<p>In regard to repaying the loans in residency.
Here is my realistic calculation. Please, dismiss if it is not applicable to you.
Say that some mysterious way will allow you to re-pay $1000 every month. After one year of this repayment schedule, you will re-pay $12k. It is not even a dent in your Med. School loan. You will need your favorite tool - microscope to see this $12k in the see of couple hundreds of thousands.<br>
OK, now remove the mystery as I have no idea how in a world one can pay back $1000 every month on $50k salary, assuming that nobody is supporting the person.<br>
If you consider repayment of one/couple hundreds / month, you might as well not even think about it as a repayment, even your microscope will not see this drop in the ocean of your loan.</p>