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Well...

mstp is free but 7 years, right? So 3 extra years for no debt. If you start working 3 years earlier and go into a decent specialty compensation-wise, 3 years is like 700k before taxes.

It's not quite that simple... you not only get free tuition but also get a stipend. Being a MD/PhD also makes you more competitive for residencies, all things considered. I think it's still a bit better deal to do MD only all things being equal but not as big a difference as you'd think.
 
all of you kids in boston right now, there's a boil water order for everyone in the metro area
 
It's not quite that simple... you not only get free tuition but also get a stipend. Being a MD/PhD also makes you more competitive for residencies, all things considered. I think it's still a bit better deal to do MD only all things being equal but not as big a difference as you'd think.

Which covers living expenses, right? Or do people generally come out ahead?
 
I think a stipend is somewhere on the order of 15 to 20k per year. In my mind the MD still is the wiser choice. Not many doors are closed to you bc you lack the PhD
 
Hello all, just wanted to say hi and let you know I'm still alive. 😛 I'm in the Manchester area, spent yesterday in Liverpool and the day before in London. Next up is Amsterdam by ferry, which should be interesting. Hope all is well with everyone! 👍

Cheers,
Stein 😀
 
i'd obviously buy real estate if i do mstp. its most likely gonna be 8 years in the program though. 7 is doable
 
hiii everyone! i'm pretty positive i'm decided on penn state after checking out evms again today. wooo decision making!🙂

rejected from downstate after being on hold for spring consideration🙁 oh well, as my dad said: "at least now you don't have to choose between the school you liked better and the cheaper school"


oh, and happy birthday mandi!!😀
 
hiii everyone! i'm pretty positive i'm decided on penn state after checking out evms again today. wooo decision making!🙂

rejected from downstate after being on hold for spring consideration🙁 oh well, as my dad said: "at least now you don't have to choose between the school you liked better and the cheaper school"


oh, and happy birthday mandi!!😀

how'd you find out 🙁
 
he should. cleveland would be a cool place to live though, i dont think its bad as i picture it to be.

the thing about miami is that you dont meet too many people that like living there that aren't rich
 
i guess. but the beach is free 👍 and distinctively lacking in snow
 
the beaches there are mad nice and clean. its nothing like the jersey shores. i kinda want to live in a strong community like philly though
 
or a cannoli (which i ate about an hour ago. delicious)
 
hmm that lowers blood pressure/cholesterol/the risk of parkinsons/risk of cancers and improves fertility


sounds too healthy to me
 
there are serial killers in miami too, though.

dexter-main.jpg
 
is dingy heading to miami? go to miami!

The biggest problem, as it's always been, has been my parents(and relatives). Like most Asian parents, they're pretty conscious about prestige. It's not entirely their fault either, their relatives in China are all recommending pretty strongly the same thing. They've already been quite disapproving of me picking UF over an Ivy for college, so given the similar costs of Case and Miami, they really want me to go to Case.

Dynamics in an Asian family can be pretty complicated, so I can't just ignore their opinions and do what I want, it'll be like deserting the family or something. I spent like 3 hours(!!!) last night on the phone analyzing everything with my parents, and I think I've made some good progress....
 
good progress in which direction?

Miami, of course. Case is a great school, but I just feel like I'd fit in Miami better. USF isn't bad either, for that matter, but I think it'd be impossible to convince my parents on a "prestige" basis.

I wanna ask Case to give me an extension, you think I should give that a try? Miami's upgrading their systems so their award packet won't come out till next week, I'd like to see something in writing from them first. But Case's deadline is on Monday, so maybe it's too late to ask?
 
that doc on doc murder is such a sad story, both guys are family men :/ kinda highlights the tension between indian and chinese immigrant scholars too.
 
just call up case on monday and ask for an extension.
 
stipend is upper 20s.
MSTP isn't a bad deal. I couldn't do it though, to much training time.

he should. cleveland would be a cool place to live though, i dont think its bad as i picture it to be.

the thing about miami is that you dont meet too many people that like living there that aren't rich
In my experience most cities with a bad reputation aren't as bad (or at least parts of them) as their reputations.
 
yea, i would still take out subsidized loans (why wouldnt anyone?) buy a sick ass place or invest in something


how's NBG doing?
 
I mean it really depends where you go to school, but a lot of people come out ahead. Economically it works out like this. The stipend counts as income, and a lot of people use it to buy a house, so the economics become drastically different.

Let's say you got a stipend of 28k and you went to... say... Ohio State. Median home value in Columbus is $155k for a single family home. If you got an interest only loan, got the first time home buyer's grant for Ohio ($3100) and covered your closing costs and 1% of the value, you'd have mortgage payments of $997. You're paying approximately $10k in interest a year, which is deductible as an expense. You will pay $1550 a year in property tax and homeowner's insurance will be around the same, but that expense is also tax deductible. So running the numbers, with that, you'll pay about $2500 in taxes (just income, no FICA) for state and federal, meaning your take home is $25500, $13000 of it goes towards housing related costs, leaving you $12500, which is significantly more than a med student would have in their COA after paying for housing. You could probably save $5k a year in this scenario, which they invest at 5% interest. We'll compare this to someone going to OSU OOS (first year OOS, next 3 IS) totaling $245396. $8500 each year, for a total of $34000 will be subsidized, if the student takes out unsub stafford loans and grad plus for the rest at an average of 6.9% fixed which accrues immediately. Let's say they stay in Columbus for res/fellowship, get paid $50,000 as a resident and $60,000 as a fellowship and buy a house for the same cost as person 1 and put every single dollar they can afford after their living expenses towards repayment (which is very unrealistic), and let's assume they do an IM residency and GI fellowship for a total of 6 years in training. With income of $50000, they can repay $21000 a year during residency and $30250 a year during fellowship, leaving them a total of $205930 in the hole after residency and fellowship, with home equity of about $40,000 after 6 years. Median salary for a gastroenterologist is $315,000, let's say our person starts as an associate at $250,000 for two years, then moves up to $300,000 in year 3. By my calculations, this person would be able to pay off all their loans by year 3 and have saved $145,000. This is the BEST case scenario, assuming they spend every single dollar over what they need to live and put it towards their mortgage. With the increase in home equity (2% appreciation) and what they earn in home equity, they'd have about $55000 in home equity at this point as well.

Meanwhile taking a look at our MD/PhD friend, if they did the same track, they'd have about $50,000 saved by the end of med school, with about $60,000 in home equity. During residency and fellowship, since they have no debt repayment, they can save the $21000 and $30250 instead of paying back the loan, leaving them with $248473 in savings by the end of residency, at the same time point as the person working three years. They would also have home equity of approximately $90000 at this point, leaving them about $130,000 ahead of the person doing MD only.

Keep in mind that these are 1) the best case scenarios 2) pretty quick/dirty calculations, the math is right but there's a lot of assumptions I didn't check into 3) the MD person still repays all their loans by year 3, which is pretty awesome in my book. 4) this assumes repayment. If they made the minimum payments on their debt service during residency and fellowship they'd owe about $375,000 by the end of fellowship, meaning it would take just over 3 years to pay it back assuming they did so super aggressively after they finished fellowship.
 
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