Hi all,
I'm a 3rd year with a strong interest in ortho. Ortho is something I've always wanted to do as I've been personally attached to it through my own story (i.e. ugly ducking becoming a swan after ortho ). However, I'm wondering whether specializing in ortho will put me in a bad place financially as I do care about my lifestyle/ability to have a life outside of work. So here's my deal:
-I just want to be an associate and want to probably practice in San Francisco (it's always been a dream). I'm open to becoming a partner as well, but not really willing to start up a practice.
-I'm at HSDM (Harvard School of Dental Med.) - does name matter at all? I've been seeing a lot of "name of school doesn't matter" posts on SDN, so it makes me a little scared that I'm graduating with so much debt when I could've went to a cheap, state school (below)
-I'll leave HSDM with about $270,000 in fed. loans with a consolidated ~7% interest rate
-I have an extra $110,000 saved up in a savings account, but haven't decided whether to use it for students loans or for starting up a practice (if I absolutely have to). Stipulation here is that I can't take it out until I graduate . Interest doesn't capitalize until I do graduate though so I can pay it off before it starts to compound.
-I ideally want to go into a very specific ortho program in which I wouldn't have to pay (i.e. UCLA --> HSDM has connections, sorry if that sounds pompous but just want to get the truth out there)
Let me know what you think in terms of finances.... I've never been too great with it. Thanks!
I'm a 3rd year with a strong interest in ortho. Ortho is something I've always wanted to do as I've been personally attached to it through my own story (i.e. ugly ducking becoming a swan after ortho ). However, I'm wondering whether specializing in ortho will put me in a bad place financially as I do care about my lifestyle/ability to have a life outside of work. So here's my deal:
-I just want to be an associate and want to probably practice in San Francisco (it's always been a dream). I'm open to becoming a partner as well, but not really willing to start up a practice.
-I'm at HSDM (Harvard School of Dental Med.) - does name matter at all? I've been seeing a lot of "name of school doesn't matter" posts on SDN, so it makes me a little scared that I'm graduating with so much debt when I could've went to a cheap, state school (below)
-I'll leave HSDM with about $270,000 in fed. loans with a consolidated ~7% interest rate
-I have an extra $110,000 saved up in a savings account, but haven't decided whether to use it for students loans or for starting up a practice (if I absolutely have to). Stipulation here is that I can't take it out until I graduate . Interest doesn't capitalize until I do graduate though so I can pay it off before it starts to compound.
-I ideally want to go into a very specific ortho program in which I wouldn't have to pay (i.e. UCLA --> HSDM has connections, sorry if that sounds pompous but just want to get the truth out there)
Let me know what you think in terms of finances.... I've never been too great with it. Thanks!
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