<p>* why do you think a total of 40,000 debt would be to much for pre Med? My son will be a Pre Med student and I am interested to know your view on this. *</p>
<p>*The CAP for med students is $224,000. This amount is reduced my the amount of stafford loan debt you took on as an undergrad. For example; your son has maxed out his stafford loans during undergran. He has 27,000 in undergrad stafford loan debt. He can borrow 40k a year in stafford loans for med school (which just puts a dent in the cost of med school per year). Your son will have $189,000 of debt in stafford loans alone (not counting other loans he may need for med school).</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Sybbie…can you clarify? Can’t he borrow up to the $224k amount minus the $27k for undergrad? Or is there an annual max of $40k for med school?</p>
<p>As others have detailed below, borrowing a lot for undergrad limits one’s ability to also borrow for med school. </p>
<p>Even if you’d like your child to attend an instate med school (if lucky to get accepted), the annual costs can easily run about $40k+ per year for tuition, fees, supplies, food, and housing (which can be more expensive than undergrad housing). And, if your child only gets accepted to a private or OOS public, then the costs can be $70k+ per year or more. </p>
<p>Sybbie mentioned that UPenn used to consider if the student has the borrowing power for all 4 years. From what I’ve heard, that practice still goes on at some med schools. No med school wants to accept a student who will have to drop out at some point because they can no longer borrow. </p>
<p>I know that people think that doctors make a lot of money, but it takes awhile for that to happen. Newish doctors can barely afford to pay back their loans and they often have a lot of “start up” costs associated with their practices. </p>
<p>Since WOWMom is going thru this whole med school process right now, I’ve been following her advice and the others on he pre-med thread to help figure things out for my pre-med son.</p>