The Dread of Student Loans

[rockman_ariel]

Hi all!,

I have a question for future pods, current pod students, and recently graduated pods: are you worried about student loans? I'm a pre-pod, but I feel that by the time I graduate I will have about $200k in loan debt. This worries me. When I become a doctor, I want my main worry to be my patients, not the debt I accumulated.

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[PatchAdamsFan]

You will pay them back, whether it takes 5 years or 35 years is up to you. Manage your finances early on!

 

[rockman_ariel]

You will pay them back, whether it takes 5 years or 35 years is up to you. Manage your finances early on!

Yeah, I want to be on the 5 year plan. I'm sure we all do! Now I want to watch Patch Adams.

 

[josebiwasabi]

Check each school's loan default rate. NYCPM's is 1.0% for a 3 year cohort of 2011-2013.

But yes, now that I'm about to graduate, student loans are a burden. But manageable if you plan it out correctly. Don't live like an attending when you're a student or resident and you will be ok.

 

[rockman_ariel]

Check each school's loan default rate. NYCPM's is 1.0% for a 3 year cohort of 2011-2013.

But yes, now that I'm about to graduate, student loans are a burden. But manageable if you plan it out correctly. Don't live like an attending when you're a student or resident and you will be ok.

Thanks for the default rate! That's definitely a good statistic to consider when deciding what school to go to.

 

[heybrother]

Unfortunately, default rates are a useless statistic. You could be $300K in debt making peanuts and as long as you make your tiny IBR payments (which are income based and probably don't even keep up with interest) you would be considered in compliance with your payment plan.

 

[Podicus]

Check each school's loan default rate. NYCPM's is 1.0% for a 3 year cohort of 2011-2013.

But yes, now that I'm about to graduate, student loans are a burden. But manageable if you plan it out correctly. Don't live like an attending when you're a student or resident and you will be ok.

Where did you find this information?

 

[ashtonmccants]

Where did you find this information?

I believe you can find this information on the FAFSA website: www.studentloans.gov I believe. When you submit for aid for a school, it gives you some of the basic information such as completion rate and loan default rate. Hope this helps.

 

[heybrother]

Where did you find this information?

He got the number from this page: http://www.nycpm.edu/outcomes.asp

Not sure how you would find it unless you knew how to look for it. All the schools are supposed to be posting their outcomes, but I looked around NYCPM's website and I couldn't find a direct link to to that page. I'm happy to be wrong - it shouldn't be a difficult task to find schools outcomes, but they still feel hidden. As indicated above - default rate is a pointless number. I wonder if it takes into account the 30% of students they cut along the way.

The FAFSA pages seem to be blank for all the schools I've looked at (DMU, NYCPM, Samuel M). If they had information it would be at my link below.
https://fafsa.ed.gov/FAFSA/app/schoolSearch

 

[dyk343]

Even with Income based repayment... loans suck. It's 15% of your income pre-tax... so it's defiantly takes a chunk of your income. Especially with a resident's salary.

Pack lunches, Live with roommates, etc, etc. It adds up!

 

[Podicus]

Even with Income based repayment... loans suck. It's 15% of your income pre-tax... so it's defiantly takes a chunk of your income. Especially with a resident's salary.

Pack lunches, Live with roommates, etc, etc. It adds up!

This scares me a lot lol...

 

[Podicus]

Sorry to hijack this thread a bit, but If one were to have saved up cash before medical school, what advice would any of you have as to how that money should be allocated? Would it be wise to spend as much of it as you can rite off the bat towards tuition? Or use it to pay for all other expensive before tuition Ie ( housing, food, books, supplies etc). And then just take loans put purely for tuition.

 

[KSUCPM2015]

Podicus: It really doesn't matter because at the end of the day you have a certain amount of money (say $2000) and you will need probably $200k over 4 years total (tuition, living expenses, etc.) so, unless I'm missing something, you'll still go $198k into debt no matter what.

As far as the default number goes, that 1% is really intriguing and I'm glad at least on school has an actual number. I would be shocked if that wasn't made up almost entirely of people who did not secure a residency. Also, I think the best thing you can do for yourself is get set up in an income-based plan, at least for residency. I know there is also a mechanism where you can even continue deferment during residency, though interest does continue to accrue.

Bottom line is that there are programs out there to assist you on the federal loans and you should take advantage of them. Speaking from personal experience, my fiance (who is not a resident but draws roughly what a resident's salary would be at her job) is on an IBR plan and it is extremely fair. Unfortunately, you go into a lot of debt to enter medicine these days and I wish I could offer some advice other than just accept it, but that is pretty much what you have to do.