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Only 100k in loans? For the majority of med school students, it may not be easy, unless they get subsidized by “Bank of Mom and Dad.” (Is it true that about 20% of the students do not carry any loans?)</p>
<p>No wonder many med school students fight tooth and nails in order to get into high paying specialties, and many doctors prescribe procedures that may not be absolutely necessary.</p>
<p>"I would not take out more than 100k in loans if possible unless you go into the highest paying specialties. "
-So what is a trick? Printing money…but then there is no reasons for loans at all. What kind of magic if there is nobody who can sponsor you? I do not think Med. Students can work. My D. absolutely cannot, she is studying, like most of the time, currently on break at home, just stuffing her head with academic material day in and day out. Choosing specialty according to pay may not be an option. These are very selective. You have stats/publication, you are in, many are very discouraged to even try. Some are taking a gap year to plish their credentials. No gap year here…have decided in HS, we are way too ancient for any gap year…</p>
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<p>This would be nice, but I imagine it isn’t possible for the majority of med students.</p>
<p>There isn’t a trick but going to an in state school helps a lot. And I think before taking out 300k in loans, they should really consider their motivations for going to medical school in the first place. They shouldn’t go to medical school, unless they really, really want to PRACTICE medicine (not just study it) and are okay with living like they have a 40k income for 10 to 20 years. From a financial perspective, they will be poorer than most people making 60-70k with no loans. I think most people who enter medical school, like many other professions, don’t really have a clue what it is like to practice and are mainly drawn to the profession because of the income and job stability. And the income really isn’t that good for many fields relative to the student loan debt they will have coming out. If you have 300k in loans but only make 120k as a family practitioner, you’re going to be hard-pressed to be able to afford a mortgage, start a family, etc. on top of your loans. If you rely on IBR, you will have to pay taxes on the amount forgiven, so that’s a good chunk of money depending on your loan amount since interest will accrue during the entire loan life. You will be an indentured servant to Uncle Sam for half of your life. </p>
<p>A recent Washington Post article says that physicians graduate on average with 160k in debt. Depends on what they mean by average, but if it’s the mean, I bet a good chunk of students have parents paying full sticker for med school, pulling down the average.</p>
<p>From my school’s FA website: </p>
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<p>Taking out only 100k loan wont be feasible for most people, including those going to instate schools. Living expenses will already be at 80k.</p>
<p>Kristin, is your school mainly comprised of in staters? Seems pretty cheap for medical school.</p>
<p>Well, whatever. It’s feasible if you are in state and living at home or in a rural place. Depends on how much you want to be a doctor. 100k is a good rule of thumb. So is not taking out more than your first year salary. I don’t think most students understand the burden of paying off six figure student loans. But if they want to practice that badly and are okay with living like they take home 40k (rent, food, utilities, car, car insurance, etc., if you have a family, a ton of other costs), then it’s fine. Just don’t expect to live that comfortably until you are well into your 40s. If you’re making 120k with 300k loans, maybe even your 50s. So, for those of you untainted by debt, think about the financial sacrifice before you make the leap.</p>
<p>I do agree that most students dont really understand the real cost of taking out such big loan amounts.</p>
<p>Nobody really lays out the real numbers to students (interest accrues during school for certain loans, so you’re graduating with a lot more debt than you took out) and it’s hard to grasp what debt really is until you are paying your loans off once you start working. It’s also ironic that you will think about budgeting on a daily basis for food to save a few dollars, while your interest rate is 7.9% and your loans are earning 10k+ of interest a year.</p>
<p>^^D1’s medical school has a mandatory financial education seminar MS1s must attend during orientation. They talk about using credit cards responsibility, the advantages of having a roommate, how to not “over-borrow,” how to open an IRA, and the disadvantages of putting loans in forbearance during residency.</p>
<p>Some past presentations are here:</p>
<p><a href=“http://hsc.unm.edu/som/finaid/docs/Borrowing%20Wisely--Univ.%20New%20Mexico%20Medical--AccessGroup-20_1.pdf[/url]”>http://hsc.unm.edu/som/finaid/docs/Borrowing%20Wisely--Univ.%20New%20Mexico%20Medical--AccessGroup-20_1.pdf</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://hsc.unm.edu/som/finaid/docs/2011SOMExitInterview.pdf[/url]”>http://hsc.unm.edu/som/finaid/docs/2011SOMExitInterview.pdf</a></p>
<p>I looked to see if there was a chart like from kristin’s school. There wasn’t but they did list median loan debt of a graduating student at D1’s school at $124,000 (lower than the national average for public schools).</p>
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<p>Yes–90ish of our 100ish students are in-state. Plus, cost of living in the middle of a state in the midwest is pretty manageable, comparatively (eg rent + utils + cable/internet for my newly renovated ~1000sf apt that’s a 3min bike ride to the SOM is <$500/mo for me and the same amt for my roommate; we rarely spend more than $100 between the two of us for groceries every week and a half and in my opinion, we eat pretty well (I love to cook!); we get free lunch at school at least 3 days/wk if we attend the meetings where those lunches are provided).</p>
<p>"I bet a good chunk of students have parents paying full sticker for med school, pulling down the average. "
-I read here (do not know true or not) that about 25% of famililies are paying for Med. School and living expances. In case of private school and in some states 3rd and 4th year at state school, it is roughly $75k / year.</p>
<p>If you mean paying in full, it would appear the amount of families paying the full cost of medical school is about 14%: In 2010, 86 percent of medical students graduated with some education debt, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The average debt was $158,000, but 30 percent of graduates were more than $200,000 in debt. ([School</a> Debt, Income Gap Push Med Students Away From Primary Care - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2012/09/27/school-debt-income-gap-push-med-students-away-from-primary-care]School”>http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2012/09/27/school-debt-income-gap-push-med-students-away-from-primary-care))</p>
<p>Wow, only 14%.</p>
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DS’s first goal is to have the total debt not more than $200,000. If it could be as close to $160,000 as possible, it would be even better. Whether he could achieve this goal depends not so much how frugal he could be in the next few years (the cost of living in his area is relatively high); it more likely depends on how much “dough” we can come up with in the category of “parents contribution.” (It is not easy, as the “full fare”/COA is likely close to $75,000 this year, though the school pities those of us who really could not cough up so much, by means of some need-based financial aids.)</p>
<p>This reminds me that Dec 1 is the deadline for paying the tuition and fees for the spring semester.</p>
<p>DS starts to think about not taking 5th year in order to save money, if the following two conditions are met: 1) the specialty he would pursue turns out to be not one of the highly competitive specialties, 2) his STEP-1 score turns out to be good enough. Thinking about it is not the same as actually doing it in the end though. A part of the reason may be, as I heard, quite a high percentage of students seem to take the 5th year at his school in order to have some “bonus points” when applying to the residency programs. </p>
<p>He once raised a question (but of course I do not know the answer to it): If a med school student chooses to be a doctor not in a competitive specialty (primary care or some other non-competitive, non-life-style specialty) and will be paid sort of the same no matter where he/shes goes to for his/her residency, is there any point of going to a highly ranked residency program?</p>
<p>Quality of life issues during the residency? Location of the residency? Non- toxic residency? All of those will likely trump anything else for D. But after those metrics are met, she’ll pick the best of those that remain. That is, if there is a choice at all.</p>
<p>^ Hmmm…the first two reasons you cited (quality of life and location) may be the reasons why DS picks his current med school!</p>
<p>He is not a picky person. He said he is totally fine with staying in the dorm all 4 years even though the majority of students move out of the dorm after the first year. Two reasons he mentioned: It is less likely to be mugged here than in the tower as there are more traffic next to the hospital/dorm. (The first reason is strange.) Also, he could walk to the hospital even without going out of the building. His only gripe is the food in the cafeteria is too expensive so he needs to rely on order out or the food cart often – and it is not healthy food. (Is it about $10 a meal in the cafeteria? I heard they even weigh the food in order to determine how much it costs.)</p>
<p>Attending a seminar is completely different from paying your loans on a monthly basis. I attended a seminar before graduation, but I failed to grasp what it would be like paying down 3k-4k a month. It’s extremely confining. Most of my friends started making 60k straight out of college, were promoted, and now make 90k+ with no student loans. They have already purchased houses, bought nice cars, etc. Even though right now I make 200k, I won’t be able to afford a mortgage for years because of student loans. Student loans, especially since they are at near 8% interest rate, put your life on hold for years. You will not be able to live like an adult for years unless you are willing to be in debt for the greater half of your life.</p>
<p>I hear you but don’t overstate . " Living like an adult" for most of the nation would still leave you a chunk of change for repayment.</p>
<p>I work in the tech field. In my industry, I wouldn’t be paid 200k if I lived in most of the nation. The higher your salary, most of the time the higher your COL.</p>
<p>I’m netting out less than my friends who worked straight out of college even though I have a higher salary because they have no student loans. My friends are under 30 and many already own property in one of the most expensive areas of the country.</p>
<p>Because tuition is increasing every year at a rapid rate, many people who enter graduate school now will finish with 300k in debt. With that much in loans, it’s almost financially unmanageable if you ever plan on paying that debt off and not relying on an IBR-wipe out where you would be held liable for the tax on the amount forgiven.</p>