Pharmacy Loan Poll

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How much do you anticipate to spend on pharmacy school when you graduate?

  • $0-$50,000 Loans

    Votes: 17 9.8%

  • $50,000-$100,000 Loans

    Votes: 34 19.7%

  • $100,000-$150,000 Loans

    Votes: 66 38.2%

  • $150,000-$200,000 Loans

    Votes: 37 21.4%

  • Over $200,000 Loans

    Votes: 19 11.0%
  • Total voters
    173
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Sprinkles

Want to be a Pharmacist!
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I am curious to see what pre-pharm/pharmacy students anticipate or have ended up walking out of pharmacy school with for loans. The more information I look at applying to out of state schools the more I realize how do people afford school and all the costs that come with it. Thanks!
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I am taking out max loans. I wouldn't do that if I was single, though. If I was single, I would probably be looking at under 100K. But, alas, love > $$$$

;)
 
I was just calculating this today.

I feel physically ill when I think about how much I will have to take out in loans. Seriously sick to my stomach. :scared:
 
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I have a family as well and anticipate approximately $150,000...:scared:
 
I think I'm looking at close to 100K or more. If I can figure out a way to drastically cut spending and still be healthy, emotionally stable, and remain a good student, I think I'd end up with less than 100K.
 
Are you guys able to have federal loans cover most of your pharmacy schooling? Or private loans the way to go? I can afford my in-state tuition for school but, if I don't get in and have to go out of state, how do you afford it???! :(
 
Sprinkles said:
Are you guys able to have federal loans cover most of your pharmacy schooling? Or private loans the way to go? I can afford my in-state tuition for school but, if I don't get in and have to go out of state, how do you afford it???! :(
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I don't know. I'm in state and things would still wind up very pricey for me after 4 years. I have about $55k saved going into it and there's still no way I'd be able to get out with under $130k in debt. :(
 
pharmschooler said:
I don't know. I'm in state and things would still wind up very pricey for me after 4 years. I have about $55k saved going into it and there's still no way I'd be able to get out with under $130k in debt. :(
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130k in debt even after what you have saved up?
 
Sprinkles said:
Are you guys able to have federal loans cover most of your pharmacy schooling? Or private loans the way to go? I can afford my in-state tuition for school but, if I don't get in and have to go out of state, how do you afford it???! :(
Click to expand...

With Stafford and GradPLUS, I am able to cover tuition, books, and some living expenses. A lot of people on here talk about going the cheap route and having roommates and all that jazz and I say good for them! Save money as much as possible. Unfortunately for me, I don't have the ability nor desire to have that type of lifestyle anymore. I am older, as is my partner, we have a house and have collected a lot of things as many married couples do. I can't imagine going back to an "undergrad" type life. We both work and everything and money still gets tight here and there. Believe me it was a HUGE adjustment last semester when my aid ran out in the middle of November. We made it work, though and this semester we figured out a much better budget. The important thing is cutting corners where you can. The debt used to scare me but then I am reminded that paying back all those loans will still be feasible and I will be able to maintain a decent lifestyle. I don't have to be rich so I am happy with it all.
 
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If I stay in state, my loans will be about $24,000. Not bad...it's just too bad I want to get the eff out of here. :/
 
kmapes said:
If I stay in state, my loans will be about $24,000. Not bad...it's just too bad I want to get the eff out of here. :/
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I get the feeling I should move. $24k sounds totally awesome.
 
kmapes said:
If I stay in state, my loans will be about $24,000. Not bad...it's just too bad I want to get the eff out of here. :/
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Is that per year or are you getting a nice chunk of some scholarship(s)?
 
redd8937 said:
You seem to anticipate less than everyone- what's your secret? :)
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Cheap tuition, cheap room and board, accelerated program (3 years), work at CVS, and a small academic scholarship (5k). LECOM isn't big on scholarships but every little bit helps. I'm hoping to snag another 5k next year for a total of 10k from LECOM.

60kish if I get the scholarship and 70kish if I don't. You can expect to have about 80k in loans if you don't get an academic scholarship your 2nd-3rd year and providing you just borrow the cost of tuition/insurance (26k/year).
 
Electrode said:
Is that per year or are you getting a nice chunk of some scholarship(s)?
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I guess you could call it a scholarship. That $24,000 would be total, for all four years of school.
 
If I stick with my practical in-state option I should be able to keep it to $75K to cover my tuition expenses. I have two out-of-state options, however, there is no way to do that under $100K possibly much higher (closer to $170K) if I cannot establish residency. I am working with the regstrars office at one of the two schools to see if it is possible to get in-state status.

For living expenses, I will be sponging off of my husband and burning up some savings. I've always tried to live below my means so I managed to save a fair amoung during my 1st career.
 
If i work it out correctly, i will be able to graduate with no debt. I will be paying state tuition, and it will be covered by the VA department. Plus, I will have another scholarship that will help with living expenses during the 4 years. However, I had to pay for the first two years of pre-reqs out of pocket to get this to work out correctly, and I have school loans from a while back. Although, I would not recommend my route, I have a titanium plate in the neck which is why i am getting a free ride.
 
I've done the calculation and my total loan max will be between 45k-50k. I'm married and my husband is going to pay for everything else. I'm planning to pay that all off within 1 year and be done with it. :)
 
100,000-150,000. unfortunately, all my potential schools are pricey, but i'm going to try to only take loans for tuition and use my savings/work part-time to pay for living expenses. 2.5% origination fee for gradplus is ridiculous! you have to pay back money that you never even received...so i'm really hoping i won't have to take out those or only minimally.
 
Glad to see I am not alone! I love talking to my family about this stuff- they are all under some delusion that I can get this paid for in scholarships with little to no loans lol....
 
If I end up going out of state it's gonna be close to 200K. :eek: But if I get to stay in Texas, I think I can keep it down to 100K. I'll try to get a PRN job and work over the summers to give myself some breathing room with spending money, but I know I can't work 30 hours a week like I did in undergrad and still do well in my classes. If I have to take out a little more in loans to make sure I don't sacrifice my study time, that's fine with me.
 
Wow - your poll has produced an almost perfect normal curve. :thumbup:


I really would have expected higher values (right-skewed). I wonder if this is because people don't really understand how much they will owe or if pharmacy school debt is really distributed how your poll shows.

Edit: Even better! Right now it is a perfect bell curve! No one else vote.
 
Last edited:
misfire200 said:
If i work it out correctly, i will be able to graduate with no debt. I will be paying state tuition, and it will be covered by the VA department. Plus, I will have another scholarship that will help with living expenses during the 4 years. However, I had to pay for the first two years of pre-reqs out of pocket to get this to work out correctly, and I have school loans from a while back. Although, I would not recommend my route, I have a titanium plate in the neck which is why i am getting a free ride.
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Wait, now I'm curious, did the mishap causing you to have a titanium plate drilled into your spine leave you **looking for a nice way to say this**- as some sort of medical disparity, hence a nice scholarship?
 
Between undergrad loans and pharmacy school loans, I'm going to be easily $250k in debt by the time I graduate. But, such is life. I don't know how other people do it. I work all the time, spend very little, but I had zero financial support from family from day 1 and no savings.
 
dazzled said:
Between undergrad loans and pharmacy school loans, I'm going to be easily $250k in debt by the time I graduate. But, such is life. I don't know how other people do it. I work all the time, spend very little, but I had zero financial support from family from day 1 and no savings.
Click to expand...

How much do you anticipate will be from undergrad alone?
 
This is by all means just a personal opinion, but anyone spending ~200k really needs to evaluate farm schools opportunity cost.
 
owlegrad said:
Wow - your poll has produced an almost perfect normal curve. :thumbup:


I really would have expected higher values (right-skewed). I wonder if this is because people don't really understand how much they will owe or if pharmacy school debt is really distributed how your poll shows.
Click to expand...

b4dpgp.jpg


That looks like a perfect normal curve to me :laugh:

I think some people are not sure how much they will have to spend in school until they start.
 
crazybob said:
b4dpgp.jpg


That looks like a perfect normal curve to me :laugh:

I think some people are not sure how much they will have to spend in school until they start.
Click to expand...

Well my comment didn't take into account the dynamic nature of a live poll. Also, you did not read my edit. :smuggrin:
 
crazybob said:
b4dpgp.jpg


That looks like a perfect normal curve to me :laugh:

I think some people are not sure how much they will have to spend in school until they start.
Click to expand...

kmapes said:
I was actually just about to say the same thing. :p
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Alright you two - you have forced me to let out the inner nerd. In order to be a perfect normal curve 2/3rds of the values would need to be within one standard deviation of the mean. In this curve only approximately 39% of responses are. So it is perfectly symmetrical, however it is not appropriately distributed. Now if we could get more people to vote 100,000-150,000 we would be all set with a perfect normal curve.
 
owlegrad said:
Alright you two - you have forced me to let out the inner nerd. In order to be a perfect normal curve 2/3rds of the values would need to be within one standard deviation of the mean. In this curve only approximately 39% of responses are. So it is perfectly symmetrical, however it is not appropriately distributed. Now if we could get more people to vote 100,000-150,000 we would be all set with a perfect normal curve.
Click to expand...
:uhno: ...I thought I was done hearing those words in such contexts. Darn it...
 
redd8937 said:
How much do you anticipate will be from undergrad alone?
Click to expand...

Around $50K when all is said and done, including interest accumulation since I'm getting it deferred during pharm school.

I'm a unique-ish situation though; when I applied for financial aid during undergrad, I had to put in my parent's information because they still claim me as a dependent for health insurance. They have a solid income so I don't get much in ways of federal money/grants (thank god I got maximum academic scholarships!), but I get ZERO help from them in terms of cost of anything (even though I'm on their insurance, I pay them to keep me on there because it's awesome insurance). This leaves me with very little in terms of "free money", no savings, and basically all loans. Not the ideal situation, I know. But, I'm smart, so I'll manage, hopefully continue to get scholarships, work, and just pay stuff off when I'm done. Is 250K of debt crappy? YES. Is it insurmountable? Not at all.
 
Lmfao owlegrad I love the little nerd moment you had :D

And as for me, tuition is 25k a year so thats 100k without interest and then I'm probably going to need 40k to survive, so I'm thinking pretty close to 150k.
 
2411t said:
This is by all means just a personal opinion, but anyone spending ~200k really needs to evaluate farm schools opportunity cost.
Click to expand...

I agree with you. If you figure out the monthly loan payments it is a ridiculously high percent of what you can expect to make on a monthly basis as a Pharmacist. It would be the same as a payment on a nice home in alot of places.
 
I graduated with $47K, but that's when the tuition was about half what it is now, and I went in-state and lived with my parents while in school (my undergrad was paid for by scholarships). The reason I got as much as I did, I wanted to be able to do all the out-of-state and international rotations I could get. And I paid off my car with student loans since my car was totaled in a snowstorm in my first year of pharmacy school and I had to buy a replacement. Believe it or not, in those days the rate on car loans was about four times that of the student loans, and now it is the other way around. :laugh: Most of my friends had $100K even then, though.
 
owlegrad said:
Alright you two - you have forced me to let out the inner nerd. In order to be a perfect normal curve 2/3rds of the values would need to be within one standard deviation of the mean. In this curve only approximately 39% of responses are. So it is perfectly symmetrical, however it is not appropriately distributed. Now if we could get more people to vote 100,000-150,000 we would be all set with a perfect normal curve.
Click to expand...

You seriously just made my day. My inner nerd rejoices!
 
1st school $17K/year w/ living expenses... say 30K total for 1st 2.5 years. After that, APPE will be in my hometown so just the $17K/yr for the last 1.5 years plus fuel expenses (wife and I can live on one living expense rather than 2)

2nd school $33K/yr. Since in hometown, no additional living expenses, just fuel cost.

Sale of house in K-ville will provide a large chunk of either expense keeping loans on the lower side.

Everything costs something. While no compensation is assured upon successful completion of any degree program, the avg. compensation for a Pharmacist could allow for rapid payoff of the loans. This means live better than you did while you were in school, but don't go for complete instant gratification. Do you really need the Mercedes now, do you need the 60" plasma TV.... Delay your gratification and whittle away (wholesale fashion) at the debt after saving 3 - 8 months emergency living expenses. You will be better off in the long run.
 
Are TA positions solely reserved for grad students? Maybe I can TA a intro chem course or something to help finance tuition.

Great way to refresh that good ol' gen chem
 
2411t said:
Are TA positions solely reserved for grad students? Maybe I can TA a intro chem course or something to help finance tuition.

Great way to refresh that good ol' gen chem
Click to expand...

It would depend on the school, but I am sure it will be competative and will be given to the department grad students first (some people actually pay for grad school, GTA paid for mine).
 
Busta919 said:
It would depend on the school, but I am sure it will be competative and will be given to the department grad students first (some people actually pay for grad school, GTA paid for mine).
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I would never pay for grad school. Tuition remission is by far the most attractive thing about graduate school in the sciences.
 
2411t said:
Are TA positions solely reserved for grad students? Maybe I can TA a intro chem course or something to help finance tuition.

Great way to refresh that good ol' gen chem
Click to expand...

Why would you TA when you could be an intern pharmacist? That way you could pay your bills and get experience and making yourself marketable, thus maximizing your time spent. I could be wrong, but I think you would make more money too. Of course, nowadays it's probably harder to find a job, but I'm hoping that I will be able to get one shift a week.
 
monkieez said:
Why would you TA when you could be an intern pharmacist? That way you could pay your bills and get experience and making yourself marketable, thus maximizing your time spent. I could be wrong, but I think you would make more money too. Of course, nowadays it's probably harder to find a job, but I'm hoping that I will be able to get one shift a week.
Click to expand...

Good point monkieez :thumbup:

Anyone ever TA as an undergrad in these forums? How much time did you dedicate to it? Maybe both is possible if it's not too demanding of my time.
 
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