Question about debt

[Silent Cool]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

So if you look at the numbers out there for D-school costs, it goes something like this:

A typical private school will run you~400K with the interest when you are done after four years. If you specialize, often you have to pay another 200K for your specialty training. For example:

http://www.dental.upenn.edu/academi...rams/endodontic_residency_program/annual_fees

After that, you are looking at 700K debt with all of the interest, and that's if you have no undergrad debt. Please, someone, tell me how this is sustainable? I know that specialists can do well, but this is ridiculous. You had better hope to hell that your annual income is at least 300k. Intelligent comments welcome.

😎

 

[Silent Cool]

75 views and no responses...c'mon....obviously someone is concerned. Let's hear your thoughts.

 

[Acrowston]

I think you shot yourself in the foot when you asked for intelligent comments....

Do most dentists specialise right away or go back and do it after getting rid of their first hunk of debt?

 

[Silent Cool]

For certain fields like Endo, graduates generally work for a while. Endo programs prefer people who have experience.

 

[Shnurek]

Go into it if your parents pay for your education. Otherwise its quite a deep financial hole.

 

[Stacker]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=937166

If it weren't possible to be financially viable, they wouldn't exist...

 

[PrinceJ]

Don't go to a private school. Almost every state has a public school or a state adjacent where you can receive an in-state seat. Or do a military program. Unless your parents are footing the bill, these are the only logical options to cut down costs.

 

[tartesos]

So if you look at the numbers out there for D-school costs, it goes something like this:

A typical private school will run you~400K with the interest when you are done after four years. If you specialize, often you have to pay another 200K for your specialty training. For example:

http://www.dental.upenn.edu/academi...rams/endodontic_residency_program/annual_fees

After that, you are looking at 700K debt with all of the interest, and that's if you have no undergrad debt. Please, someone, tell me how this is sustainable? I know that specialists can do well, but this is ridiculous. You had better hope to hell that your annual income is at least 300k. Intelligent comments welcome.

😎

My mommy paid for my med school!
Thank you mom!!!
🙂
Of course the whole career was less than a us semester for you guys, but hey...

 

[tartesos]

So if you look at the numbers out there for D-school costs, it goes something like this:

A typical private school will run you~400K with the interest when you are done after four years. If you specialize, often you have to pay another 200K for your specialty training. For example:

http://www.dental.upenn.edu/academi...rams/endodontic_residency_program/annual_fees

After that, you are looking at 700K debt with all of the interest, and that's if you have no undergrad debt. Please, someone, tell me how this is sustainable? I know that specialists can do well, but this is ridiculous. You had better hope to hell that your annual income is at least 300k. Intelligent comments welcome.

😎

Now seriously, if you ate in it for the money, it's not worth it.
I you love it, you will be fine.
Depending on your specialty you will have an obscene income and lifestyle or a good one( pcp, Hospitalist etc.).
No matter how bad it gets, you will have a good life and so will your kids, so if you love medicine and can't see yourself doing anything else, go for it.
Worry about loan repayment later on( undeserved community/area etc) and focus on learning the most you can and be the best you can be, because you will be dealing with people's lives.

 

[tartesos]

So if you look at the numbers out there for D-school costs, it goes something like this:

A typical private school will run you~400K with the interest when you are done after four years. If you specialize, often you have to pay another 200K for your specialty training. For example:

http://www.dental.upenn.edu/academi...rams/endodontic_residency_program/annual_fees

After that, you are looking at 700K debt with all of the interest, and that's if you have no undergrad debt. Please, someone, tell me how this is sustainable? I know that specialists can do well, but this is ridiculous. You had better hope to hell that your annual income is at least 300k. Intelligent comments welcome.

😎

Wait, dental school? My bad!
Bro, as someone said if it wasn't sustainable no one would do it.
You will be more than ok way faster than any I your md friends boy.

Your problem will be what to do with all that money and what are they doin with all those taxes youll pay. 🙂
Go for it!'

 

[thewobblytooth]

Just keep your debt down. Live like a student until you graduate. Most of my friends don't take out 100% of the loans offered to them. Just enough for tuition and barely enough to survive (rent, gas, going out, bars). The debt is not an issue if you're financially smart.

 

[Frank22]

Edit

 

[DrJeff]

Just keep your debt down. Live like a student until you graduate. Most of my friends don't take out 100% of the loans offered to them. Just enough for tuition and barely enough to survive (rent, gas, going out, bars). The debt is not an issue if you're financially smart.

Trying to live like you THINK a dentist lives while you're in d-school is a sure fire way to almost guarentee that you'll have an extended period of time where you'll be living like a d-school student actually lives while your a dentist.

Most debt that one acquires in their path to becoming a dentist is manageable. The key is that early on you need to get a plan (financial advisors, accountants, etc can help lots with this) and then have the fiscal responsibility to stick with it. It really can be amazing how quickly one can pay down what started off as a number often just associated with a mortgage of a nice sized house! The same type of mental determination and dedication that it takes to get through dental school is quite similar to the type of fiscal determination and dedication that it takes to handles one's educational debts

 

[sugartooth]

Here is a link that'll tell you the approximate cost for different dental schools:
http://www.ada.org/sections/professionalResources/pdfs/survey_ed_vol2.pdf

Like previous people have said, live like a student when you are a student so that you can live like a dentist when you are a dentist.

My husband and I are both dentists, have both been out 2.5 years. I had a large scholarship for undergrad & also skipped a year of undergrad, I got a discount because I went to dental school in state, and my grand total after graduation was about $220k. My husband went to 2 years of community college before finishing undergrad at a 4 year university. He had to pay higher dental school tuition than me since he was out of state, and he graduated with about $250k.

So next time they offer you a huge chunk of money you really don't need next semester...think twice. I have a small Wells Fargo loan (was about $20k when I graduated) and the rest was federal student loan debt. My current loan payments are $180 per month to Wells Fargo (can't remember if it is 15 or 20 year term) and $1,120 per month in federal student loan money with extended 25 year repayment plan. I want to pay off my loans even faster than that, so I usually pay an extra $200 a month for my Wells Fargo Loan and an extra $500 a month on my federal loan. I am on track to have my student loans paid off in 13 years instead of 23. That'll save me about $90k in interest on the federal student loans alone.

Just be prepared to work hard after you graduate and don't think that you are going to be filthy rich after becoming a dentist. Remember that every dollar you spend of dental school student loans, you'll end up paying two or three times the amount back in student loan payments. My husband and I are more than comfortable, but we also didn't buy a $500k house or a $50k car once we started working.

It CAN be done, but you just have to be smart about it. It doesn't seem like we are the "rich dentists" like all of our patients assume, but we are hunkering down, living reasonably, and paying off our debts as fast we can so that someday we will be able to enjoy all the income that is going to student debt right now!