Average indebtness of attending each school?

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I think the average indebtedness numbers are irrelevant to the individual. It's not hard to figure out how much debt you will have coming out. Add in your current ugrad and grad loans if you have any. Add the cost of attendance of your COM, figure out if you are the child of a wealthy plastic surgeon who is going to foot the bill subtract that support from the coa, and that is how much you will be in the hole.

People have parents, military, etc.. paying for all or some of school which skews the numbers down. Scholarships aren't too common or significant even if you do get one in the DO world. Also if a school happens to accept more students with families that could skew up the numbers up a bit, since they might have to borrow more to support their dependents, or perhaps less if their spouse is earning good money.
 
Your indebtedness at the end of med school is a mere factoid. The key number is indebtedness at the end of residency. Your indebtedness will grow at a compounded rate of 6.8% to 7.5% per year after you graduate and will continue to grow until you start paying that load off.:scared:

The key is to borrow as little as you can by living cheaply. Share an apartment. Dress like Larry the Cable Guy. Stop drinking. etc. 🙁
 
How to figure out your debt:

1. UG debt - $A
2. Med School Debt (are parents helping you pay, if yes, then subtract that from COA, if no, then CoA x4 = $B)

$A + $B = Debt

I would say the majority of students, who do not have parents helping them pay, take out the full CoA for each school. Scholarships are usually so little that it really doesn't matter.

I would say it's easy to accumulate $200-$300k in medical school since most medical schools have a CoA of $50-$80k/year. The only exception to this rule is probably Texas.

Once you get to resindecy, add 6.8%/year to your loans, thus adding usually another $100k by 4 years.
 
ChiDO said:
How to figure out your debt:

1. UG debt - $A
2. Med School Debt (are parents helping you pay, if yes, then subtract that from COA, if no, then CoA x4 = $B)

$A + $B = Debt

I would say the majority of students, who do not have parents helping them pay, take out the full CoA for each school. Scholarships are usually so little that it really doesn't matter.

I would say it's easy to accumulate $200-$300k in medical school since most medical schools have a CoA of $50-$80k/year. The only exception to this rule is probably Texas.

Once you get to resindecy, add 6.8%/year to your loans, thus adding usually another $100k by 4 years.
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What if I fake my own death after medical school, then practice under a different name to avoid this arseee load of debt?
 
The tuition and supplies fees aren't the only thing to consider. You also have to factor in cost of living which can dramatically alter your debt load after medical school.

Nova Southeastern University is in beautiful sunny Ft. Lauderdale Florida and has a reasonable tuition rate. But the cost of living is brutal. My wife and I rented a 2br apartment and paid three times what we now pay for a mortgage on a 3br house in Illinois.
 
Doctor Bob said:
The tuition and supplies fees aren't the only thing to consider. You also have to factor in cost of living which can dramatically alter your debt load after medical school.

Nova Southeastern University is in beautiful sunny Ft. Lauderdale Florida and has a reasonable tuition rate. But the cost of living is brutal. My wife and I rented a 2br apartment and paid three times what we now pay for a mortgage on a 3br house in Illinois.
Click to expand...

This should be in the COA, with variations due to personal choices.
 
The average debt is $180k (this includes undergrad). Obviously you could have a lot more or less depending on your situation.
 
Don't forget that when a school post's their avg. indebtedness that they are averaging it among students who are using the military to pay tuition or the National Health services corps so in reality that isn't the avg debt for a student who is taking the full COA each year.
 
elftown said:
How do UNECOM students have the highest debt? The tuition is less than other schools. Is the cost of living up there really more than New York?
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The school probably either doesn't have a well developed endowment fund or they aren't spending the money in said fund for scholarships.
 
Physio Doc 2 Be said:
The school probably either doesn't have a well developed endowment fund or they aren't spending the money in said fund for scholarships.
Click to expand...

I've never been to the area, but I've heard the cost of living is nuts too.
 
very few scholarships (basically none), no endowment spent on med students, yearly increases in tuition (at least 6% per year), and crazy cost of living. my coa loans last year were over 70K.

crazy.
 
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