how to pay for med school?

[Urotsukidoji1]

I would like to know how all of you financed medical school. The average debt of a med. school student after med school is about $75,000, I heard. How did all of you pay for this?

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[Retro]

75,000 debt? Maybe for the rich top-schools where they get a lot of private endowments. Unless your parents are rich, the debt is more like 150,000 (not the average, but the typical debt for independent poor student). My tuition per se is 35,000 per year, and I took out 35,000 with federal loans. I pay off my own living expenses with my previous savings.

 

[UCLAMAN]

75k? I wish!!!

I'm borrowing 60k for my first year alone!!!!

Anyhow...there are an abundance of loans available to medical students to pay for medical school. Money shouldn't not be an issue because there will always be lenders willing to finance a medical school education.

Now yes, repayment sucks(especially for an expensive private school as in my case) but in the end it is feasible with a physician's salary and will ultimately be paid off. It may take longer for some than others depending on the amount of debt...nevertheless a physician should be able to pay it off eventually.

 

[ivyleague22ny]

Yea, our med school tells us that our average
debt is $90,000 for 2002 graduates, but
i don't think that reflects our entering 2003 class at all because
the Minnesota budget cuts on education raised
our tuition alone to over $25000 ($45K for non-residents)

I just accepted $35K of loans this year (since
i have like $31K from my ivy league undergrad) just
to pay for tuition, insurance, and apt. rent...and I'm
using my savings from my work to pay for food and books.

Maybe I'll start a poll on how much people are taking out on loans
cause I'm actually pretty nervous about how I'll pay for it
during residency when we're only making $35K a year.


*************************
Cornell Univ. Alumnus
U.Minnesota Med Class of 2007

 

[Fermi]

The average indebtedness for graduating med students is currently around $100,000. I don't have the link right now, but I know the number is correct. I believe this includes undergrad debt, and I also believe this number is taken only from the pool of med students who took out loans. Of course, that's almost everybody, but there is a certain percentage of students who have their way fully paid by family or by scholarship.

 

[DrM]

Unfortunately, the numbers can be misleading. The few lucky med students that pay little or no tuition severely skew the mean student debt to below $100k. a more meaningful figure would be the median which I suspect would be more in the range of $150,000.

 

[Adcadet]

Originally posted by ivyleague22ny
Yea, our med school tells us that our average
debt is $90,000 for 2002 graduates, but
i don't think that reflects our entering 2003 class at all because
the Minnesota budget cuts on education raised
our tuition alone to over $25000 ($45K for non-residents)

Man, $25K/year - your school sucks! Oh, wait.....

 

[mpp]

For the class of 2002

Mean debt: $103,855
Median debt: $100,000

More than 20% had more than $150,000 and almost 6% had more than $200,000.

Read all about it at the AAMC

 

[labangel]

You can defer during residency for economic hardship for up to 3 years. After that, if your residency is >3years, you can either go into forbearance or do the income contingent payment plan...but, all this also depends on your type of loan and your lender.

 

[OrthoFixation]

Originally posted by Adcadet
Man, $25K/year - your school sucks! Oh, wait.....

Note to self: Cancel plans of moving to Minnesota.
MN $25K in state

TX $10K in state

 

[Blade28]

$75k? I don't think so. At least $140k for me.

 

[carrigallen]

i know a physician who is 39 years old and still paying off his med school loans from 12 years ago. This isn't unusual..

 

[Tamomo]

Originally posted by OrthoFixation
Note to self: Cancel plans of moving to Minnesota.
MN $25K in state

TX $10K in state

Tuition for TX residents this year is $6550-$7000 for the public schools. Baylor is not too much higher than these figures.

I feel very lucky to be going to medschool in Texas, even with all of its shortcomings, my total loan disburement this year is how much some students tuition alone will be.

 

[raining4days]

As a Canadian who will attending medical school in the US, I'm going to take out two types of loans. I will definitely be in debt by greater than $75,000. On top of my head, I'm guessing by about $130-150,000. And if I plan to do residency in Canada, it will probably not help that the exchange rate is against Canadians.

 

[OrthoFixation]

Originally posted by Tamomo
Tuition for TX residents this year is $6550-$7000 for the public schools. Baylor is not too much higher than these figures.

I feel very lucky to be going to medschool in Texas, even with all of its shortcomings, my total loan disburement this year is how much some students tuition alone will be.

Your right, I was kicking in other school fees too.

What do you mean shortcomings? I thought everything was bigger (& better) in Texas.

 

[seattledoc]

I've been out of residency a few years, and I'm still paying off loans of course. I think the most concerning thing about the ever enlarging debt load of medical students is that it's going to affect their choice of specialty. I'm trying to imagine somebody deeply in debt ($200k or more) choosing to go into peds or family practice. Do you see this happening in your med schoolds?

 

[bigdan]

Hi group-
I'm bumping this post in an attempt to have my naive questions answered. Please note that I already know - and many of the replies to the original post have pointed out - that a medical school education is quite expensive.
What I'd like to know is...umm...everything. I think I have a beginner's grasp on the process. I tell the school what I made last year, right. Well, I made a good living, so I know things aren't looking good. But then what? Am I able to get all the funding I need even if my income was high?
Any general advice for someone that knows REALLY LITTLE about this subject?

dc

 

[mpp]

In the early part of the year you will start medical school (after you have completed your taxes) you will complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. From this (which includes entering your Adjusted Gross Income as well as the balance of any savings accounts or the value of any investments not included in a retirment program) they will determine your Expected Family Contriubiton (EFC). The school will have determined a annual budget for the year which includes tuition and an amount for living expenses (rent, utilities, transportation, books, etc., that might be lower than you are currently paying). The amount you will be eligible for Stafford loans will be this budget minus your EFC. If the maximum available in Stafford loans ($38,500 per year) does not cover your eligible amount, they will help you find private or institutional loans to cover the remaining. If your EFC is very high (if you had a well paying job last year or you have a lot of investments and savings) the financial aid office might not provide you with much in terms of loans. Most schools will allow an adjustment for the loss in income due to full time school status and lack of earned income.

There are lots of other posts on this thread that help explain this process as well. The links thread at the top of this forum has many helpful links to explain the process and what is available. Good luck...

 

[elvingomez]

now i understand school is expensive and most doctors are still paying their loans off 10+ years later right? well how long does it take most of the to pay it off? and are they living comfortably while paying these loans?

 

[mpp]

Originally posted by elvingomez
now i understand school is expensive and most doctors are still paying their loans off 10+ years later right? well how long does it take most of the to pay it off? and are they living comfortably while paying these loans?

I don't think statistics on how long people take to pay off medical school debt is available. However, the typical payoff length for Stafford loans is 10 years but that can be changed to lower the payment early on when salary might be lower.

As far as living comfortably, obviously that varies from person to person. Just to give you an idea of what the payment is as compared with average salary, for each $100,000 the maximum monthly payment (at 8.5% interest paid off over 10 years) would be about $1240 (or about $15,000 per year...perhaps 10% of average gross salary for a private practice primary care physician). This assumes borrowing all the money in one lump sum and beginning payback immediately.

 

[elvingomez]

i see...... that's alot to me, but again, i'm an undergrad with a $20,000 income yearly. i'm sure it would seem alot less with a 100,000 income

 

[OrthoFixation]

What about accrued interest during residency? Isn't this capitalized as well. So $100K debt sitting idle for 5 years would be about $130K at a measly 6%. That is ~30% more added in on top of what you borrow(ed).

Oh yeah, don't count on 6% money being available when we graduate in about 5 years and you consolidate your loans.

Any experienced borrowers that can explain when interest kicks in? I think some ($8,500?) is gov't subsidized, so they pay the interest on that portion while you are in deferrment. But when does deferrment end? Before residency is over?

Private loans incur interest from day 1.

 

[mpp]

Loan deferment is for hardship only based on income, cost of living (geographic area), and the balance of all federal loans. There is no longer a 'residency' deferment (which only was 2 years anyway).

Once you leave school, interest is capitalized annually regardless of whether you are in hardship deferment or not. I think this is the case for the subsidized loan as well (they are only subsidized during school, not during deferrment). During the in-school period, interest on unsubsidized Stafford loans are capitalized once, when you leave school.

So at for 5 years of residency, a $100k at 6% would actually accrue almost $34,000 in interest. That is why people suggest paying at least the interest on those loans if possible.

 

[Jim Picotte]

Actually if you are eligible for hard ship deferment then all your SUBSIDIZED loan interest is paid by the goverment during the hardship. The UNSUBSIDIZED portion is not paid and this begins to accrue interest the moment you take the loan money so you can accumulate a bit of interest over the four years of medical school. I know I owed over $10,000 just in interest I wasn't able to pay during medical school plus if you have undergrad loans the interest just keeps building as well.

The hardship deferment is good for only 3 years and is dependent on income (just yours not your spouse if married) and how much money you have in loans. If you consolidate your loans during residency it is considered a new loan and essentially "resets" the hardship deferment so if you work it out right you can get up to 6 years in hardship deferment.

After that there is forbearance which is also income contingent but not as strict as hardship. You don't have to pay your loans during forbearance but the interest will accumulate on BOTH SUBSIDIZED and UNSUBSIDIZED loans. That is why it's nice to be able to get the hardship deferment so at least you don't have a portion of your total debt building up interest.