Average debt for a med student...

[TheMan21]

I usually see the figure quoted as being between 120-160k. Does this figure include people who pay almost nothing because of scholarships, rich parents, armed forces commitments, etc?

Does anyone know what percentage of students pay nothing? If you were to exclude those students, what would the average med school debt actually be?

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[JJMrK]

I usually see the figure quoted as being between 120-160k. Does this figure include people who pay almost nothing because of scholarships, rich parents, armed forces commitments, etc?

Does anyone know what percentage of students pay nothing? If you were to exclude those students, what would the average med school debt actually be?

Generally, yes. Even if schools do not report people who borrow $0 in this number, they still report those who take out only, say the $8500 in subsidized loans and borrow the rest from their parents.

The average debt for everyone else is going to pretty much = the average COA, which I'd guess is around ~250k.

 

[MilkmanAl]

That sounds like a reasonable estimate to me.

 

[TexasPhysician]

I usually see the figure quoted as being between 120-160k. Does this figure include people who pay almost nothing because of scholarships, rich parents, armed forces commitments, etc?

Does anyone know what percentage of students pay nothing? If you were to exclude those students, what would the average med school debt actually be?

I don't believe it factors those things in. Good question - more than $150K I would guess

 

[tremulousNeedle]

Those values you stated are what is described as the average medical school graduate indebtedness.

Flat out the numbers are the average debt that US medical school seniors have at graduation. This includes undergraduate debt (if there is any). This DOES include individuals who have received scholarships, had rich/contributing parents, etc. If you remove students who have had complete or partial aid, then that average would obviously increase. Again, the numbers stated by the original poster, DO include people who borrowed $0 (the denominator in all of these calculations is total graduating US seniors).

Average tuition costs for 4 years (I believe these are 2007 values)
Private: 140,000
Public: 80,000

These two numbers do not include borrowing for living expenses, which can range from 9,000 to 14,000 per year depending upon geography and how the student decides to live.

Here are some more numbers:
Student debt statistics

• $156,456 – According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the average educational debt of indebted graduates of the class of 2009.
• 79 percent of graduates have debt of at least $100,000.
• 58 precent of graduates have debt of at least $150,000.
• 87 percent of graduating medical students carry outstanding loans.

http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/abo...on/advocacy-policy/medical-student-debt.shtml

 

[ThaliaNox]

Honestly, the average should mean nothing to you. Relatively few students get a huge amount of aid. The safest average is to take the CoA for your school and multiply it by four. You might skim 10-20% of this off by living frugally or getting scholarships, but if you don't have money to kick in from outside and aren't an academic superstar, you probably won't skim more than this off your CoA. For me that means ~$50,000 per year, multiplied by four, which is ~200,000 by the time I'm done. I'm at a state school. Our stated average is like 130,000.

Keep in mind too that when people who graduated last year started, med school cost less. My med school went up 2 grand per year the year I started and like 5 the year before. Intrinsically this means that people starting now will pay more than the people these statistics are gathered from.

 

[Alvarez13]

Honestly, the average should mean nothing to you. Relatively few students get a huge amount of aid. The safest average is to take the CoA for your school and multiply it by four. You might skim 10-20% of this off by living frugally or getting scholarships, but if you don't have money to kick in from outside and aren't an academic superstar, you probably won't skim more than this off your CoA. For me that means ~$50,000 per year, multiplied by four, which is ~200,000 by the time I'm done. I'm at a state school. Our stated average is like 130,000.

Keep in mind too that when people who graduated last year started, med school cost less. My med school went up 2 grand per year the year I started and like 5 the year before. Intrinsically this means that people starting now will pay more than the people these statistics are gathered from.

As accurate as this is, you really brought me down man

 

[FutureCTDoc]

I usually see the figure quoted as being between 120-160k. Does this figure include people who pay almost nothing because of scholarships, rich parents, armed forces commitments, etc?

Does anyone know what percentage of students pay nothing? If you were to exclude those students, what would the average med school debt actually be?

While it's usually north of 100K and 150K for most, the most insidious thing that relatively few consider is COL. Living in NYC may make housing costs be easily over 20K per year, even small studios rent for 1500 a month. Groceries aren't cheap, neither are utilities. At some schools, tuition may represent only half of the COA. It would not shock me to have COA be $80,000 per year at more expensive schools in high priced cities. NYU has a COA of 70K, HMS is 63K multiply by 4 years and be amazed by the amount of debt.

 

[faw20]

I can't figure out how they would come up with such a low number without factoring in those people attending with few or no loans.

As a soon to be graduate of medical school, I can assure the total costs of attendance are not cheap. I attend a public school with a very low cost of living, and my personal debt is almost $180,000 from medical school alone. What I did not realize when looking at costs of attending medical school was that the figures I was being given when I met with financial aid at my interviews were for tuition only. I had to take out loans for everything: tuition, cost of living, boards, etc.

That being said, medical school is absolutely worth it if this is what you want to do with your life. As physicians we will make enough to pay back our loans. I wouldn't use cost as a reason not to go to medical school.

 

[tremulousNeedle]

I can't figure out how they would come up with such a low number without factoring in those people attending with few or no loans.

You're right! I'll say it again; those numbers (~150K) are including all US graduating seniors (those that borrowed $0 to those that borrowed $250K+).
Had my med school financial aid exit meeting today, we discussed all this there; pure happiness.