Average Loan amount

[ruvuitton]

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Hi all. I'll be starting medical school soon, and I was looking through the average indebtedness of school loans and it seems like for a lot of people it is around 160k? I was wondering, how this was possible. I calculated the cost of attendance for my school and it came out to be around 307k? I also have a lot of loans from my undergrad….. I'm expecting to come out of medical school with well over 400k amount of loans. Am I abnormally on the high end? Is it even possible to pay back all of this with accruing interest? lol.

 

[mvenus929]

I'm at 211K, no loans from undergrad. My C oA would have put me in the 280-290K range, but my school provided a fair amount in scholarships, and I was frugal with loan money.

A lot of people have their parents help out with living expenses, so they only need to take out loans for tuition and fees, which brings down the COA considerably.

 

[snowflakes]

The average indebtedness gets skewed downwards by the people with very low indebtedness due to scholarships or significant family support. Also, some schools give stellar financial aid to students with 0 EFC. The median indebtedness would be more accurate, but I haven't seen that number anywhere--is this data point available?

 

[NickNaylor]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=what+is+the+average+debt+of+medical+student+graduates&l=1

 

[Optimus-Prime]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=what is the average debt of medical student graduates&l=1

That was painful

 

[Mad Jack]

You're in the ballpark. Keep in mind that recent indebtedness figures for graduates represent the tuition of 4 years ago, and the undergraduate costs of 8 years ago. You've got many, many years of cumulative tuition inflation over the med students graduating today.

I'm looking at 410k myself, so I know that feel bro.

 

[Narmerguy]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=what is the average debt of medical student graduates&l=1

That result is a great document:
https://www.aamc.org/download/152968/data/debtfactcard.pdf

 

[BestDoctorEver]

I already met a few students in my class that their parents are paying the whole thing for them... Also, there are others that will only take loan for tuition only and their parents will pay for their living expenses...

 

[ruvuitton]

Wait, there's financial aid for people with 0 EFC? How does that work?

 

[justAstudent]

Wait, there's financial aid for people with 0 EFC? How does that work?

+1

 

[chenzt]

https://www.aamc.org/download/363478/data/msq2013report.pdf

Page 24 shows the the self-reported average of how students finance their education.

 

[mvenus929]

Wait, there's financial aid for people with 0 EFC? How does that work?

Most schools require your parents' information to determine need-based aid. As a graduate student, you automatically have an EFC of 0, but schools need some way to determine who needs aid more than others. So, if your parents are well-off and aren't helping you, you get screwed by needing to take out additional loans.

 

[Xenoblade]

I need myself a sugga mama.

I will be in about 350k in total for principle.

 

[aspirantmed]

You should also keep in mind that schools' projected costs of attendance are often generous over-estimates, since they'd rather allocate more loans to students than less.

 

[el_duderino]

Well the maximum possible loan amount for the most expensive schools is going to be in the neighborhood of $350,000 right?

That will be driven down by the fact that so many enroll at in-state schools with dramatically lower COA.

It will be driven down further by merit scholarships, grants, and need scholarships.

It will be driven down further by the large number of relatively affluent people who will take smaller, or even no, loans.

So it stands to reason that the average loan amount will be dramatically lower than the typical loan amount for, say, a person with no assets going to a private school.