NYU dental/any expensive school worth it?

[Ach05]

Hello Everyone,

I will be applying this upcoming cycle and I was wondering if anyone could give me some feedback on it NYU dental school (or any hyper expensive dental school) is worth it with estimated costs after inflation and interest being around 600k+? I come from a low-income background so my parents won’t be able to help with costs at all.

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[deleted903013]

is worth it with estimated costs after inflation and interest being around 600k+?

Frankly, no.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

Given your situation why on earth would you consider applying to programs like those?

 

[LaughingGas]

Hello Everyone,

I will be applying this upcoming cycle and I was wondering if anyone could give me some feedback on it NYU dental school (or any hyper expensive dental school) is worth it with estimated costs after inflation and interest being around 600k+? I come from a low-income background so my parents won’t be able to help with costs at all.

I went to private school , graduated with 450k, now sitting at 500k. I did receive "small help" from family. If you have no additional help, it will be very difficult. If I knew even a little bit of number as much as I do now, only financially speaking, I might have pursued different career. 600k? no way.

 

[batman12345]

Hello Everyone,

I will be applying this upcoming cycle and I was wondering if anyone could give me some feedback on it NYU dental school (or any hyper expensive dental school) is worth it with estimated costs after inflation and interest being around 600k+? I come from a low-income background so my parents won’t be able to help with costs at all.

By the time you start, it’ll probably be at least 700k by the time you graduate. NYU is one school I can confidently say is not worth it. It should not be getting the # of applications they get every year.

 

[allantois]

Predents might soon have to go to dental school in Eastern Europe cause this is just absurd

 

[batman12345]

I went to private school , graduated with 450k, now sitting at 500k. I did receive "small help" from family. If you have no additional help, it will be very difficult. If I knew even a little bit of number as much as I do now, only financially speaking, I might have pursued different career. 600k? no way.

Are you planning on REPAYE and forgiveness in 25 years over aggressively repaying? How far out of graduation are you and what were salary prospects like year 1 and years after?

 

[Awisdomtooth]

Do yourself a favor and do not apply to any high tuition dental school. You will thank yourself once you graduate and start working. The mentality of just becoming a dentist for whatever amount of money is JUST NOT RIGHT and no you won’t make that much money upon graduation to pay all of that student loan 🙂

 

[LaughingGas]

Are you planning on REPAYE and forgiveness in 25 years over aggressively repaying? How far out of graduation are you and what were salary prospects like year 1 and years after?

Hard to assess it with COVID. I am two year out. First year I was making low 100s in metropolitan working six days a week. I moved middle of nowhere Northeast and I was projecting to make low 200s until COVID working less days.

 

[batman12345]

Hard to assess it with COVID. I am two year out. First year I was making low 100s in metropolitan working six days a week. I moved middle of nowhere Northeast and I was projecting to make low 200s until COVID working less days.

I guess middle of nowhere is the way to go lol

 

[LaughingGas]

I guess middle of nowhere is the way to go lol

Not necessarily, but it is easier to find better opportunities.

 

[Advance]

Don’t even consider applying to really expensive programs.

 

[LizLemongrab]

Hello Everyone,

I will be applying this upcoming cycle and I was wondering if anyone could give me some feedback on it NYU dental school (or any hyper expensive dental school) is worth it with estimated costs after inflation and interest being around 600k+? I come from a low-income background so my parents won’t be able to help with costs at all.

If you're able to live from home and minimize your living expenses, in theory it's worth it because of the potential income over the totality of those working years as compared to conventional advancement opportunities in most other careers. However, the financial risk of not graduating is a horrifying burden. You really have to consider what would happen to you if you failed to graduate after getting in. From my original class of 380+, I want to say we completely lost at least 10 (dismissal or left voluntarily) over the 4 years and at least another 10 more needed an extra year to graduate. Off the top of my head, I can think of at least 4 people who have 4 or more years of debt from NYU without a DDS to show for it. That's like owing a mortgage on a very expensive house that doesn't exist.

It really depends on what you did for undergrad. Nursing and engineering are generally reliable, essential, and stable. This is not something to be undertaken lightly as though this is a clear path to a high income and great working hours.

I can't comment on what things are like as a dentist in the "real world" as I'm currently wrapping up a residency program, but as someone who is tethered to an oversaturated market for family reasons, I am very nervous about my ability to find enough working hours this year and perhaps next year.

 

[2TH MVR]

Hello Everyone,

I will be applying this upcoming cycle and I was wondering if anyone could give me some feedback on it NYU dental school (or any hyper expensive dental school) is worth it with estimated costs after inflation and interest being around 600k+? I come from a low-income background so my parents won’t be able to help with costs at all.

Please spend some time reading the plethora of threads on this very important topic. It will be eye opening. The simple answer is no. Dentistry as a career is not worth the debt service (600K) you will be chained with for most of your earning life.

I work Corp now PT. Mostly low income patients. Most of the young dentists that work at my Corp are foreign trained and/or went to an expensive DS like NYU to get their dental license. I hear their stories all the time. It's disheartening. These are hard working young dentists trapped in a situation with no light at the end of the tunnel. Some are older. My buddy is in his mid 40's. Nice family. Drives a compact mini van. Goes to Disney Land. Been working a deadend Corp job for all of his life. HE IS STILL PAYING OFF HIS DS LOAN. Another young female dentist from India. She went to NYU. Her and her husband cannot even afford a house. Her husband wants her to open or buy her own practice .... but she has told me many times that the banks will not lend to her. She then spent $$ on an implant course to allow her to place implants. Just trying to get ahead, but the damage was done when she attended NYU. She has recently quit her job at the Corp. Not sure what she is doing. Another female dentist who was a managing dentist. Attended a similar implant course. She also quit months ago. She attended MWU.

Seems like the struggling young dentists who went to NYU, MWU think placing implants will dig themselves out of debt.

OP. Apply to reasonably priced DS.

 

[LFA20]

Hello Everyone,

I will be applying this upcoming cycle and I was wondering if anyone could give me some feedback on it NYU dental school (or any hyper expensive dental school) is worth it with estimated costs after inflation and interest being around 600k+? I come from a low-income background so my parents won’t be able to help with costs at all.

Don’t do it

 

[Big Time Hoosier]

Hello Everyone,

I will be applying this upcoming cycle and I was wondering if anyone could give me some feedback on it NYU dental school (or any hyper expensive dental school) is worth it with estimated costs after inflation and interest being around 600k+? I come from a low-income background so my parents won’t be able to help with costs at all.

Is it worth it? What do you think? At $650,000, you’ll be paying around $55,000/year for TWENTY YEARS!!! and that’s after tax money, so you’ll need to earn $70,000/year just to cover your student loans. What other expenses are you going to have in your life? How much do you expect to earn as a dentist?

Big Hoss

 

[MolarPower]

I agree with everyone here and I attend NYU lol. The cost is way too high do not attend it. And as another poster mentioned do not even bother applying to those types of school as a "safety" or anything. At the end of cycle you might have only got an acceptance from NYU and might try to justify not turning it down. Even if you do not get in this cycle. Learn from it see what you can do to make yourself a better applicant and try again if its something you really want.

 

[laundry]

Dental school should not be an "at all costs dogma". Set a budget for how much you can afford and apply to the schools that fit into that criterion. It may be cheaper to take a year off and improve your stats and reapply.

 

[Likkriue]

The ROI is absolutely horrid.

 

[ckan14]

Please spend some time reading the plethora of threads on this very important topic. It will be eye opening. The simple answer is no. Dentistry as a career is not worth the debt service (600K) you will be chained with for most of your earning life.

I work Corp now PT. Mostly low income patients. Most of the young dentists that work at my Corp are foreign trained and/or went to an expensive DS like NYU to get their dental license. I hear their stories all the time. It's disheartening. These are hard working young dentists trapped in a situation with no light at the end of the tunnel. Some are older. My buddy is in his mid 40's. Nice family. Drives a compact mini van. Goes to Disney Land. Been working a deadend Corp job for all of his life. HE IS STILL PAYING OFF HIS DS LOAN. Another young female dentist from India. She went to NYU. Her and her husband cannot even afford a house. Her husband wants her to open or buy her own practice .... but she has told me many times that the banks will not lend to her. She then spent $$ on an implant course to allow her to place implants. Just trying to get ahead, but the damage was done when she attended NYU. She has recently quit her job at the Corp. Not sure what she is doing. Another female dentist who was a managing dentist. Attended a similar implant course. She also quit months ago. She attended MWU.

Seems like the struggling young dentists who went to NYU, MWU think placing implants will dig themselves out of debt.

OP. Apply to reasonably priced DS.

what would you say is reasonably priced? Obviously USC, NYU, MWU are not but what about schools that are somewhat cheaper but still crazy expensive like Tufts, Boston, Western, UOP etc?

 

[ckan14]

do you have any debt from prior years, my friend. I would avoid the entire field., like we are so often talking about the same issue and rightfully so. I am ecstatic you want to address this issue. Not frustrated at you at all, but it should not be constantly having the future dentists of america (and canada) vacillate in making their decisions while they have the costs of the schools estimated by the dental school, literally give you no introduction to the financial part of sans a packet or something (that is how it was for me at nyu). I think there is an exit one or something not sure if I had to attend. I was fortunate to have my tuition covered (gotta pray to god for that blessing and pay it forward hence my constant taking a dump on nyu). They tell you to get help from your family members to pay off the interest. I just want to shoot whoever wrote that. I'll do the time, gladly. What an ass. It reminds me of that NYU tisch dean dancing horribly to something I can't remember. whatever it was should be classified a war crime my god. she's hideous inside and out.

the reason I am telling you just maybe not consider going is because you all are now doing the right thing in seeking out this journey prior to actually engaging in it. I am proud you all are forecasting the potential woes; yall are doing what the boomers told you to do when they didn't care to take any blame in having kids sign up for 100-200k contracts at 17th or so with no iota of comprehension on how the loans work in the background. Sure, parents could be better at teaching them about usury and compound interest and personal finance, but, to be fair boomers didn't have these insane loans and options to pay them back. Never really was a thought for them imo. Can't blame the students who studied the good fields only to be out competed by foreign students or an ever aging labor pool working longer hours just to survive.

I really just don't think it's worth the headache in the uncertainty. we know dental schools don't have a great track record. kinda like 0-232314325432. If i were you my dude, I would not go at all. But, i'll give you a number, 300k. assuming little to no previous debt. then again, I do not even know what students are carrying previously.If you are truly passionate like jordan level psychotically driven all I can say is go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.

This is a subject I've done quite a bit of research on, probably more so than most other pre-dents. I'll start by saying I tend to have a more optimistic look on the issue of the high debt as I have two dentists in my family who graduated with around 400k in debt between their undergraduate and dental educations, and each managed to pay it all off within 10 years while still enjoying a pretty solid lifestyle.

In my situation, I will owe about 30k without interest for my undergrad since my parents were nice enough to put money aside on the interest so that it doesn't accumulate. I live in California, and I think I speak for a lot of other pre-dents when I say our system is pretty ****ed. We have two public schools, both of which are considered two of the toughest schools in the country to get into. It doesn't help that they both accept a relatively good amount of out of state students which I'm guessing is done for the extra tuition revenue since our state, particularly our education systems, are broke. Most people don't get into UCLA or UCSF, so we have to look at private schools in our state which are quite expensive. If we don't go to those, we have to go out of state. We don't get into most out of state public schools because they prefer their own students for the most part so most people are left with the expensive private schools in or out of state. Compare that to Texas, where their schools pretty much only take TX residents and the schools are dirt cheap relative to the rest of the country.

Aside from the 7-12 schools that are insanely expensive, I still do believe dental school is a great investment. I plan on pursuing any merit scholarships possible if I get acceptances, as well as HPSP to knock down some of the costs. I've also looked in depth into the various loan repayment programs and I believe that many are very doable if you are smart with your money. That means don't live extravagantly for at least 5 years and becoming your own financial manager. Schools won't teach you how to grow your money and how to plan for loan repayment, so it's really up to you to take charge and learn ahead of time and be exactly prepared for what you're getting into. I could just be optimistically naive, but I've definitely done my homework and still think that for the most part, dental school is a good investment and it's still my plan.

 

[deleted903013]

what would you say is reasonably priced?

I would say reasonably priced would be 120k for all 4 years. State schools are only relatively reasonably priced. 300k, which is common for most state schools today, was what the expensive private schools cost about a decade ago.

 

[Anondds87]

This is a subject I've done quite a bit of research on, probably more so than most other pre-dents. I'll start by saying I tend to have a more optimistic look on the issue of the high debt as I have two dentists in my family who graduated with around 400k in debt between their undergraduate and dental educations, and each managed to pay it all off within 10 years while still enjoying a pretty solid lifestyle.

In my situation, I will owe about 30k without interest for my undergrad since my parents were nice enough to put money aside on the interest so that it doesn't accumulate. I live in California, and I think I speak for a lot of other pre-dents when I say our system is pretty ****ed. We have two public schools, both of which are considered two of the toughest schools in the country to get into. It doesn't help that they both accept a relatively good amount of out of state students which I'm guessing is done for the extra tuition revenue since our state, particularly our education systems, are broke. Most people don't get into UCLA or UCSF, so we have to look at private schools in our state which are quite expensive. If we don't go to those, we have to go out of state. We don't get into most out of state public schools because they prefer their own students for the most part so most people are left with the expensive private schools in or out of state. Compare that to Texas, where their schools pretty much only take TX residents and the schools are dirt cheap relative to the rest of the country.

Aside from the 7-12 schools that are insanely expensive, I still do believe dental school is a great investment. I plan on pursuing any merit scholarships possible if I get acceptances, as well as HPSP to knock down some of the costs. I've also looked in depth into the various loan repayment programs and I believe that many are very doable if you are smart with your money. That means don't live extravagantly for at least 5 years and becoming your own financial manager. Schools won't teach you how to grow your money and how to plan for loan repayment, so it's really up to you to take charge and learn ahead of time and be exactly prepared for what you're getting into. I could just be optimistically naive, but I've definitely done my homework and still think that for the most part, dental school is a good investment and it's still my plan.

IGNORE THIS ADVICE.

Graduating over 10 years ago is NOT EVEN CLOSE to what it is like today. There is no reason to justify NYU cost of attendance.

I can PROMISE you that you will go to NYU, graduate, 6 months into working realise you made a huge mistake and you are financially ****ed.

 

[ckan14]

IGNORE THIS ADVICE.

Graduating over 10 years ago is NOT EVEN CLOSE to what it is like today. There is no reason to justify NYU cost of attendance.

I can PROMISE you that you will go to NYU, graduate, 6 months into working realise you made a huge mistake and you are financially ****ed.

I clearly said “aside from the 7-12 schools that are insanely expensive” but ok

 

[bigboikhoa]

It's already been said numerous times. Absolutely not. Find out what you want as a cutoff and do not apply to any schools that go above that cutoff. This means no to all those over 500k private schools (USC, NYU included). When you look at cost of attendance, calculate the interest you will owe AFTER 4 years of dental school. If you want to specialize, calculate how much internet will accrue during a 2-3 year residency PLUS the tuition from the residency itself.

 

[dababy123]

This is a subject I've done quite a bit of research on, probably more so than most other pre-dents. I'll start by saying I tend to have a more optimistic look on the issue of the high debt as I have two dentists in my family who graduated with around 400k in debt between their undergraduate and dental educations, and each managed to pay it all off within 10 years while still enjoying a pretty solid lifestyle.

In my situation, I will owe about 30k without interest for my undergrad since my parents were nice enough to put money aside on the interest so that it doesn't accumulate. I live in California, and I think I speak for a lot of other pre-dents when I say our system is pretty ****ed. We have two public schools, both of which are considered two of the toughest schools in the country to get into. It doesn't help that they both accept a relatively good amount of out of state students which I'm guessing is done for the extra tuition revenue since our state, particularly our education systems, are broke. Most people don't get into UCLA or UCSF, so we have to look at private schools in our state which are quite expensive. If we don't go to those, we have to go out of state. We don't get into most out of state public schools because they prefer their own students for the most part so most people are left with the expensive private schools in or out of state. Compare that to Texas, where their schools pretty much only take TX residents and the schools are dirt cheap relative to the rest of the country.

Aside from the 7-12 schools that are insanely expensive, I still do believe dental school is a great investment. I plan on pursuing any merit scholarships possible if I get acceptances, as well as HPSP to knock down some of the costs. I've also looked in depth into the various loan repayment programs and I believe that many are very doable if you are smart with your money. That means don't live extravagantly for at least 5 years and becoming your own financial manager. Schools won't teach you how to grow your money and how to plan for loan repayment, so it's really up to you to take charge and learn ahead of time and be exactly prepared for what you're getting into. I could just be optimistically naive, but I've definitely done my homework and still think that for the most part, dental school is a good investment and it's still my plan.

what 7-12 schools?

 

[Anondds87]

I clearly said “aside from the 7-12 schools that are insanely expensive” but ok

I apologise, I felt like a bit of an dingus writing that but honestly the message needs to be crystal clear to predents. The tuition is just not worth it.

I think the tricky issue is people do hear stories of people amassing massive debts and killing it. But these are unicorn situations. But predents are still optimistic about life and havent realised that they arent going to be that unicorn story.

The realization happens to everyone once they graduate. It happened to me. And I didnt have a huge debt. That's only due to dumb luck - I probably would have gone to school for 500k if that's the school I was accepted in.

 

[Advance]

I apologise, I felt like a bit of an dingus writing that but honestly the message needs to be crystal clear to predents. The tuition is just not worth it.

I think the tricky issue is people do hear stories of people amassing massive debts and killing it. But these are unicorn situations. But predents are still optimistic about life and havent realised that they arent going to be that unicorn story.

The realization happens to everyone once they graduate. It happened to me. And I didnt have a huge debt. That's only due to dumb luck - I probably would have gone to school for 500k if that's the school I was accepted in.

This. When you’re doing your student loan exit counseling D4 year and It shows your whole loan balance including undergrad, dental school and accrued interest. It’s pretty scary.

 

[Frychicken]

There are cheaper options available (if you can get in) that won’t cripple you financially for years to come.

 

[frozenicecreamDMD]

I believe you should enroll in the online student loan tracking system (nelnet, sallie mae, etc) to know how much interest and principle as well as different interest % you owe as you move through the years. so at the exit interview, you are not surprised by the total number. I do not know if I have this online student loan account because I have undergrad debt.

when I applied and got into dental school in 2016, 525k - 550k$ is the high end for USC/NYU/MWU with interest + living expense included. Now it is near 600k? sigh. the future of dentistry is getting sad and sadder.

I am fortunate enough to get into a public OOS that grants in state residence but my first acceptance at MWU with 525k total debt stressed me out for a month.

I understand with a lot of posters here that when you receive that acceptance letter from NYU/USC/MWU, it is hard to turn down the acceptance and not be a dentist. To be honest, what else can you do now since you have dedicated so much time and money to prepare your application and interview. if you take off one year, what guarantees you will get in a public OOS that is less expensive if nothing much can be done about your app.
this is the true dilemma a lot of predents face and I totally sympathize with it because I was in the same shoes.

a lot of children that come from first generation immigration, this acceptance is the ticket to more opportunities and freedom, though the pricetag is absurd

I think I might be irresponsible but study the hardest, get the highest GPA, get the highest DAT< and cast a wide net. if you only get in USC/NYU/MWU, just know what you get into before and deal with the consequences. This way, you can still live happily.