How much exactly are you planning to earn that you'd have 2 million saved up by the time you're 35-40? If you're a sophomore now, you're what, like 19 or 20? You won't start dental school until you're about 21 or 22, and that's if you get in the first time around. So finish school around 25 or 26. By 35-40 you've been working 10-15 years. You've had to pay student loans and support yourself and your family during this time. The only way you're putting away 2 million in 15 years is if you're putting about $134k into savings every year. Let's say you live modestly and use about $50k per year on living expenses. Let's say you go to a state school and your student loan payments wind up being around $200k. To pay that off in ten years you're putting down at least $20k per year towards it, but actually more because interest. So let's just say $25k. So your loan payments, living expenses, and savings add up to $209k a year. Let's assume that between federal and state taxes, your tax rate is about 35%. You'd have to be earning $322k per year that entire time in order to be able to pay back your student loan, pay for your own living expenses, and save up that much money. Which quite frankly isn't feasible the first 5-7 years out of school at all, and even then, you'd have to have a moderately successful practice to be earning that much per year, I would think. Unless you're living and working in Alaska or something.