Would it be okay to have around 80k in debt, since I’ll make a lot as a doctor? Im just planning for a worse case scenario, not actually planning on borrowing this much
ZERO
$80K is way too much for a number of reasons:
● if you defer your loans during med school (and you'll need to), interest on your undergrad loans will continue to accrue and will add substantially to your total loan burden
Try this interest calculator to get an idea of how much interest will be added to your undergrad loans during med school & residency: http://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php
● you'll be borrowing a ton of **unsubsidized** loans to pay for med school. (In the $225-$350K range, unless you 're lucky enough to attend an in-state med school with low tuition.)
● doctors don't make big bucks straight out of med school. A newly graduated doctor must first complete a medical residency program. These last 3 to 10 years post med school graduation. During residency, a medical resident earns about the same as your high school science teacher
● not all specialties pay the really big bucks. Primary care fields, in particular, are not known for high salaries.
Corollary #1--you can't count on matching into a high paying specialty
Corollary #2--even physicians working in a high paying specialty will have trouble repaying $500K in loans
● private loans (and if you're borrowing $80K as an undergrad, at least $50K of that has to be in private loans since that far exceeds the federal loan limits for undergrads) are not eligible for the various special loan deferment, loan repayment and loan forgiveness programs open to physicians
● And most important: **there is no guarantee that you'll get accepted to medical school**. You could easily end up with huge debt and no future high paying career at the end of undergrad. Only 40% of all med school applicants get a single acceptance to med school. And that's after 75% of freshman pre-meds drop out of pre-med before it even comes time to apply.
So how much debt is acceptable?
As little as possible, certainly no more than federal dependent student loans limitsLet’s also jump ahead post residency. You might want a house, car, you and your significant may already have kid(s) or someone might suddenly show up pregnant, etc. Life happens. All of those newly acquired post residency debts, costs of having a family etc, will eat away at your income. That “lot of money” you’ll make as a doctor may not look so much especially after taxes. You really want to try to minimize the mountain of debt you’re dragging along.
Exactly. It will take years and years to get out of debt from med school loans (assuming you go to med school). You do NOT want undergrad debt on top of that. So Ideally, have NO debt. If you MUST maybe, MAYBE 20K total. TOTAL. But remember, the interest adds up too, and if you do want to buy anything else, or plan a wedding or fix your car (too expensive to buy a new one), it takes cash.
Preferably; zero. Choose your college smartly!
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Would it be okay to have around 80k in debt, since I’ll make a lot as a doctor? Im just planning for a worse case scenario, not actually planning on borrowing this much
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NO! Not even half that much!
Your goal should be ZERO for undergrad…but even if you have to borrow “some,” don’t borrow more than $27k total.
Who would cosign all that debt???
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would i be able to get into my dream school’s medical school (which is very selective) even if i end up going to my state school for undergrad? Its not that its a bad school, its just that i dont think its the best for pre med students.
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What are your stats?
What are your financial safety schools?
What if you end up NOT going to med school?
What if you don’t get in to medical school? Most freshman pre-meds don’t.