How much debt on average do pharmacy students accumulate by graduation?

[Superflyjsc]

---

Members do not see this ad.

QUESTION 1: Assuming that they take out loans every year of their 6 year program duration.

QUESTION 2: Do you guys who do take out alot of loans each year really really worry about the incredible mass of debt u will have accumulated during ur pharmacy years? I always imagined that the debt wouldnt be that bad cuase after u graduate and start working as a pharmacist u will be able to pay off those loans easily. Am i right or am i wrong?
Im worried.

 

[28657]

It's highly variable, depending on if you attend a public or private university. I only know about private tuition. MWU is about $26k per year (times 3 years), each student can max out their loan debt to about $47k per year. So, the most debt for your professional years is around $140k. It sounds like a lot of money (because it is!), however, no MWU grad that I know has had any problems paying down their loan. In fact, I've heard of a recent grad who managed to pay off her debt in just three years by living in an apartment and driving a junker. Now she's in a brand new house, with zero debt.

There are plenty of things to worry about, student loan debt should never be one of them.

 

[MNnaloxone]

Let me check my account...about $54,000 in debt. Took loans for 5 years. I'm not worried about it because consolidating after my grace ends will drop the payments lower than my car payments (04 Intrepid). I'd worry if I was making $33K for the rest of my life, but I think I can handle $50K over 10 years. It is always in the back of my mind, but it doesn't worry me much.

 

[bananaface]

I figure that my school debt will be roughly 60K when I finish. I also have a mortgage with 140K left on it. I'm going to pay it off ASAP after I graduate, because unecessary interest irritates me.

 

[Superflyjsc]

All we should say is Thank God we are becoming pharmacists. At least they pay better than most other jobs. IF i had as much debt as i do now leading till end of my pharmacy years, and graduating to a $30K year job, i would rather kill myself.

 

[Ivorymist]

Whether or not the school is public or private has a whole lot to do with it. I'm just going to be in about 30-40k of debt (I go to a public school) and many of my classmates don't have a single penny in debt. Not a bad deal for a pharmacy education!

 

[Tuck]

I am hoping to pay my way through pharmacy school by working as an intern in the summers here. I know a few people who are doing the same thing and they graduated debt free for the most part.

 

[OSURxgirl]

I don't know what kind of intern salary you expect, but only working three months in the summer can hardly leave one debt free. Tuition, living expenses, books, supplies, and related expenses are quite a lot of money. Say an intern makes 15 dollars per hour and works 50 hours per week the whole summer: 15x50x12weeks of summer = 9000 BEFORE taxes. Plus, with no financial aid during the summer, you still have rent, utlities, food, etc to worry about. Even if you lived modestly on 1000 bucks a month in the summer, that would only leave you 6000 ahead before taxes. I don't know any pharm schools that cost that little. Not to say that working can't help with expenses and reduce your debt...It's just wishful thinking to expect it to leave you debt free.

 

[GravyRPH]

I've always told prospective students not to worry about the money. Get loans out the wazoo, sell the family farm, whatever, because you will pay it back no problem once you get that magical license in the mail (non-accredited alternatively applying schools excluded).

I had something over 60,000 in loans when I was done and paid the majority back within a few years. My wife also used a bit of a loophole that I haven't verified actually works and that I beleive I explained here before. But it involves the frequency that the interest accrues, so if you send a payment weekly instead of monthly you can save yourself some interest even though you're paying the same amount. We went a little overboard, and paid DAILY. But according to our calculations we saved a ton on interest and watched the balance quickly go down.

 

[MNnaloxone]

I'd be interested in hearing about that, Gravy. My grace period is evaporating quickly-maybe you have an idea where you posted it? I'd appreciate it. I'd assume that the interest is compounded monthly-so you'd be striking weekly before the interest was calculated for the month. Close?

 

[bananaface]

Interest is generally calculated monthly, but based on your average daily balance. The sooner you pay, the lower the average balannce and the less interest you accrue.

But, you could achieve a similar effect by putting in one extra loan payment at the beginning of the loan and saving yourself alot of hassle throughout the loan process. One extra payment at the beginning would actually lower your average daily balance throughout the loan to a greater extent than weekly payments throughout the entire loan. Of course if you don't have extra that is not an option. But if you are able to choose between paying in early and paying in at shorter increments, paying in early will save you more.

 

[Tuck]

Well, an intern here makes between 27-33 an hour at Kaiser, which is where I will be working. Although it is between there and Fred Meyer atm, they pay a bit less starting out at 25 an hour or so. 25x50x13 (we have 14 weeks off, but I will be on vacation for 1) = $16,250, school is 11,788 for the year and books a bit more, I will most likely continue working about 10 hours a week throughout the year. That should be more than enough to do it. My friend Brian works about 20 hours a week at Fred Meyer and is supporting 3 kids and paying his way through school. If he can do it I can too!

 

[GravyRPH]

Again, I've never actually verified any of this myself, but my wife states she has. I'm sure it's based on what type of loan you have also, but federal studentaid.edu.gov states interest is calculated based on the following formula:

Average daily balance between payments
x Interest rate
x (Number of days between payments / 365.25)

By paying daily, you are reducing the first variable in the equation and thus reducing the total interest added. Although it only accrues monthly, the amount that is accrued is based on the daily balance average, which if you pay daily or weekly should be steadily decreasing.

You can do some calculations to see if it will make that big of difference in you'r specific case. I think she had Quicken graphing the difference in time to pay off based on the different pay schedules, interest rates, etc.

You can also get mortgates that you pay twice a month instead of once for a similar effect. This has to be designed this way because most of these lenders will not allow you to pay twice, and with their interest calculations it may not make a difference.

Anyways, I don't know if it helped or not, but my wife was a newly stay at home wife and she needed something to do. 😉

 

[goheel]

Wow, intern making 25 bucks an hour? 😱 I don't know if this is right or not, but the pharmacist I'm working with told me that intern are the people who graduated from pharm schools, but waiting to take their license, and extern are people who work in pharmacy while in pharm school. Is that true?

 

[npp71681]

Wow, intern making 25 bucks an hour? 😱 I don't know if this is right or not, but the pharmacist I'm working with told me that intern are the people who graduated from pharm schools, but waiting to take their license, and extern are people who work in pharmacy while in pharm school. Is that true?

Hi!
goheel,

I went to www.dictionary.com and I got this definitions:
Intern - A student or a recent graduate undergoing supervised practical training.
Extern - A person associated with but not officially residing in an institution

From my understanding Intern is both:1) a current student & 2) a recent graduate.

But, let's hear more from Pharmacy students and current Pharmacists. because we are just Pre-Pharms we exactly don't know what the difference is...Ha...Ha...

 

[MNnaloxone]

You'll hear these two terms thrown about, and get a different answer from everyone you ask. Thinking on it, I'd call a pharmacy student before graduation an intern (but having met the requirements of that state's intern licensure), and post-grad, pre-license a extern. Your milage may vary.

$33/hr for an intern? The most I ever made in Mpls was $23 while I waited for my exams to come back!

 

[pharmer]

When I graduated in 2003 definitions of intern and extern were pretty much interchangeable. Officially I believe an intern (in the pharmacy world) is a pharmacy student working in a pharmacy setting and getting paid and when we were in school out on our rotations (not in the classroom and not getting paid) we were externs...ie. slave labor. 27-33 dollars an hour is pretty steep pay for anyone that is still a pharm student but resonable for those pharm students that have graduated with PharmDs but have not yet been given the all important RPh title. Hell, as a part-time pharmacist now working retail at Hy-Vee in Kansas City my pay only falls between 37-43 dollars/hour.

Pharmer