Pessmisistic debt estimate?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Can somebody please give me the most pessimistic debt estimate for med school considering room and board, tuition, housing, and other living expenses? I'm only talking about the 4 years of med school, not the residency part (what's the average salary for a resident?)</p>

<p>Is it possible to take a gap year between undergrad and med school? How about taking a gap year DURING med school and/or between med school and residency?</p>

<p>I'm asking, because I want to map out my future somewhat and a chemical engineer makes a good starting salary of about 60K. Would it ever be wise to take a gap year and make 60K rather than just take on all the debt and repay it later as a doctor?</p>

2

<p>Try getting someone to hire you for a legit job for one year. Not gonna happen.</p>

3

<p>Here's the data from the 2005-2006 MSAR. If BDM or NCG or uvajoe have more recent MSARs maybe they can post:</p>

<p>For private schools:</p>

<p>Resident tuition: Range 10500-40459 Median 33965 Mean 32588
Non-Resident: R 22500 - 40459 Med 34550 Mean 34169</p>

<p>For public schools:</p>

<p>Resident: R 4922 - 26422 Med 16332 Mean 16155
Non- Res: R 12392 - 69174 (at Colorado) Med 32662 Mean 33635</p>

<p>After CU, the next most expensive out of state rates were Illinois - Chicago and Southern Illinois which were just on either side of $50k, then South Carolina and Minnesota at right about 48k, then a bunch at 40k.</p>

<p>Now keep in mind that those numbers are just for 1st year students, and tuition may be slightly more expensive in subsequent years. These numbers also DO NOT include loans taken out for living expenses. This number may vary a lot from school to school as each has a different policy of dealing with estimating that amount. For example, my school gives a flat rate of $1600 per month for living expenses, but only for months that school is in session. That means for the first two years, it's only 9 months that paid out for each year, while the third year requires 12 months and the 4th year 10. So the amount I take out in loans varies each time not only b/c of differences in tuition and fees, but also in how many months I'm getting living expenses.</p>

<p>Other schools I know of however will create a customized budget of living expenses for each student. They'll take into consideration your rent, your car insurance, car payments, cell phone bill, and anything else to create your individual budget and then you'll receive that amount for each month.</p>

<p>It's certainly possible to take a gap year between undergrad and med school. Thousands of people do this against their will.</p>

<p>I believe most schools will allow a leave of absence with good cause. Many people may take off a year to do research. My roommate got a year long Pathology Externship at the Path department of my school where she'll actually get paid. So she's doing that while we're starting our clerkships.</p>

<p>A gap year between med school and residency...it's possible. Not sure why you'd do that though.</p>

<p>House Officer salaries are pretty much the same throughout the country with HO I staff starting at about 45k, then getting raises in subsequent years. Obviously 45k is going to get you a lot further in Norman Oklahoma than in San Francisco.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the responses. I said I POSSIBLY wanted to do a gap year and work as a chemical engineer to help repay debt from college and med school. The job market for them is great now ($60K starting salary). Of course there will be a problem getting a job for one year.</p>

5

<p>Just to show you the trend, here's the data from 2008-2009 MSAR:</p>

<p>Private schools
RESIDENT: R 14,003 - 48,034 Median 39,831 Average 37,809
NONRESIDENT: R 25,691 - 48,034 Median 40,752 Average 39,413</p>

<p>Public schools
RESIDENT: R 9,249 - 32,252 Median 22,162 Average 20,978
NONRESIDENT: R 17,284 - 63,297 Median 39,077 Average 39,974</p>

6

<p>That doesn't even include room&board and living expenses?</p>

7

<p>It definitely doesn't. Stanford Medical School has a student budget exceeding $80,000 when those are included.</p>

8

<p>How can somebody go $320K in debt? Will they even give you a loan for that much?</p>

9

<p>$320K wouldn't include any debt they carry over from undergrad or any interest accrued during residency.</p>

10

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=307704%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=307704&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

11

<p>Since we all have the MSAR, why are we not looking at the average indebtedness stat? The average debt coming out of most med schools is $80,000-150,000 depending on how generous the school is with grants. Obviously, you could get no grants and end up having $280,000 worth of debt. But if you're getting no grants whatsoever, then you must have pretty good finances to begin with. </p>

<p>$100,000-150,000 I'd say is more realistic.</p>

12

<p>Lot's of people take a year or more (or 2 or 3, not that often longer than this) between college and med school. Some time off is becoming the norm. However, even a very good starting salary for someone right out of college will not let you save much of the cost of medical school If you are sure you are going to medical school, the cost effective approach is to get through it as quickly as possible and start earning MD income.</p>

<p>Select your school by the total cost to you, after considering variations in tuition and aid packages. Many people do this, which is one of the many reasons where you go to medical school is not that important to doctors. They know that the answer is often "I went where I could afford"</p>