<p>I paid back almost exactly $100,000 in between college and med school loans and the last sliver was at a fairly high interest because I had surpassed limits on the low interest loans. There would have been more but my then fiance, now H, coughed up tuition money for my last semester of medical school, and I finished early and did a few months of working at Stanley Kaplan (teaching SAT prep of course) to pay living expenses. Most loans were deferred during medical training, but some accumulated interest so I tried to repay those immediately (H was back in grad school at that point) from my intern's wages of $16,500/year at Stanford(where, needless to say, no houses were bought!)... The last of the loans was repaid 12 years after med school graduation, and until that point it was as if we had 2 mortgage payments/month. </p>
<p>I have no regrets about the costs related to my undergraduate education, but in retrospect I could have done without the pricey med school- and gone to the state school for a comparable education, if less lofty name. The kids in my residency program split down the middle-half had gone to private med schools, half to their state schools. I shudder at the price of private medical schools these days, and thinking about the burden new grads will bear....But neither of my 2 older kids are planning that route at this point..</p>
<p>From an investment perspective I might have done better to buy a house in Southern California (Or Northern California) in 1982 than pay for 4 years of private medical school....</p>