More off the wall loan questions.

[DOmaybe]

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Okay I am still in the 2 years until med school plan. But I have some long term questions.

Okay first..

The first 2 years of med-school I understand you have about $18k to "live off" after paying school and fees from student loans.

Then for the 3rd-4th year clinicals, do you get extra money to travel to clinicals?? Do you get more loan money for that? Any idea about how much left over after paying for 3rd and 4th year to the school and fees??

Then in residency you start paying back loans.. And how in the world do you pay for a place to live in say Denver on 30k a year when you have $1500-$2000 a month loan repayments. 😱

 

[mpp]

It doesn't work the way you are thinking. Each school develops an annual cost of attendance that includes tuition & fees, housing allowance, and transportation allowance. It varies from school to school and location to location. They'll then prepare a 'package' to meet that cost of attendance that may include grants & scholarships, federal loans, private loans, your savings, your spouse's income, etc. They calculate this separately for each school year so they may have higher amounts for some years (this is especially true for years that are 12 months long versus 9 months long). But they are limited in how much they can allow for housing and transportation. And this is just for you...does not include extra money for a spouse/kids...that's up to you to figure out how you will provide for them. Many schools have all their clinicals within the same hospital or same city so that you will not need to travel from place to place (although traveling from city to city seems to be more common in DO schools).

You don't necessarily have to start paying back loans in residency. Most people will qualify for hardship deferments and forebearances that will hold off repayment until later, after residency.

Lastly, most residency salaries are in the neighborhood of $42,000 per year.

Remember that everbody gets through it one way or another. If you haven't already get yourself a little educated in terms of financial matters; i.e., how loan interest works and how the federal student loan program works. Live within your means -- no credit cards except for emergencies, get the cheapest cable and phone plans, have a roommate, etc. Unless you have a large family, there is always more than enough money to live on if you do it wisely.