Concerns

[AndyR582]

So I've been accepted to Veterinary School at Melbourne in Australia. My only concern is the debt. I don't mind taking out loans but there is the real possibility that I'll never be able to pay it back (200k just for tuition). Is anyone else have this concern? How is it possible to pay back this amount of loans?
Andy

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[that redhead]

I don't mean to sound unsympathetic, but did you not know that veterinary school is one of the most expensive professional/graduate programs to enter? The vast majority (if not all) of students have to take out loans to pay for their tuition and living costs - it's one of the more prominent issues in veterinary medicine many would argue.

 

[pennyonthefloor]

So I've been accepted to Veterinary School at Melbourne in Australia. My only concern is the debt. I don't mind taking out loans but there is the real possibility that I'll never be able to pay it back (200k just for tuition). Is anyone else have this concern? How is it possible to pay back this amount of loans?
Andy

Have you ever looked at purchasing a house? It's the same kind of comparison. Yes, 200k sounds like a lot, but really, it's not too awful bad. Yes, payments are going to seem huge at first but once you get established and are making a decent living, it shouldn't be too bad (plus educational loans have a lower interest rate than non-ed loans).

Budgeting is all I have to say. Yes, the possibility exists that you may be in debt for the majority of your adult life but as long as you're not going to get your degree and go work at McDonald's flipping burgers, you'll be fine. You have to weigh how much this is worth to you.

My perspective is that if you're driven enough to get in to vet school, you've got the drive to tackle this problem... I'm not trying to down-play financial concerns by any means... just try to think logically about it. I've had to work hard for all that I've had yet I bought a house when I turned 22-- somehow the bank let me borrow $120k.... crazy!

Take it step by step, utilize the resources that are out there, ask around and just breathe

 

[Horsingaround31]

You almost have to think about it like you are investing your money -- some people get loans to invest in an house. You'll be getting a loan to invest in an education that will give you a profession you'll love to do most days. Unless you are monetarily fortunate, vet school is going to equal massive debt and it's going to take a LONG time to pay it off.

 

[AndyR582]

RedHead,
I did understand the cost of school, but it becomes so much more real once you receive the offer letter. Before I got accepted, my attitude was "I'll cross every bridge when I get there", Undergrad, MCAT, now loans. I was nervous about my application but now I've crossed that bridge and have to look at costs. I really just wanted to make sure that it was a concern for everyone and see what people had done to deal with it.
I know I said that tuition was 200k, but when I add in the cost of living in Melbourne for 4 years, I'm looking at a minimum of 300k total debt.

 

[Nexx]

RedHead,
I did understand the cost of school, but it becomes so much more real once you receive the offer letter. Before I got accepted, my attitude was "I'll cross every bridge when I get there", Undergrad, MCAT, now loans. I was nervous about my application but now I've crossed that bridge and have to look at costs. I really just wanted to make sure that it was a concern for everyone and see what people had done to deal with it.
I know I said that tuition was 200k, but when I add in the cost of living in Melbourne for 4 years, I'm looking at a minimum of 300k total debt.

It shouldn't be quite that high. Murdoch costs including living are roughly $250k for 5 years. So unless your tuition is much over $35k/year you shouldn't be far off that $200k mark.

Your cost concern is valid, but not a valid worry for Melbourne alone. Unless you were to get into a program that offered in-state tuition in the US you will be paying approximately the same amount of tuition and living expenses, maybe even the same moving costs. So the question then becomes not "should I go to Melbourne" but "is vet med worth the debt"

There are a few threads on that topic here but it boils down to choices you make while in school to reduce your debt load (i.e. don't spend as much of your loans so you can take less out next time, work part time, etc). Also comes down to your choices after school (don't go buy a brand new car when done, look into public service options, look into income-based repayment plans, start your own practice in a few years (note this may not be sustainable for the profession in general though), specialize, work in industry, find a partner willing to help you take on your debt load )

 

[lei325]

RedHead,
I did understand the cost of school, but it becomes so much more real once you receive the offer letter. Before I got accepted, my attitude was "I'll cross every bridge when I get there", Undergrad, MCAT, now loans. I was nervous about my application but now I've crossed that bridge and have to look at costs. I really just wanted to make sure that it was a concern for everyone and see what people had done to deal with it.
I know I said that tuition was 200k, but when I add in the cost of living in Melbourne for 4 years, I'm looking at a minimum of 300k total debt.

Welcome to my life. I'm at RVC and 300K is the minimum, not including my undergrad loans and credit card debt.

Did I hesitate? Yes. For about a second. It's a lot of money, but with a well planned loan payment plan, it's manageable. Plus, I want to be a veterinarian, so shouldering the cost of school is part of the deal.

Have you applied to any other schools?

 

[Robdude]

Using very rough numbers - 200k in debt is going to cost you about ~$1,000 per month, for 30 years.

There are tax deductions for the interest on student loans (and it sounds great) but there are limits on how much you can deduct given your income (IE - you won't get much of a deduction).

Again, as a rough estimate, whatever your (pre-tax) salary is - subtract 15k. That's your equivalent salary without student loans.

As an example; if you make 65k with 200k in student loans, you have as much disposable income as someone with 0 student loans and a 50k income. If you make 40k after vet school....well, you'd only have as much money as someone making 25k.

You can look around and get a feel for what you think you'll earn. If you are generally awesome at everything and work really hard, you should expect to be higher than the average vet salary in a few years. If you know you aren't the best worker or whatever, maybe expect to be on the low end.

Also - keep in mind the cost of living for wherever you think you'll end up. 50k in New York City isn't a lot of money; but you could live very comfortably in some outer-suburb or small town in the midwest.

 

[kibootsy]

We are making "good" loans against intangible item called education that always add some kind of values to our lives, monetary or non-monetary. Some people make huge loans against tangible items that quickly depreciate as soon as they walk out the door with the item.

I heard from some interns that there are corporate type vet offices that offer paying off student loans, partially or even wholly with a commitment of employment for a certain length. Now, I'll consider myself lucky to be able to land on such an offer, and will not rely on the prospects. But I just wanted to mention that it's not all hopeless.

 

[bbeventer]

There are always programs out there that help repay loans if you make commitments to a certain area of medicine like food animals. It may not be the field you want to go into but to have your loans repaid it would be totally worth it!

http://www.csrees.usda.gov/newsroom/news/2010news/11081_vmlrp.html

 

[thereservoirdog]

This might be a little too esoteric, but I may as well share my approach with those who might be interested. I'm tackling the vet school loan issue by putting some of my savings into the stock market. With a bit of knowledge and the proper research it can pay off massively. Four months ago I started investing in what are called FDA binary events. Basically finding small drug development companies with FDA drug approval decisions coming soon. Ive found a consistent pattern where these plays run up nicely 1-2 months before the decision, and then you lock in profits by selling right before the decision is made. So far I'm up about 70%.

Another way to make consistent, relatively easy income is through writing options. That takes a bit of research before jumping into that though.

This is all probably too risky for most of you, but it works for me and I think if your serious about vet school debt you should always keep an eye out for out of the box ideas. Feel free to pm me if you have any questions.

 

[kibootsy]

Are you subscribing to a service or are you just doing your own homework? Very intriguing. Thanks for sharing with us.

 

[thereservoirdog]

I do my own research but there's a site I subscribed to that does the same method, it's www.biorunup.com . The subscription fee is about $400 a year but I easily made that up. I also check gekkowire.com pretty frequently as well as an investor named Sheff Station.

If you want I can give you a history of my trades just pm me. A few of the big winners so far have been JAZZ, ALXA, AMRN, ASTM... I made about 40% on each and only had to hold them for a few weeks. There's been a few losers but I never lost more than 10%

 

[JumpHigherLivie]

Andy --

I don't think you are being unreasonable at all. OUr first year of vet school in one of our classes our professor gave us a spread sheet that included all of the calculations and we had to input our debt load, what we would REALISTICALLY make out of vet school for our chosen field (if we can find a job there), our living expenses (which included everything, down to holiday presents for family/friends etc.) and we saw how it turned out.
Let's just say there were a lot of depressed people in our class... and not because we were projecting living these extravagent life styles ... but because a lot of people were in the red with just getting by.

Think about it realisitically. Think about the trade off -- is the happines you may or may not receive in veterinary school worth the stress of what your debt load would amount to over time. For soem people it will be worth whatever the cost, for others it's just not -- no matter where you fall it is NOT a bad thing, but it is a good thing to realize before you start investing the money!

This is real life. Sadly. THe job market is less than stellar right now, depending on what you want to go into, and debts are weighing heavier on students ... particularly those that are reaching the end of their schooling.

I would recommend sitting down and seeing what you come up with and doing some thinking. It's not odd, even for people who decide that the debt is worth it, to be shell shocked by the amont.

Just my opinions.