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<p>High debt may therefore pressure medical students to aim for higher paying specialties, even if they really prefer to work in a lower paying specialty. E.g. what if the medical student really wants to be a primary care physician, but has $300,000+ in debt to pay off and finds that s/he may have difficulty paying that off on primary care physician pay.</p>
<p>Note that many pre-meds are lucky to get into even one medical school, so they may not have much choice in being able to choose the lower cost among several. With $55,000 tuition and fees per year being commonplace (then add living expenses), it would not be unusual for medical school graduates to graduate with $300,000 in debt, even without any previous debt.</p>
<p>Medical specialty pay levels: <a href=“Latest Medical News, Clinical Trials, Guidelines - Today on Medscape”>Latest Medical News, Clinical Trials, Guidelines - Today on Medscape;