Debt poll for pathologist or pathologists to be...

[DarksideAllstar]

As I plow through my loan deferment paperwork, I was wondering:

1. How much debt did you/will you graduate with?
2. Currently intend to pursue community practice or academics?

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[beary]

I like how MSTP and spoiled bastard are the same choice.

 

[b&ierstiefel]

I am a spoiled bastard. I'm also an only child which further supports my admission of guilt!

 

[EtOHWithdrawal]

Interesting poll...

 

[Mindy]

Am I supposed to count my mortgage? Oh wait... it doesn't matter after all with this survey...

Mindy (the poorest doc in town)

 

[DarksideAllstar]

The reason why I posted this is because I wanted to see how med school debt might impact people's career goals/choices (anecdotally, of course). Interesting to see that there are a few people with a fair amount of debt who plan to pursue an academic track. Hopefully people are only counting student loans towards their indebtedness, as I probably should have been more specific.

 

[yaah]

Well, a mortgage isn't "technically" debt because you own the house. If you owe money you can theoretically sell it and the mortgage is no longer owed.

 

[deschutes]

Are you intending to include VAs/county hospitals/medical examiners under the umbrella of "community practice"?

 

[DarksideAllstar]

Are you intending to include VAs/county hospitals/medical examiners under the umbrella of "community practice"?

Community implying anything not having an academic affiliation.

 

[docbiohazard]

Being an MD/PhD student doesn't necessarily mean you missed out on the chance to accumulate a little debt, what with all that subsidized federal loan money staring you in the face, interest free for a good 7-8 year span of your life...

 

[DarksideAllstar]

Being an MD/PhD student doesn't necessarily mean you missed out on the chance to accumulate a little debt, what with all that subsidized federal loan money staring you in the face, interest free for a good 7-8 year span of your life...

You mean that measly $8500/yr subsidized stafford loan? The only places where I could conceivably envision that one couldn't make it on the stipend would be Manhattan or San Francisco, maybe Los Angeles. I guess this only would apply to the completely funded MSTP student, as we have one guy in our class that is doing a non-MSTP MD/PhD, which is crazy IMO.

 

[docbiohazard]

You mean that measly $8500/yr subsidized stafford loan?

Exactly. While it is quite possible to live on most MSTP stipends, when you do have that $8k available essentially interest free for such a long period, it does start looking fairly attractive to help out with miscellaneous expenses. I knew people who took it out and speculatively invested it, although of course that would violate the terms of the program.

Most of the MD/PhD students I know took at least some of the money some of the time for a variety of reasons - housing expenses, vacations, family expenses (knew one guy with a stay at home wife and two kiddos), etc...

BH

 

[gbwillner]

You mean that measly $8500/yr subsidized stafford loan?

It's not measly when you take it out every year... $8500 x 7-10 years = $60,000-85,000.

 

[DarksideAllstar]

It's not measly when you take it out every year... $8500 x 7-10 years = $60,000-85,000.

Measly in the sense that I wish larger percentage of our loans were subsidized during school rather than unsubsidized.

 

[docbiohazard]

Measly in the sense that I wish larger percentage of our loans were subsidized during school rather than unsubsidized.

Now that's an idea I can get behind... it would be nice if it was subsidized and deferred through residency as well, or at least if a reduced repayment schedule was started during residency...

BH

 

[DarksideAllstar]

Now that's an idea I can get behind... it would be nice if it was subsidized and deferred through residency as well, or at least if a reduced repayment schedule was started during residency...

BH

If all you are borrowing during your MSTP years is subsidized Staffords, then you will most likely not qualify for a economic hardship deferment, so you will either have to pay them back or go into forbearance (you don't have to pay them back, but the interest accumulates and will capitalize at the end of your forbearance). If you can get an economic hardship deferment your subsidized loans will continue to be subsidized through deferment. If you get a forbearance however, the interest begins to accumulate on subsidized loans.

You can reduce your payment amount by doing a graduated repayment plan (ie payments start lower then gradually rise either on fixed increments or as your salary gets larger) vs the standard fixed payment (ie $1000/mo x 10yrs). If you have consolidated any of your loans, you can extend them out to 30 yr repayment, which can lower your payment significantly (but more interest accumulates, duh).

Its pretty sad, but we get a decent sized housing stipend ($10K/yr) at UCSF that goes on top of our PGY1 salary ($43k) which effectively put me over the gross monthly income level at which I can qualify for hardship deferment. Its forbearance for me!

 

[deleted113029]

gross monthly income? what is the cutoff to be considered for economic hardship?

my GMI will be ~$4200...sounds to me *gulp* forbearance is in my future too! (maybe not, due to my astronomical debt. monthly payments may be larger than i thought. time to call my loan company.)

 

[DarksideAllstar]

gross monthly income? what is the cutoff to be considered for economic hardship?

my GMI will be ~$4200...sounds to me *gulp* forbearance is in my future too! (maybe not, due to my astronomical debt. monthly payments may be larger than i thought. time to call my loan company.)

There are several ways to qualify, but I believe most students graduating this year will have their eligibility determined by figuring out if your expected student loan payment is more than 20% of your gross monthly income. My GMI is $4480 (20% is around $880), my estimated loan payments are somewhere in the neighborhood of $740/mo, so I don't qualify. I guess the good interest rate I consolidated at in 2005 (2.6% or whatever) really helped keep down the monthly payments, but at the same time hasn't allowed me to take advantage of deferment. Forbearance isn't all that bad though. At the very least you just have to pay the interest on your loans so it doesn't capitalize. I'll probably pay a little bit more just to pay down some of the higher interest loans that I took out this year. At least the interest that I will be paying is tax-dedcutible, saving me some $$ in other ways since I'm getting nailed by the California state tax (who doesn't distinguish between an income level of $44,000 and $999,999 for the flat rate, WTF?).

You can go to nelnet.com and download a worksheet that will help you figure out if you qualify for deferment. There are a couple of different worksheets to use depending on your circumstances. They are in PDF format so that you can download them and print them out.

Here are some resources regarding repayment from the Nelnet site. The deferment worksheets are there also.

 

[djmd]

Here are some resources regarding repayment from the Nelnet site. The deferment worksheets are there also.

I recommend reading up on this, (and most of what darkside said is spot on).

But I would always start with whomever your loans are through, both for paperwork and answers about how to go about paying / deferring....