Don't think I can do this anymore - what about loans?

[mtimmers]

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For reasons that go beyond the scope of this particular question, I don't know that I am going to be able to finish my residency and I don't know that I can continue in medicine any longer.

I owe $200K in federal student loans. I'm not interested in hearing about other high-paying career options in or outside of medicine.

I'm interested to know what my options are for having this debt relieved. Is there ANYTHING out there that can get this debt forgiven?

 

[david594]

Read here: http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/discharges.jsp?tab=repaying

Anything that will get them forgiven? Death or becoming totally disabled.

You could look into doing Income Based Repayment while working in your more desired field.

 

[nontrdgsbuiucmd]

there's also the option of making ontime payments each month during 10 years of public service, this includes working for the federal sector and I believe also many non-profits; I'd suggest checking into qualifications, from what I recall you could go onto income based repayment and, say you're a teacher earning 40K per year, you'd make nominal payments toward student loans for 10 years and then the remainder would be forgiven. Check out the federal register or some of the IBR posts on this, the program is quite new.

 

[dragonfly99]

I agree with the above. You're not going to be able to get out of your student loans entirely, but you should look into public sector or nonprofit jobs that might qualify for student loan income-based repayment. Before you leave residency you should make sure it's truly what you want, because going back after leaving may be difficult or impossible.