Paying for school?

[FutureIrishOD]

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I was wondering how most of y'all are are planning to pay for optometry school? Also, has any one done a military scholarship/contract program to pay for school ? How did you like that?

 

[cpw]

I'm going to school totally on loans supplied by uncle sam.

There are two people in my class on Air Force scholarship. I'm not sure where they're going to end up when they're done.

 

[alferec]

I'll be going for the Army HPSP scholarship - the Army pays for your school but you owe back four years in return.

 

[kgrabar]

I was wondering how most of y'all are are planning to pay for optometry school? Also, has any one done a military scholarship/contract program to pay for school ? How did you like that?

I plan on taking out loans to fund my education and living expenses less meager earnings in work-study and a modest amount of savings from working full-time for a year. Because I don't have monetary support from family and I don't live in a state that offers "in-state" tuition at an OD school, I plan on racking up at least 160K in loans. For those of you that are in or will be in the 160K-200K debt range, are also worried? I keep waiting for a moment when I throw caution to the wind and am 100% excited about entering the class of 2009, but maybe I am too much of a realist. I am not second guessing entering optometry, but I am very concerned about financing the education. How have those of you in a heavy debt situation overcome the reality of loan repayment? Maybe some words of wisdom could help my outlook...

 

[rpames]

You are honestly is a better place than many of my classmates. They are all is the same debt situation you are in, but they don't seem to understand the reality of it, like you do. They complain and complain about the cost of books and tuition and how they have no money, but then they go out and buy something from A&F for $150. Then they stop at Starbucks and buy a $6 coffee. Or my favorite are those that are married and the spouse has a good job, yet they still take out full loans! My wife is a teacher so we are by no means well-off, but I only take out enough loans to cover tuition, equipment, and books. I never receive a loan check because I take out exactly what the school is charging me. We live off my "suger-momma." 😀

These same people the complain about being broke while they wear a shirt that cost the same amount as my electric bill, rarely have a work study job. Like I said above, my wife and I live off her check, and we could without me working too. But, I have 3 jobs on campus, I'm the Audio/Video dork for our lectures, I'm the TA for open Lab every other Saturday, and I work for a prof. once in a while. Just yesterday I got a pay check for $307, thats food for the month! If you look at my jobs, they really take no time out of my life. The AV job is the best one on campus, I get paid $7.80/hr to go to class...it is sweet! The TA job, I open the lab at 9am and leave at 2pm. I'm there for 5 hrs and get $10.80/hr while I do my homework & study on a Saturday morning when I would have just wasted it sleeping. Then the work for the prof. is on my computer (picture stuff), I do that while I watch movies and "Must See TV." So I get paid $10.80/hr to watch Joey make a fool of himself. So the moral of the story, there are a lot of jobs on campus that you can do, that take very, very, very little time out of your busy schedule. My wife, besides teaching HS full time, sells AVON, and tutors for a private company on Saturday mornings (while I'm at school in the lab).

I'm not posting all this to say, "Look at me, I'm smart and everyone else is dumb and vain." I'm just saying that you will have a good idea about those in your class who will be fiscally sound during their lives, and those who will always have debt over their heads. It sound like you will in the better off group.

I think that by you being scared of the debt, as I am too, is a good thing. It will make you think about every purchase you make and in the end...you will be a lot better off than most of your classmates.

Sorry for the length of the post. 😴

 

[Kristene9]

www.money.com is a good place to look to see about how much you will be paying back per month, if you know your interest and how many years you want to pay off your loan. It will give you a good idea how dept will be effecting your life for the next 10 or 15 years.

 

[FutureIrishOD]

I plan on taking out loans to fund my education and living expenses less meager earnings in work-study and a modest amount of savings from working full-time for a year. Because I don't have monetary support from family and I don't live in a state that offers "in-state" tuition at an OD school, I plan on racking up at least 160K in loans. For those of you that are in or will be in the 160K-200K debt range, are also worried? I keep waiting for a moment when I throw caution to the wind and am 100% excited about entering the class of 2009, but maybe I am too much of a realist. I am not second guessing entering optometry, but I am very concerned about financing the education. How have those of you in a heavy debt situation overcome the reality of loan repayment? Maybe some words of wisdom could help my outlook...

I am also looking at having around the same amount of debt. That is why I started this thread, I am very worried about having to take out all those student loans and was hoping for some other options. But, the only suggestion I have is to remember that the loans are investments into your future life and happiness and all of you patients.

 

[Kristene9]

I was also VERY worried about going to optometry school because of the debt. What I would really like to do is after a few years, is just working part time and raises kids. I considered going to PA because of less dept and less schooling, but I just really want to be an optometrist.

I talked a lot to my dad about it, who I admire a lot for his common sense and how good he is with handling money. I've also talked to some optometrist in the area. They all believe that even though its a lot of debt (I'm looking at about 100K) that it is totally doable. After looking at the money.com website, I also feel that this is very doable. I HATE debt and I think in a way it can be very controlling. I have never owned a credit card or bought a car that I had to make payments on (as you can imagine my car isn't amazing but it does it's job and I will keep it till it dies).

Basically, its going to be hard but not unbearable. Be smart. Try to get into a living arrangement that doesn't cost as much- I'm going to UAB and if I live with 2 other girls, I will only pay about 350 a month in rent. Also, if you have the means, buy a small fixer-uper house - get some friends to live with you and pay rent, at the end of the 4 years you will have build up some money to either put some money on your loans or buy another house were ever you go. Become accustom to eating lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch other then eating out.

Another thing - and OD is an OD where ever you go. I REALLY REALLY wanted to go to Pacific but its at least 14,000 PER YEAR more in tuition then Houston (I’m a Texas Resident) and at UAB I can get instate after my first year. - I know you can at SUNY and a few others too.

If you’re smart, you can save a lot during school. After school just work your butt off for a few years and really get the monthly payments down - after that it will just be like a house payment.

Its ALOT to think about because your right, its SOOO much money- and optometrist will be in dept more years then doctors or dentist (I read an article about this but I don’t remember the link- if you want I can try to find it this weekend). Basically what I've heard is - if your a hard worker, good with money, and you know you will love your job when you get out- then it will be worth it.

Really crunch the numbers and see what you can come up with. I figure that if I looked hard I could find a few part time optometry jobs and make about 70,000 a year. Probably about 58,000 after taxes (thanks for the correction UABopt) -- so that leaves 39,000ish.

yup your right thats not much. -- I was alot happier with 50,000.
This is something to think about and good to know!

 

[UABopt]

Kristene9

I am certainly not discontinuing your statement. It most definitely is possible to make it through school and pay off the debt in the future. I just wanted to make a quick comment on your take home pay. If you were to earn 70,000 a year your take home would not be nearly 63000, but rather your monthly income would be about:

Gross Pay: 5833.00
Supplemental Income: 0.00
Pretax Deductions: 0.00
Pretax Subtotal: 5833.00
Soc. Security Tax (FICA): 446.22
Federal Tax Withholding: 1052.8
State Tax Withholding: 384.56
After tax Deductions: 0.00
Estimated Take Home Pay: 3949.42

This amounts to about 48,000 a year after taxes. This assumes you do not take any deductions at all, and you are a single individual, which probably will not be the case, but it is a better estimate than 63,000. You will most certainly be paying more than 7000 in taxes a year on 70,000$. That would be just 10%. The average American pays close to 25% when FICA is added in, in federal taxes alone!!!! But we are still better off than people from other countries who can pay 50% and more!!!!

 

[wrx04]

Has anyone looked into or know anything about being an RA for the school housing in order to save some cash? I haven't really looked into it yet, but my neighbor was an RA while in pharmacy school, and the university paid for all of his housing. This seems like a great way to cut down on loan money, but i don't know how much of a pain it would be to live in the school's dorms/apartments.