DO schools leave students most in debt

[Lynch]

The US News and World reports that students attending DO schools have some of the highest indebtedness rates of all medical schools combined, including allopathic schools. You must consider this in your decision making when choosing a school and a career.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/beyond/gradrank/med/gbexpens.htm

Schools with highest debt:

1. COMP
2. Boston University
3. Kirksville COM
4. Nova Southeastern COM
5. Philadelphia College of osteopathic med
6. Finch University
7. UHS-COM (Iowa)
8. New York Medical school
9. New England COM
10. New york College of osteopathic med


8 of the top 14 most indebtedness to students at graduation are osteopathic institutions. This can only suggest that these schools are not securing funding for education from other places.

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[Moon]

I really don't understand why there is such a big difference in debt of medical graduates from different schools. The tuition, the largest cost of medical education, of most of the schools are about the same (20k-33k except the one in Colorado 55k/year). The statistic above seems a little questionable to me. Please enlighten me

 

[Lynch]

Medical schools have scholarships and private foundation financial aid which they can offer to students. Private osteopathic institutions do not have the scholarships and state and federal financial aid to offer their students thus students have to pay for their complete education with loans.

 

[RyJay]

Just a note for those concerned about debt.
Try not to let it influence your decision in schools. Just consider....... if you finish residency making 100,000/year, and let's say you accumulate 130,000 in debt, this doesn't leave you in a bad position. Just don't start living your life right away as though you were making 100,000 per year. Live on a student budget for a couple more years and it won't take long at all to pay it off.

[This message has been edited by RyJay (edited October 20, 1999).]

 

[UHS2002]

I am not sure what federal financial aid you are alluding to that allopathic institution offer their students and osteopathic institutions don't. When I think about federal financial aid I think about Stafford loans (subsidized + unsubsidized)and me and many of my classmates are receiving these loans. Many other classmates have military scholarships and National Health Service scholarships. As for state financial aid, we also count with several scholarship recipients from their state medical societies. Come to think of it, I don't know anyone in my class who is borrowing money from a private lender.

I would agree with you that we don't have that many private scholarships offered by the osteopathic schools themselves, which may account for some of the disparity. However, 8 out of 14 is only 57% so it seems reasonable to me to state that the top indebtness can be split just about equally between allopathic and osteopathic institutions.Actually, when you take into account that most osteopathic schools, unlike allopathic ones, are private institutions with little access to research funds, this number (57%) seems even better.

On to another subject, thanks for the synopsis of the article on the performance of US trained surgeons vs. IMGs.

 

[mina]

Dr Lynch:
Your conclusion that DO schools involve most debt cannot be derived from the article you provide. Out of 25 medical schools listed, eight are osteopathic--the rest are allopathic. The math simply does not agree with your conclusion. If you are trying to suggest that osteopathic shools are relatively more costly in proportion to their number versus allopathic schools, then you might be able to strike an audience with me. Nonetheless, you need to take numbers and do some statistical derivation to be able to support your conclusion.