What private loan to take for medical school

[Coffeelover7502]

Hey guys,
I am currently taking out a private loan for medical school since my federal student loan aid was not covering all my costs. I am trying to figure out what the best private loan is to take out. Currently I am picking between College Avenue and Sallie Mae. Does anyone have other recommendations? Or if I were to pick between the two which would you think is better?

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[Robin-jay]

I didn't know medical schools out there weren't covering enough with federal loans. All I know is private loans are scary. I was interviewed at a medical school that didn't graduate it's first class yet, so private loans were necessary. I did not go there.

 

[kirtar]

I didn't know medical schools out there weren't covering enough with federal loans. All I know is private loans are scary. I was interviewed at a medical school that didn't graduate it's first class yet, so private loans were necessary. I did not go there.

You can only take up to COA with grad plus, so if your actual expenses end up being higher than that they won't cover.

 

[Robin-jay]

You can only take up to COA with grad plus, so if your actual expenses end up being higher than that they won't cover.

Yes, but usually they allow quite the abundance of loans I thought. I could have taken out like 30k more each year at least if I wanted.

 

[DrStephenStrange]

Yes, but usually they allow quite the abundance of loans I thought. I could have taken out like 30k more each year at least if I wanted.

I got married right before medical school but didn’t have kids, and I remember budget being really tight throughout med school even after maxing out the amount of loans that were available and having parents that were very supportive. I also remember asking myself how people with 1 let alone multiple kids do it to survive. So I can see someone struggling to make ends meet in that situation especially if they don’t have anyone else to support them.

 

[Giovanotto]

I had a good experience with discover student loans. I was also able to refinance my loans to a very low, around 3% fixed interest rate from around 6% during school. This was obviously way before COVID.

 

[RangerBob]

We needed more than the estimated cost of attendance one year and used a private loan. I think it was Sallie Mae? This was over a decade ago however.

You need to be careful with private loans. Many can go into repayment while you're still in medical school, often there's no lower payments for residency, etc. So make sure to read the fine print.

As an attending paying back these loans now, it really is worthwhile to keep them to a minimum... My interest alone was about $25k/yr (on $350k in loans), which means residency added $100k to my debt. Thankfully as long as you re-certify your payment plan, your interest doesn't capitalize again (notwithstanding the initial capitalization at the end of your grace period)

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Rates for private student loans these days without collateral can be like 15%. I would do anything (SNAP/EBT, medicaid, food bank) before taking a loan on those terms. And there is no income based repayment. So say for some reason doctors end up making half of what they currently do by the time you’re in practice, you would be expected to pay full payments regardless

 

[Octcoming]

As someone who actually uses private loan i got 9%.