deciding how much loan I should take out

[myribosomesbad]

Hello,

I'm an incoming M1, and I'm trying to decide how much loan I should take out. With so many factors to consider, I want to gather your opinions on different options I have so far.

COA is ~117k, and I was awarded 46k from my school, leaving me with 71k a year to either borrow or spend from my own/my parents' savings.

Options I'm considering:

1. Take out a 71k federal Direct+PLUS loan to cover the entire remaining COA, which would put me 300k in debt after med school.
2. Take out 45k Federal direct loan (which has lower interest rate compared to PLUS loan), and cover the rest of COA (~15k) out of pocket from me and my parents (both me and my parents would have to live very frugally)
3. Take out 45k direct loan, and however much I need in addition to that in PLUS loan to cover just enough COA so my parents don't have to pay anything out of pocket.

To give you more information on things I'm considering:
I first want to ask how competitive it is to stay in academia after training. I'm definitely considering PSLF so I'm assuming I'll be making a moderate amount of physician's salary at an academic setting (~300-400k) after 7-ish years of training (residency+fellowship).

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[LunaOri]

Option 3. Your parents should be saving to fund their retirement, not your med school. You will earn enough as an attending to pay back your loans.

 

[mangopr]

It seems that you would have to take out a loan no matter what. How much can you afford to pay out of pocket? If you can afford to pay 5k out of pocket, great, then do that and take out loans to cover the rest.

I know the numbers seem very scary, but thousands of medical students do it, and the money you earn as an attending will be enough to pay back your loans.

Medical school is already stressful enough, so you don't need to live "frugally" and add another stressor in your life right now!

 

[eyeeye_captain]

I suggest looking over my recent post which lines up pretty well. If you did the full $300k and went into forbearance for 7 years, you would still be a little under the worst case scenario outlined there.

Hopefully PSLF still exists by the time you would be able to use it. I also wouldn’t totally bet on $300-400k starting out in academics.

It’s not fun, but definitely doable.

 

[The OTC]

Direct loan is ALWAYS better than the PLUS loan. Max the PLUS loan out before going to other loans