plunging interest rates have made consolidation, as well as other types of personal refinancing, front-page news the past several summers," Spectator staff writer Eleazar David Meléndez reported. "This year, though, a combination of fiscal and policy moves by the federal government almost certainly guarantees that there will be no more chances to take full advantage of this strategy after June."

The current student loan consolidation interest rate is expected to rise from the all-time low of 2.875 percent to as much as 4.25 percent after July 1. Failure to take advantage of these student loan interest rates can mean higher loan payments later. In addition to a hike in student loan interest rates, the federal government is considering legislation that changes federal loan consolidation rules. These proposed changes would eliminate fixed-rate consolidation.

"Since interest rates are on the rise and the fixed rate feature will quite possibly be replaced by variable rate in the next year, this senior class is likely to be the last to be able to convert their variable rate federal Stafford Loans to a fixed rate low interest federal consolidation loan," said David Charlow, Director of Financial Aid and Educational Affairs at Columbia University.

If you are a student with multiple loans or high amounts of federal student loans, consolidation is one of the best ways to help you manage your student loan debt. Take advantage of low interest rates on federal student consolidation loans before the interest rates spike.