Paying off Student Loans

[smb35]

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Hi,
I will be starting medical school fall 2009, and I was curious if anyone knows more information regarding a medical student loan program that pays for all of your tuition if you work in an underserved area for 4 years. I was wondering if this is financially a good program to help with student debt, or if I would be better off just paying the debt off on my own after residency. If anyone has done a program similar to this or knows someone who has, any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[EM2BE]

I have known people to do it. It works for some, for others not. Read the fine print - many have an unreasonable payback if you back out on the contract (like 18% interest or paying back 3x the loan amount). Some will require you do primary care only (and will specify what they count as primary care) - I know someone who was certain they were going to do FM then during their 3rd year changed their mind to surgery and had to pay it back with high interest. Others will pick the location for you - I also know another one that did this and they backed out because they didn't like the place that was chosen for them and they are paying back much more than they would have without the deal. I don't want to scare you, but it is something to consider at length before committing. Others do military with the same deal (but pay by service). There are many different options out there and one may fit you better than the other.

 

[clinicallabguy]

Hi,
I will be starting medical school fall 2009, and I was curious if anyone knows more information regarding a medical student loan program that pays for all of your tuition if you work in an underserved area for 4 years. I was wondering if this is financially a good program to help with student debt, or if I would be better off just paying the debt off on my own after residency. If anyone has done a program similar to this or knows someone who has, any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

I don't know of any that don't require you to go into primary care. I will start the same time as you, but I don't want to commit myself to anything before I start medical school. I thought that there was too much potential for me to be unhappy with the outcome when I feel like I know relatively little about what field I would enjoy.

The only person who can decide is you. But, if you decide against it, you aren't out of options. There are repayment programs that you can participate in after medical school and residency. Of course, they won't cover everything like the ones you sign up before or during medical school do. But, if you decide to do primary care then they may be able to take a little of the edge off of your financial stress.

Here's a link:

http://services.aamc.org/fed_loan_p...n=public.welcome&CFID=108396&CFTOKEN=32782100

 

[rpkall]

There may also be state-funded programs that reward medical school graduates for staying in their home state either during residency (NYS Regents Loan Forgiveness) or thereafter (Doctors Across New York). I'm from NY so I don't know about other states, but there must be something similar.

Some non-primary care specialties (OB, general surgery, child psychiatry) are often listed on the "available positions" documents, and are often in lower-income or otherwised underserved areas (rural, inner city, institutions in nicer areas that serve lower-SES populations).