I wasn’t going to say it, but glad someone else spoke up. Someone once told me that manners dictate that you should never discuss another person's indebtedness, at least when it comes to medical education. Something, something…religion, politics, and debt.
One of the great life lessons of my medical school education has been that opportunity has a lot to do with upbringing. Without getting into the weeds, my overwhelming experience has been that the least indebted among my peers almost always start out with sizable advantages. Even worse, many of them have no idea how privileged (hate this word) they are. Behind almost every rant about being thrifty is some kid with mom and pop’s visa tucked in their wallet, a fully paid off car, and parent-paid health insurance. Dig a little deeper and you’d be surprised how many medical students get cash infusions on the regular from parents well into their late 20s. A lot of these students actually don’t consider this “help” because it’s justified as a type of baseline subsidy, perhaps because it’s tied to some one-time event. Your parents giving you $1k for board fees, or paying a portion of your rent, or buying your gas is all called parental support. Let’s be clear, there is nothing wrong with this at all. BUT, it is help. There is a tremendous amount of intergenerational wealth among the cohort of students that become physicians, at least at my school. Sure, the vast majority are not driving Audis and BMWs, but wealth allows one to do things that people of other means cannot. It allows risk taking. A lot of the “thrifty” students at my school will readily admit that, if and when the car breaks down, dad calls in a credit card. They can live cheaply because there is no requirement for financial reserve. They can risk taking the lowest amount of loans because they have a readily available bailout from parents if their car breaks down, a laptop fails, etc. Students with family are playing an entirely different game. Ever try to pay for childcare? I have a lot of respect for these student's parents because maybe one day that can be my kid. But, I think it’s the definition of disingenuous when these same students act like they’re “poor” and lecture others about finances. I had a student once talk at length about how middle class he was and then, in the same breath, mention that it was the height of financial burden because his dad was only able to pay a semester of medical school.
But, I mean, good for these guys. Their situation is very rare. I did the math using the average tuition and fees for the 10 cheapest public medical schools in the country and their story is definitely impressive, mainly because it means that they likely lived significantly below the poverty level throughout all 4 years of medical school. I was a TA in my younger years: those jobs typically pay minimum wage, if anything at all. I had a first career making good money, came to medical school with almost no debt and decent savings, and will leave significantly more indebted. Oh, and I live in a shoe box.
But, I think it's important to note that income is an incentivizing factor (one among many) when people of certain means pick a specialty and, eventually, a locale to practice in. Debt can be crushing for those of us who have to take it on.
