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I feel like this is something that is under discussed, even though it can have life long implications. From my limited experience, I know of the following options for paying for dental school:
In state tuition: This is personally what I'm trying to go for. If you can get a good deal your loan won't be to bad and you can just work to paying it off over time without too much worry.
Out of state/private school tuition: This is where I start to get worried. A $300,000-$350,000 loan can turn in to double or more of that over time with interest. As I believe one post mentioned before, if you make $120,000 a year right out of dental school you may only end up bringing home $55,000 or so after taxes and student loan payments. I'm not planning to go in to dentistry just for the money, but I'm not planning on working my ass off to make that kind of money either.
Payment options I know of for a large student loan include IBR, which I originally thought I would strongly consider. A federal program that caps your yearly payment to 10% of your income and it being absolved as taxable income after 20 years sounds great. However, it could be one of those too-good-to-be-true sort of things, whether that means the loan is not guaranteed and if the government cuts or changes the program you could be 40 years old with a $1,000,000 in debt. Even if not, having to pay the tax on that at the end of the 20 year period isn't fun either.
The other option I'm considering is a military scholarship were they pay for your tuition and give you a stipend but you commit 4 years to them after school. I'd rather do this than be in debt probably, but I also don't like the idea of essentially pledging away my youth, being 30 years once I finally end this commitment, although again being debt free is an awesome idea.
The way I see it is your only really good option is a cheap (relatively) in-state tuition. I thought that grinding to get in to dental school, putting in the work there for 4 tough years and then grinding to set up a successful practice while paying a reasonable amount of loans would be enough, but it seems as though if you play your cards wrong all that hard work may not pay off if you set yourself for an insurmountable or crippling amount of debt. What other options do you guys know of? What are you going for? Is forgoing any loan repayment options and going to an out of state school and just paying off the loans with a normal repayment plan a viable option? I think a serious discussion on this is important so people know what they are getting themselves in to.
In state tuition: This is personally what I'm trying to go for. If you can get a good deal your loan won't be to bad and you can just work to paying it off over time without too much worry.
Out of state/private school tuition: This is where I start to get worried. A $300,000-$350,000 loan can turn in to double or more of that over time with interest. As I believe one post mentioned before, if you make $120,000 a year right out of dental school you may only end up bringing home $55,000 or so after taxes and student loan payments. I'm not planning to go in to dentistry just for the money, but I'm not planning on working my ass off to make that kind of money either.
Payment options I know of for a large student loan include IBR, which I originally thought I would strongly consider. A federal program that caps your yearly payment to 10% of your income and it being absolved as taxable income after 20 years sounds great. However, it could be one of those too-good-to-be-true sort of things, whether that means the loan is not guaranteed and if the government cuts or changes the program you could be 40 years old with a $1,000,000 in debt. Even if not, having to pay the tax on that at the end of the 20 year period isn't fun either.
The other option I'm considering is a military scholarship were they pay for your tuition and give you a stipend but you commit 4 years to them after school. I'd rather do this than be in debt probably, but I also don't like the idea of essentially pledging away my youth, being 30 years once I finally end this commitment, although again being debt free is an awesome idea.
The way I see it is your only really good option is a cheap (relatively) in-state tuition. I thought that grinding to get in to dental school, putting in the work there for 4 tough years and then grinding to set up a successful practice while paying a reasonable amount of loans would be enough, but it seems as though if you play your cards wrong all that hard work may not pay off if you set yourself for an insurmountable or crippling amount of debt. What other options do you guys know of? What are you going for? Is forgoing any loan repayment options and going to an out of state school and just paying off the loans with a normal repayment plan a viable option? I think a serious discussion on this is important so people know what they are getting themselves in to.