residency life, racism and cost

[aallaei]

Yet another thread! I looked through most of the other threads and it didn't seem these were addressed.

1. What are the hours like as a 3rd or 4th year through the rotations? What are the hours during residency? Maybe post residency hrs/wk, if any of you are at that point...?
Do you have the option of being part time doc? is every doctor on call?

-I am just concerned about having time for a family.

2. A lot of you are all over the place and I wanted to see if you have any feedback on racism. I live in California and I have spoken with several individuals and I often hear that it is still racist in the east... i know it depends on the location...so where is this true and not?

3. I know! last one i swear! I know I will have a loan around 200K after med school ...how am i suppose to pay that off? also, is there a possibility of working no more than 50 (i wanna say 40) hrs/wk and still be able to afford a family and payback loans?

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[rbassdo]

aallaie,

I can't speak for 3rd and 4th year students, but from what I hear, the daily hours spent on rotations is manageable. At KCOM, I've heard that students on rotations talk about being completely done with work around 10 PM - ideally. As for interns and residents...I know that the federal government recently passed a law stating that residents aren't allowed to work an average of more than 80 hrs/week. Now, that doesn't mean that one wouldn't work for MORE than 80 hrs. in a given week because they take it as an average for the month. I hope that wasn't too confusing. Here's what I mean:

week 1: 82 hrs.
week 2: 80 hrs.
week 3: 79 hrs.
week 4: 79 hrs.

That's an average of 80 hrs. per week over a month. Got it?

As for the racism question...I wouldn't worry about one region over another. If you've heard/believe that the "East" is "still" racist, you might want to re-check your sources or re-word your question. What the "the East" mean? What are it's borders? Wasn't it the voters of California that ended affirmative action in that state not too long ago? I think California was the first to do so, followed by Texas. There may be one other state who's voters repealed AA, but I'm not sure. Anyhow...don't worry. There are racists in every corner of the country - regardless of color/race and regardless of location.

As for paying off loans...it's usually a big job, but there are options such as military scholarships, institutional scholarships (especially nice for minorities, in most cases), and scholarships for promising to practice in underserved/rural areas, etc. If you still owe 200,000 after all that, it will be important for you to be wise and prudent and patient. Just pay off as much as you can as quickly as you can do it while living within your means. That's all the federal government can expect - which is why they bend over backwards to allow 5, 10, 15, etc. year payment plans. But, the quicker the better (less interest payed).

I hope this helps,

Ryan

 

[NewAgeDO]

Answering the questions about your loans, you should expect to start payments after residency. $30,000/yr before taxes ($24,000 after) just won't allow you to make payments. So if your principle is around 200k, and you decide to consolidate at 4.5% over 10 years, expect to make payments well over 2k/month....and if you're going into peds or fp/medicine w/ a gross of ~150K, good luck. Best advice...minimize loans as much as possible.