Debt payment while resident

[shaidester]

If you are an AEGD resident, do you have to pay off your dental school loans while in the program?

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[schmoob]

You can switch to an income based repayment. Depending on your income, your payments can be very very low.

 

[charlestweed]

Yes, you will get the bills from the lenders 6 months after you graduate from dental school. You can postpone the loan repayments by applying for forbearance. That’s what I did and I easily got the approval. My GPR salary was only $31k/year. After paying taxes, I only got around $2k/month to live, to spend on the ortho applications, and to pay for the airfares and hotels for my ortho interviews.

When I started the ortho residency, I had to apply for forbearance again. Keep in mind that the loan interests continue to accrue. To avoid this, you have the option to pay just the interest during your AEGD residency.

 

[vellnueve]

Depending on the program you may be considered a full time student and can get an in-school deferment. That way subsidized loans do not accrue interest.

 

[SigmaFS]

You should be in REPAYE to benefit from the 50% interest subsidy on any interest accrual. And, I imagine the vast majority of your loans are unsubsidized accruing a significant amount of interest. Also, REPAYE payment amounts are determined by the most recent tax year. If your 2017 income is less than $18k for a single filer with no dependents, your REPAYE payments = $0. Don't request a forbearance.