USC First YR Cost of Attendance $181k 2025-2026

[odontogenesis]

Do dentists have military or underserved area job options to pay off huge debts?

The NIH offers loan repayment options if you take an academic job for a period of time. Totally worth it in my opinion if you have the amount of debt being discussed here…

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[lalala15]

Just wanted to share a personal opinion. I've gone to good academic institutions prior to attending USC dental and will admit it was the absolute worst decision of my entire life. The cost is beyond absurd and you do not get a quality education. Teaching was non-existent, faculty were biased and some faculty were completely unethical and unknowledgeable in my personal experience. I was always wondering where the tuition money went because I was mostly learning from YouTube videos. Additionally, in recent years, they screw over many students from graduating. Most of us come in being straight A students our whole lives and take out a whole lot of loans to attend. It is not worth it, if I could take one decision back in my life it would be attending USC dental. So just as a personal take, go to any other dental school except for USC. You'll save your life. If you want to be southern california, UCLA, Loma Linda, and other schools around here will give you a better dental education for a lower price.

 

[CaptainRyanYT Gaming]

Just wanted to share a personal opinion. I've gone to good academic institutions prior to attending USC dental and will admit it was the absolute worst decision of my entire life. The cost is beyond absurd and you do not get a quality education. Teaching was non-existent, faculty were biased and some faculty were completely unethical and unknowledgeable in my personal experience. I was always wondering where the tuition money went because I was mostly learning from YouTube videos. Additionally, in recent years, they screw over many students from graduating. Most of us come in being straight A students our whole lives and take out a whole lot of loans to attend. It is not worth it, if I could take one decision back in my life it would be attending USC dental. So just as a personal take, go to any other dental school except for USC. You'll save your life. If you want to be southern california, UCLA, Loma Linda, and other schools around here will give you a better dental education for a lower price.

Really straight A students at USC??? average gpa is like 3.7 there.

 

[Punished Angeleno]

Really straight A students at USC??? average gpa is like 3.7 there.

Is that considered low? That's an A- average sGPA lol.

 

[allantois]

They are gonna cap loans for graduate students to 150k aggregate or so and all these schools are gonna get closed. This is the way

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/30/nx-s1-5381149/trump-republicans-student-loan-repayment

 

[JacquesVallee]

They are gonna cap loans for graduate students to 150k aggregate or so and all these schools are gonna get closed. This is the way

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/30/nx-s1-5381149/trump-republicans-student-loan-repayment

Wow, I'm about to praise Trump. This is wonderful news. Let's hope it passes.

 

[Cold Front]

USC dental's first year cost of attendance is now $181,094 for 2025. The total cost for all four years pre-interest and assuming no tuition hikes is $652,450. With interest and tuition increases, you're probably looking at just shy of 800k for all four years. Source: Paying for Dental School - Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC

I checked back on sdn to post on the usc new cost of attendance… wow… it’s still going insane!

There was a time when it was about $100k first yr when I started the USC tuition thread series on these forums. It’s probably just 3 more yrs away from hitting $200k first yr. At this rate, it will take less time for that cost to go from $200k to $300k for first yr than it did from $100k to $200k.

Some kids in middle school today will end up paying these exponential fees and could graduate with over $1.5M in student loans after interest. If they specialize at USC, add another $1M before interest by then. Some future orthodontist will owe $3M+ in student loans 10-13 yrs from now. . Sounds crazy… but people couldn’t imaging $1M+ in student loans after interest 15-20 yrs ago.

Even if you’re rich, why pay millions to be a dentist at that point? The average dentist makes 300k a yr and works about 30 yrs in this big hustle profession. Thats $9M before taxes, maybe $5M after taxes, less for some with the way insurances are reimbursing these days. Why take student loans of $1-2M next few years on a career that will net most dentists $5M take-home income in a world when the cost of everything keeps going up every year? Buying a practice, a decent home, cars, starting a family, rising health insurance cost, etc - just those items and expenses will cost in the millions alone in a lifetime. Very few fish can swim upstream in this likely example.

Do the maths before you apply to USC or similar high cost schools.

 

[Cold Front]

I’m pretty sure the loan rate is tied to the 10-year Treasury Bill rate. Unless the economy absolutely falls apart, I don’t see those rates coming down anytime soon…

Big Hoss

I miss your sense of humor with those gifs brother. lol

Yes. The 10y treasury is elevated and flirting with 5% rate every few months. That’s a benchmark for the student loans, home mortgage rates, etc. The country’s credit rating keeps dropping because of our close to 40 trillion national debt, plus our government is considering passing tax cuts and adding close to 5 trillion debt to the existing debt - while the Federal Reserve are holding the overnight interest rates higher for longer due to inflation risks from tariffs. I don’t know what will happen, but it’s not looking good if you put all the pieces together.

Plus the current administration is threatening to garnish wages and reposes assets if student loan borrowers who are behind on their payments don’t pay back their loans on time.

 

[SigmaFS]

I miss your sense of humor with those gifs brother. lol

Yes. The 10y treasury is elevated and flirting with 5% rate every few months. That’s a benchmark for the student loans, home mortgage rates, etc. The country’s credit rating keeps dropping because of our close to 40 trillion national debt, plus our government is considering passing tax cuts and adding close to 5 trillion debt to the existing debt - while the Federal Reserve are holding the overnight interest rates higher for longer due to inflation risks from tariffs. I don’t know what will happen, but it’s not looking good if you put all the pieces together.

Plus the current administration is threatening to garnish wages and reposes assets if student loan borrowers who are behind on their payments don’t pay back their loans on time.

This could all come to a glorious end if the proposed Education Bill passes, which includes elimination of the Graduate PLUS Loan program and capping the Unsubsidized Loan program to $150k for grad students effective July 1, 2026. Professional graduate programs face an existential threat with institutions like USC and NYU leading the way to their own demise.