Financial Trouble

[lilmisssunshine]

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Hey SDNers,

I have been accepted into medical school but face a new problem....$$affording it$$

My parents can not support me with their jobs as well as their responsibilites to my siblings, on top of this, I am the first in my family to go to med school so I am trying to figure out the financial aspect of all of this on my own.

So, I have a bunch of questions that I hope you guys can help me answer so I can start figuring things out.

1.) If you are a med student, were you required to work during med school? If so what kind of job did you have (i.e what did you do, how many hours did you work..anything at all you can tell me) I am certain I will need to get a job, I am just not sure what kind of job I shoudl take!

2.) For everyone in my situation, I realize that I will take loans to eventually pay off all of this, but don't the bills start coming when we are doing our residency? Realistically, I am worried that I can't pay off the bills because I will make practically nothing during residency and once again I will have no help paying off my bills for the loans on top of everything else. I just want to know if it is possible to actually start paying off loans while still paying other bills and workign on such a small salary.

3.)My last question is---what are some possible ways I can make money during med school and are there better loans out there with less of an interest or should I jsut take the loans offered to me by the school?

I am simply worried about the debt because I have never taken out a loan during undergrad (I had a full scholarship) and so this is going to be tough for me to understand as well as embark on..and I tend not to commit to something unless I fully understand it! The problem here is, I don't really know how the financial process works in med school so I can't seem to understand anything!!


Thank you all for your responses as well as your time.🙂

 

[mdgator]

Hey SDNers,

I have been accepted into medical school but face a new problem....$$affording it$$

My parents can not support me with their jobs as well as their responsibilites to my siblings, on top of this, I am the first in my family to go to med school so I am trying to figure out the financial aspect of all of this on my own.

So, I have a bunch of questions that I hope you guys can help me answer so I can start figuring things out.

1.) If you are a med student, were you required to work during med school? If so what kind of job did you have (i.e what did you do, how many hours did you work..anything at all you can tell me) I am certain I will need to get a job, I am just not sure what kind of job I shoudl take!

2.) For everyone in my situation, I realize that I will take loans to eventually pay off all of this, but don't the bills start coming when we are doing our residency? Realistically, I am worried that I can't pay off the bills because I will make practically nothing during residency and once again I will have no help paying off my bills for the loans on top of everything else. I just want to know if it is possible to actually start paying off loans while still paying other bills and workign on such a small salary.

3.)My last question is---what are some possible ways I can make money during med school and are there better loans out there with less of an interest or should I jsut take the loans offered to me by the school?

I am simply worried about the debt because I have never taken out a loan during undergrad (I had a full scholarship) and so this is going to be tough for me to understand as well as embark on..and I tend not to commit to something unless I fully understand it! The problem here is, I don't really know how the financial process works in med school so I can't seem to understand anything!!


Thank you all for your responses as well as your time.🙂

There are many places online and in print where you can read about financing med school, and I'd advise you to start digging in. But I'm in a similar situation financially to you, and I would say don't let the finances dissuade you if medicine is absolutely what you want to do. Very few people can afford med school, and most people are not going to get much help from their parents. But it's still very possible to pay for school.

You will not work during med school. It's basically impossible. You may do some research that you get a stipend for for a few weeks or months at a time, here and there, but it will not be much. Or you may work for a few weeks during your summer break after first year...but for the most part, you will be unemployed. This goes for pretty much everybody. Working is just not an option.

You will finance med school through loans. (If you're lucky, you may get scholarships or grants ranging from a couple thousand dollars to full tuition or more, but large scholarships are given to a very small percentage of students. You should plan on paying for school mostly through loans.) There are a handful of loan programs designed specifically for med students. I'll let you look up the particulars on your own, but basically, a portion of your loans will have a low, fixed interest rate that will not accumulate interest until you graduate, another portion will also have a relatively low int. rate, but interest will start accumulating immediately, and the rest will likely be private loans with non-fixed rates that also start accumulating interest immediately.

At the end of med school, the average student will have anywhere between $100,000 and $250,000 in debt, depending on where you go, how much financial assistance you may receive, how modestly you live during med school, etc.

Most people are able to defer loan repayment until after residency, but this could change soon, from what I'm told. Either way, you're right, you'll make very little money during residency. But you should be able to possibly start repaying your loans, or at least keep the interest from accumulating drastically, for the few years of residency.

At the end of residency, yes, you'll have a large amount of debt; right now, that seems scary to all of us. But, depending on the specialty you enter, where you practice, cost of living where you live, etc., you will have a job with a very solid income, at least, and potentially you will have a very substantial income. Paying off your debt will likely not be "no big deal" as some people would like to believe, but it will definitely be very possible if you learn to be financially savvy. You can choose to pay it off slowly over a long period of time, or you can bite the bullet, continue to live very modestly for a few years, and try to pay it off in a decade or less. Either way, on a doctor's salary, even a primary care doc, paying back loans and living comfortably at the same time is definitely doable, for most.

Good luck

 

[plauto]

Very little during residency means a current average of around $45,000 a year. It's still above what the average US citizen makes. Obviously you're not rich or anything but I would not call that almost nothing. With that you'll be able to pay your bills no problem. We just have to see what happens in regards to changes to the loan repayment process during residency.

 

[mdgator]

Very little during residency means a current average of around $45,000 a year. It's still above what the average US citizen makes. Obviously you're not rich or anything but I would not call that almost nothing. With that you'll be able to pay your bills no problem. We just have to see what happens in regards to changes to the loan repayment process during residency.

Yeah, I said "almost nothing during residency", as did the OP. I should probably amend that and say "almost nothing relative to the amount of time you will spend working." (I've heard it said that many residents' salaries translate into something like 5 bucks an hour or less, considering that they work 80 to 100 hours a week.) For about half my life, my entire family lived on what a resident makes or less, so it's definitely doable. At the same time, if you do residency in an area with a very high cost of living, and you have a family, and you're trying to repay loans, I can see how things would get pretty tight.

 

[smsc2009]

Very little during residency means a current average of around $45,000 a year. It's still above what the average US citizen makes. Obviously you're not rich or anything but I would not call that almost nothing. With that you'll be able to pay your bills no problem. We just have to see what happens in regards to changes to the loan repayment process during residency.

It's almost nothing for the amount of time that residents' have to work.

 

[smsc2009]

Military Medicine can help finance your medical education. After medical school you can join any branch of the military as a physician. It is something to think about; however, it is also understandable if you do not want to take that route. Goodluck.

 

[smq123]

I am the first in my family to go to med school so I am trying to figure out the financial aspect of all of this on my own.

Don't go it alone. Call your med school's financial aid office and ask to speak to someone. Talk to residents, fellows, and young attendings (the old ones paid $1500 for 1 year of med school, and got paid $80,000 as attendings - so they have no frickin' clue) about how they're paying for everything. I have to warn you - some of the stories are likely to be discouraging (some residents have openly told me that they're barely breaking even each month), but talk to as many people as you can. If you don't know any residents personally, try to talk to people on SDN.

1.) If you are a med student, were you required to work during med school? If so what kind of job did you have (i.e what did you do, how many hours did you work..anything at all you can tell me) I am certain I will need to get a job, I am just not sure what kind of job I shoudl take!

I am not certain that you will need a job, though. And I'm not certain that you should have a job either.

Do NOT feel like you "need to get a job"!! Wait until you have a handle on the courseload of medical school. Rushing into medical school and feeling like you "must" have a job is a recipe for failing out of med school.

Most people in med school do NOT work. The risks are just too high - if you fail a course because your part time job is keeping you from studying, then you're not saving yourself any trouble/stress/money.

The people in med school who DO work tend to do jobs that are extremely flexible and/or allow them a lot of down time on the job to study. Some people are receptionists or librarians at slow times during the day - they can sit at a desk and don't have many job responsibilities, so they can study quite a bit.

Other people have taken medical transcription courses in the summer before med school, and transcribe from their home. If you're paid per transcription, and you can knock out a few during your "study breaks", then that's some money to pay for expenses.

And some people do research jobs in labs around the school.

2.) For everyone in my situation, I realize that I will take loans to eventually pay off all of this, but don't the bills start coming when we are doing our residency? Realistically, I am worried that I can't pay off the bills because I will make practically nothing during residency and once again I will have no help paying off my bills for the loans on top of everything else. I just want to know if it is possible to actually start paying off loans while still paying other bills and workign on such a small salary.

Some residents that I have worked with have definitely had trouble paying off loans. They have a lot of expenses as residents (interviewing during MS-4 can be very expensive, and some people ended up moving across the country). Other residents have been able to start putting a dent in their debt, but it involves smart money management. A lot of it depends on which field you go into (some fields - like surgery - will basically require that you live within easy walking distance of the hospital...which usually means living in an expensive apartment in the city; other fields are more predictable and you can live in the suburbs and take the bus in). Some residency programs also send their residents to rotate through distant hospitals, so you'd need a car, etc.

Like I said, talk to residents and financial aid offices.

3.)My last question is---what are some possible ways I can make money during med school and are there better loans out there with less of an interest or should I jsut take the loans offered to me by the school?

I am simply worried about the debt because I have never taken out a loan during undergrad (I had a full scholarship) and so this is going to be tough for me to understand as well as embark on..and I tend not to commit to something unless I fully understand it! The problem here is, I don't really know how the financial process works in med school so I can't seem to understand anything!!

There ARE full scholarships for students. But they always have a big drawback somewhere.

* HPSP = "military scholarships". These are incredibly easy to get - if you're a US citizen with a clean legal record, in good physical condition, and no major chronic health issues, then you're in.

The problem is that service payback for military loans can be onerous, and if you're just doing it for the money, absolutely don't do it. It will not be worth it.

* NHSC = National Health Service Corps scholarships. You pay off your scholarship with service in an underserved area or population (i.e. IHS, INS - or whatever they call it nowadays, prisons, etc.) But you MUST do your residency in primary care (= internal medicine, pediatrics, family med, psych, ob/gyn) or be faced with hefty fines. If you don't do your residency in one of those 5 areas, you will pay back TRIPLE what they paid for you. And you have to pay it back within 3 years. So if you think you might be into neurology, emergency medicine, surgery, radiology, or anesthesia...don't even think about this one.

* MSTP - if you want to do an MD/PhD, they'll pay for it. You'll be in school for 7-8 years, but it will be for free.

Otherwise, just take the loans offered by your school and the dept. of Education. Their interest rates are better than private loans.

Honestly, talk it over with someone who is in financial aid. They're a better resource than we are.

 

[mdgator]

Military Medicine can help finance your medical education. After medical school you can join any branch of the military as a physician. It is something to think about; however, it is also understandable if you do not want to take that route. Goodluck.

This deal sounds great, and to some people, it is. However, be VERY cautious when considering military medicine. Talk to as many people as possible, and NOT just people who are currently in the military. I briefly considered going this route, but was overwhelmed by the amount of dissatisfaction that people described to me who had gone into military medicine. Sure, it's something to consider, but just know what you're getting into.

 

[searun]

Avoid going to work for the Emperors Club during medical school.

 

[plauto]

It's almost nothing for the amount of time that residents' have to work.

I totally agree with that, but we are talking about take home pay, not per hour.

 

[Phoenix.]

Moving to the Financial Aid Forum.

 

[jro1985]

Ok, I'm in (med-school), but I don't have money to cover the expenses of living, I need money right now, what can I do? 🙁

 

[RockfordWF]

Ok, I'm in (med-school), but I don't have money to cover the expenses of living, I need money right now, what can I do? 🙁

Have you never talked to your financial aid office before? Did you not go to orientation?

Seriously, fill out your FAFSA, and get Stafford, Perkins, and Grad PLUS loans. Add on private loans if needed.