As a low income student, I'd have to agree. In retrospect medical school is not a financially wise decision, and I probably shouldn't have gone. BTW, I attend a top school in a large metropolitan area with a high cost of living.
Luckily about 2/3 of my tuition is covered in grants. But its not that, its cost of living that gets you. You are expected to live off of about 20k a year. Well I got lucky and found a crappy studio for 1100, that already kills 14k, down to 6k. Realistically like 300$ a month on food brings that down to like 2k. In that 2.4k you are supposed pay for utilities, car insurance, gas, books etc. But its easy to drop a few hundred on books each block or rotation, and driving to affiliated hospital burns fuel like crazy.
Then come random expenses. All of a sudden the med school will have fees for 1 or 200$ here and there for whatever... a fee, a beeper, some online thing. Then boards will come around. 500$, a 1000$ plus all the books and online question banks for more money, the nbme practice tests for more money. Oh yea, would you actually like to go out and do something? See a movie, hit a bar, take a girl out? Add whatever that costs.
So that's about it, you've made it through the year just scraping by and loading up on credit. Oh yea its summer. You've got 2-3 months left with no aid to cover you. Official Cost of Attendance only goes for 9 or 10 months. So how do you pay? Well if you're busy studying for whatever test, the only answer are private loans. And since you're low income, thats an easy 12% or more interest. Then come other random crappy parts. I hear application season for residency can easily cost 5 to 10k or more for traveling and away rotations.
My decision to go to medicine was completely selfish. I could have been making some nice change elsewhere and helping out my parents and siblings. You'll notice a lot of med students from doctor parents on easy street. An all expenses paid trip to medicine. There is a reason.
