how do yall have so *little* debt?

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ems_97

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For background, I grew up in an upper middle class family, who generously paid my undergrad tuition with the understanding that I would figure out my own grad school. I'll be attending a IS school in the fall, and with only two years off doing research/patient care and living in the San Francisco area, I have very little in the way of savings. I'm expecting 300k of debt, which is a number I can't even wrap my head around. Only 14% of med students have that much, so how do the rest of you do it? Rich parents? Savings? Grants? Magic? Please share your secrets!
 
What is your projected annual budget? I am assuming you are projecting a very high rent.
 
You can manage your living expenses (roommates, a bicycle instead of a car, cook own meals, sack lunch, etc.) but tuition is another story. Maybe now that you've been accepted, your folks might chip in a bit (?)
 
it is really dependent on state. For some reason, despite taxing the most, state med schools in California, New York, Massachusetts etc. are much more than Texas, Nebraska, Florida etc. anybody graduating from med school from one of the latter states will be less in debt.

Second, a bunch of med students come from wealthy families (think along the lines of 2 doctors as parents). Most of these will graduate without debt.

Third, med schools have become far more generous as of late (really ever since nyu become free). If you look on the X vs Y school threads, many are deciding between full tuition vs full COA. Obviously these won’t have muchdebt either

I would say that for people who actually take out full loans, 300k is on the left side of the median
 
ems_97 said:
For background, I grew up in an upper middle class family, who generously paid my undergrad tuition with the understanding that I would figure out my own grad school. I'll be attending a IS school in the fall, and with only two years off doing research/patient care and living in the San Francisco area, I have very little in the way of savings. I'm expecting 300k of debt, which is a number I can't even wrap my head around. Only 14% of med students have that much, so how do the rest of you do it? Rich parents? Savings? Grants? Magic? Please share your secrets!
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Yes. It has been widely reported that a disproportionate number of med students come from the upper quintile of household wealth, and they receive a lot of help from their parents. Add in merit scholarships and need based scholarships for everyone else, and you have your answer.

No magic, and no savings for most students. Since the reported numbers are a few years old, and COAs are just now approaching $90K per year at most schools, it's not crazy that a small fraction of medical school grads currently have over $300K in debt. That number will rise going forward as costs continue to rise, but it will never get as high as you think, due to merit and need based scholarships, plus rich parents.
 
My total for undergrad and med school should be under 200k. I basically just went to the cheapest schools and worked. Low-SES, EFC of 0.

Went to a very cheap (9k per year tuition) public instate undergrad and so pell grant covered most of my tuition, other grants helped out and then worked all through UG. Kept living expenses super low. Overall undergrad debt was around 25k.

Med school, went to cheapest school I got into. Took out max loans every semester. Scholarships and grants took ~100k off my COA. About 1/3-1/2 of my loans will be LDS too which is really nice. Overall med school debt should be around 170k.
 
I’m prior military so the GI Bill pays for a good chunk of tuition and also provides a monthly stipend. It’s a 36 month benefit so it won’t last all four years. I’m hoping to finish with 50k or less in loans. I don’t come from money so it’s the only way I could financially justify going to med school.
 
By the time I finished residency debt was at 368k, but after first year of attending im around 320k. Medical school+cost of living is just insanely expensive, that debt was all from med school.
 
There’s also people out there who had to borrow for tuition, but live at home and have expenses mostly covered. Four years of tuition only is a lot less than four years of full cost of attendance.
 
Just be glad you’re not a dental student at a place like NYU or USC. Students starting this fall will have $750,000 in student loans when they graduate, plus whatever they carry over from undergrad.

forums.studentdoctor.net

USC First YR Cost of Attendance $162k 2022-2023

It never stops! Any takers? 2012: $114k (4% increase) 2013: $123k (8%) 2014: $127k (3%) 2015: $130k (2%) 2016: $134k (3%) 2017: $137k (2%) 2018: $140k (2%) 2019: $149k (6%) 2020: $152k (2%) (COVID-19, full remote learning) 2022: $154k (1%) 2023: $162k (5%) *Loan origination fees (1-4%) and...
forums.studentdoctor.net forums.studentdoctor.net

Big Hoss
 
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ems_97 said:
living in the San Francisco area
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By not living in SF and likewise places. I was in the mid west and I'd say you can get away with 200k debt.

That said, I'm from a "not rich" family. They contributed a total of 15k towards my education overall. I have worked before med school as well. So I ended up with like 15-20k debt, which I refi - too bad shortly before COVID. I also worked multiple part time jobs during med school - but that barely made a dent. If I were to do it again, I wouldn't work and take out loans.

Edit: found out I'm moving to SF. I'll be joining y'all in debt lol
 
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Putkernerinthehall said:
You can manage your living expenses (roommates, a bicycle instead of a car, cook own meals, sack lunch, etc.) but tuition is another story. Maybe now that you've been accepted, your folks might chip in a bit (?)
Click to expand...

Yup! I save a lot by riding a bike and using public transit instead of a car. My only expense for transit is $65/month for a bus pass. Literally have no car payment, no mechanic fees, no oil changes, no insurance, nothing. And I still haven’t had any need to call an Uber yet.

It only takes me 10 minutes to get to work by bus or bike from my new apartment. If I need to buy groceries, I just hop on the bus to the nearest Target.

What’s funny is that I’m not even in NYC/SF/Boston/Seattle. I’m in a suburb of Madison, WI where you wouldn’t expect fast public transit. But the public transit is surprisingly good here, on par with what I experienced when I lived in the Bay Area (although tbf, Bay Area public transit is crappy compared to NYC or Boston…but I digress). And I get to enjoy low CoL in a city with lots of nature!

I’ve always wanted to live in a place that feels like an old-world rural village next to a beautiful lake where kids walk to school and the milkman delivers milk on a bicycle to houses that look like cute little cottages. And this is the closest I’m gonna get.

It really is a win-win, since it’s better for the environment, my own health (biking=exercise), and my future med school loans! Feels good to put away more $$ for medical school 🙂
 
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Parents covering for rent and living expenses, but the rest is loan. Parents likely will pay down half of my loan once I graduate.
 
mini_nimi said:
Yup! I save a lot by riding a bike and using public transit instead of a car. My only expense for transit is $65/month for a bus pass. Literally have no car payment, no mechanic fees, no oil changes, no insurance, nothing. And I still haven’t had any need to call an Uber yet.

It only takes me 10 minutes to get to work by bus or bike from my new apartment. If I need to buy groceries, I just hop on the bus to the nearest Target.

What’s funny is that I’m not even in NYC/SF/Boston/Seattle. I’m in a suburb of Madison, WI where you wouldn’t expect fast public transit. But the public transit is surprisingly good here, on par with what I experienced when I lived in the Bay Area (although tbf, Bay Area public transit is crappy compared to NYC or Boston…but I digress). And I get to enjoy low CoL in a city with lots of nature!

I’ve always wanted to live in a place that feels like an old-world rural village next to a beautiful lake where kids walk to school and the milkman delivers milk on a bicycle to houses that look like cute little cottages. And this is the closest I’m gonna get.

It really is a win-win, since it’s better for the environment, my own health (biking=exercise), and my future med school loans! Feels good to put away more $$ for medical school 🙂
Click to expand...

Strong start. Along with riding my bicycle to all my rotations, I've used other neat tricks to cut my student loan burden in half. I will share them on this forum, but be warned, these are only for those truly dedicated to savings.

1) Homebrew coffee, never get starbucks-- $5 x 365 x 4 = $7300
2) Drink tap water-- $20 x 364 x 4 = $29200
3) Refuse to take USMLE or COMLEX-- $650 x 2 = $1300
4) Access the mainframe computer at your university, download the professor's ppts before the lecture, create notes, sell them to your classmates so they don't have to go to lecture-- $150 x 120 x 365 x 2 = $13,140,000
5) Don't rent an apartment, buy the building and become the landlord-- $350 x 120 x 365 x 4 = $61,320,000
6) Develop ground breaking surgical procedures, attain tenure at a world-renowned teaching hospital, do cocaine, don't sleep, develop a pyramid scheme of clinical practice so you never actually have to see patients or other humans, collect profit-- $3500 x 1000 x 365 x 20 = $25,624,497,800

Total Net Profit before Expenses: $25,624,497,800
 
Educational trust started by my grandfather, no loans. Just answering the question...
 
My parents paid for undergrad and my Uncle Sam paid for medical school.
I plan on paying for my kids undergraduate education and have been putting money aside for that for pretty much their whole lives. If they go to graduate school I may pay for 1/2 or give them a low interest loan. It’s important for them to have skin in the game, but they won’t qualify for need based aid, subsidized loans, etc.
 
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