I
iandraggia
Hello all,
So as I began thinking about the summer before med school, I've thought about how I want to spend the time between getting accepted and matriculating. I would like the advice of medical students/residents/attendings because I feel like I'm having a difficult time keeping everything in perspective (no one in my immediate family is in medicine).
My family sits in the middle class donut hole where my parents make too much money so that we don't receive any financial aid (beyond unsubsidized loans) and don't make enough money where we could pay tuition with no serious discussion or consideration. Although they probably don't mean it, my parents frequently guilt me over money, even though all the money I spend is the money I earn from teaching. I feel very blessed to have been raised in an environment where I feel that I've never financially struggled, but I do agree that the gravity of medical student debt is absolutely nothing to sneeze at.
The thing is, I love traveling. I was thrilled to have been accepted in late November because I now have months of piece of mind before going away to school. One thing that I've been unable to do as a student was travel the world, and now that I have the opportunity to do it, I want to take advantage of that before that clock runs out. The obvious dilemma about this is that every time I mention traveling to my parents, they brush it off as an extraneous expense, and instead suggest that I save every penny I earn for med school. Recently I've applied for a bunch of private scholarships to help me out in that end, but I do sack away a vast majority of what I earn away for medical school.
My question is, what should I do? My main fears at play are (1) that by not saving all of my money I'll dig myself into a substantially bigger hole than I would have otherwise (what with interest accumulating) and (2) that I'll never have the opportunity to travel once I'm in the swing of medical school and researching over breaks.
Thank you all for your time in reading this and any help is greatly appreciated!!
Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
So as I began thinking about the summer before med school, I've thought about how I want to spend the time between getting accepted and matriculating. I would like the advice of medical students/residents/attendings because I feel like I'm having a difficult time keeping everything in perspective (no one in my immediate family is in medicine).
My family sits in the middle class donut hole where my parents make too much money so that we don't receive any financial aid (beyond unsubsidized loans) and don't make enough money where we could pay tuition with no serious discussion or consideration. Although they probably don't mean it, my parents frequently guilt me over money, even though all the money I spend is the money I earn from teaching. I feel very blessed to have been raised in an environment where I feel that I've never financially struggled, but I do agree that the gravity of medical student debt is absolutely nothing to sneeze at.
The thing is, I love traveling. I was thrilled to have been accepted in late November because I now have months of piece of mind before going away to school. One thing that I've been unable to do as a student was travel the world, and now that I have the opportunity to do it, I want to take advantage of that before that clock runs out. The obvious dilemma about this is that every time I mention traveling to my parents, they brush it off as an extraneous expense, and instead suggest that I save every penny I earn for med school. Recently I've applied for a bunch of private scholarships to help me out in that end, but I do sack away a vast majority of what I earn away for medical school.
My question is, what should I do? My main fears at play are (1) that by not saving all of my money I'll dig myself into a substantially bigger hole than I would have otherwise (what with interest accumulating) and (2) that I'll never have the opportunity to travel once I'm in the swing of medical school and researching over breaks.
Thank you all for your time in reading this and any help is greatly appreciated!!
Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
