Your undergrad debt

Started by Barnosaur
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Get help with your application

Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.

Browse articles Compare schools My application plan Read Interview Feedback
Practice for interviews Ask an Advisor
Barnosaur

Barnosaur

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
I was looking at the 2013 MSQ and noticed that something like 65% of matriculating students stated that they had no college debt.
I was pretty surprised by this, so I was curious to know if people think this is accurate or if there are some confounding factors.
 
Physicians often produce future physician offspring. Physicians have enough money to pay for their kids' college expenses.

A good chunk of incoming students these days is a little older - these students could have already paid off their debts.
 
Med students also tend to be smart (oftentimes starting in high school), so factor in scholarships, especially from state schools.
Then once you consider need-based financial aid from rich private schools, and it's a very believable figure.
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Barnosaur said:
I was looking at the 2013 MSQ and noticed that something like 65% of matriculating students stated that they had no college debt.
I was pretty surprised by this, so I was curious to know if people think this is accurate or if there are some confounding factors.
Click to expand...

It is accurate. Also, aside from others said: a large number of med students come from highly affluent backgrounds.
 
My EFC was also 0. I got through school solely on financial aid, even then I still have 52k in debt from student loans. PA isn't very kind when it comes to IS tuition..
 
My EFC is around 20k and fortunately my school is very generous with grant aid. Currently, I have around 4k of loans and will get another 2k for senior year. I'm planning on taking 1-2 gap years and my mom said that she would pay off my undergrad debt. Definitely pretty luck, but most likely could have paid off my loans by working during the school year and putting my summer earnings toward my loans. A big part besides wealth of your parents is the amount of grant aid your school gives.
 
Most decent undergrads meet your financial aid need. The only people that tend to have debt in my school are those that rich parents' won't pay for it.
 
I always took out the max I could for my private institution but still wasn't enough. I took out about 27k and my parents had to take about the same. I hate that they have debt in my name.
 
43092 said:
Most decent undergrads meet your financial aid need. The only people that tend to have debt in my school are those that rich parents' won't pay for it.
Click to expand...

This is pretty much limited to schools with huge endowments and largely private schools. I would say it's the exception rather than the rule as evidenced by the averages we see with respect to undergrad debt burden (now hovering somewhere between $30-40k averaged over the US).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Went to a public university, had both need based and some merit based, still came out of undergrad with about 15k in loans, which in the grand scheme of things, isn't much.
 
Had about $18K of undergrad debt and took on about $10K more for post-bacc. Paid off all the undergrad debt slowly over the years. The post-bacc debt is going to sit there while I'm in medical school or maybe my parents will help me pay it off so I don't have to worry about making payments while in school (I wasn't eligible for federal loans).
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
43092 said:
Most decent undergrads meet your financial aid need. The only people that tend to have debt in my school are those that rich parents' won't pay for it.
Click to expand...

Are you stupid? The undergrad doesn't give poor students any money (unless were talking about a couple of thousand in merit scholarship or maybe a little minority grant ). Financial aid packages are only about 50% government grants(money you don't have to pay back) and 50% student loans (money you have to pay back 6 months after graduating) .... My parents are far from rich, according to the AAMC In order to qualify for FAP my parents needed to make under 70k. Guess what? My parents don't make half of that. Don't speak on stuff you have no knowledge of. The people who don't have undergrad debt are the people who have rich parents to payback the government loans or the people who are really smart and get a full ride.
 
Last edited:
Yeah I'm not surprised by this figure at all. My family is very middle of the road (about 60k per year) and I still graduated with $0 debt due to scholarships, financial aid, my own contributions, and so on. I'd say probably 80% of my friends that are applying are debt free also and I'm at your average state school.
 
listener23 said:
Are you stupid? The undergrad doesn't give poor students any money (unless were talking about a couple of thousand in merit scholarship or maybe a little minority grant ). Financial aid packages are only about 50% government grants(money you don't have to pay back) and 50% student loans (money you have to pay back 6months after graduating) .... My parents are far from rich, according to the AAMC In order to qualify for FAP my parents need to make under 70k. Guess what? My parents don't make half of that. Don't speak on stuff you have no knowledge of. The people who don't have undergrad debt are the people who have rich parents to payback the government loans or the people who are really smart and get a full ride.
Click to expand...
Uhm.. I am fully aware, you must not go to a decent undergrad. I got like 1k from the government and the rest from my school for need as they don't give merit aid. Even unranked private schools give merit scholarships for any decent grades.
 
listener23 said:
Are you stupid? The undergrad doesn't give poor students any money (unless were talking about a couple of thousand in merit scholarship or maybe a little minority grant ). Financial aid packages are only about 50% government grants(money you don't have to pay back) and 50% student loans (money you have to pay back 6 months after graduating) .... My parents are far from rich, according to the AAMC In order to qualify for FAP my parents needed to make under 70k. Guess what? My parents don't make half of that. Don't speak on stuff you have no knowledge of. The people who don't have undergrad debt are the people who have rich parents to payback the government loans or the people who are really smart and get a full ride.
Click to expand...
Wow, why are you so ****ing rude? Financial packages aren't all from the government. Heck, if you take out what I got from the government, it would hardly make a difference. But, a lot of schools give great financial aid packages. I don't pay 1/3 of what my school actually costs and it costs A LOT. I also got merit aid from many local universities. If I didn't get any of this aid, I would have gone to a CC or a state school that wouldn't cost more than 10k a year.
 
Last edited:
Kochanie said:
Wow, why are you so ******* rude? Financial packages aren't all from the government. Heck, if you take out what I got from the government, it would hardly make a difference. But, a lot of schools give great financial aid packages. I don't pay 1/3 of what my school actually costs and it costs A LOT. I also got merit aid from many local universities. If I didn't get any of this aid, I would go to a CC or a state school that wouldn't cost more than 10k a year.
Click to expand...
State school is still like $15-20k/yr unless you can live at home and commute.
 
I was very lucky and my parents were able to help me through college, I am forever indebted to them for that. $20,000 seems like a lot a year, but my family is settled in and such so it was not too for them to manage. Especially because the system is set up so you pay twice a year, instead of all at once, it becomes more manageable.
 
mehc012 said:
Zero undergraduate debt here, due to fancypants private college with $$ to burn on us lowly peasants!
Click to expand...

In transferring from a state school to a private fancypants as you put it lol I was really shocked. The knly debt I will graduate with is from my two years at the public state, with IS status. Now I get full COA on scholarship..

Wish I had known sooner! I was fully preparing to work my ass off to pay tuition at the private, now I don't have to work at all. Yay us peasants lol
 
zero undergrad debt because i) canadian uni with 5k/yr tuition, ii) scholarships for good grades, and most of all iii) supportive parents
 
my school was 30k a year... i feel pretty lucky to have graduated with just 27k in debt.

but i had an athletic scholarship, a scholarship from my high school, and mother's tuition reimbursement that she could pass on to a dependent
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Something like 20K. Eh...it's but a drop in the bucket, unfortunately.
 
WhittyPsyche said:
In transferring from a state school to a private fancypants as you put it lol I was really shocked. The knly debt I will graduate with is from my two years at the public state, with IS status. Now I get full COA on scholarship..

Wish I had known sooner! I was fully preparing to work my ass off to pay tuition at the private, now I don't have to work at all. Yay us peasants lol
Click to expand...
Exactly...I was all "well, I guess I'll apply there even though I'll never be able to go cuz it's $55k/yr"
Got the finaid packet and went :wow: "this costs substantially less than going to my IS with a merit scholarship and living at home."
 
I attend a state school that costs about $20,000 a year if you include on-campus housing. They give me a waiver worth $2,000 per academic year, but the rest is a combination of student and parent loans. When all is said and done, I'll have about $40,000-50,000 in loans to pay for undergrad.

I never considered that private schools may be cheaper options. I always figured that even though they typically give individuals higher amounts of aid, their higher COA evened it out. Now I kinda wish I had looked into more schools. Oh, well.
 
33K for private undergrad school (a year after I graduated, they made it so anyone whose family income was under 100K or something didn't have to take out loans)
65K for public graduate school
 
mehc012 said:
Exactly...I was all "well, I guess I'll apply there even though I'll never be able to go cuz it's $55k/yr"
Got the finaid packet and went :wow: "this costs substantially less than going to my IS with a merit scholarship and living at home."
Click to expand...

Meridius said:
I attend a state school that costs about $20,000 a year if you include on-campus housing. They give me a waiver worth $2,000 per academic year, but the rest is a combination of student and parent loans. When all is said and done, I'll have about $40,000-50,000 in loans to pay for undergrad.

I never considered that private schools may be cheaper options. I always figured that even though they typically give individuals higher amounts of aid, their higher COA evened it out. Now I kinda wish I had looked into more schools. Oh, well.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I applied thinking I would just bite the bullet. My husband was freaking out the whole time, I think he was secretly wishing I didn't get in lol. My COA is about 68k and fully covered with school scholarships. My pell grant is just cherry on top. I met with fin aid and they are in the works of another packet to cover childcare costs and family health insurance :wow:
 
I'm about to enter undergrad. I didn't pay anything but the application fee at the career center I'm about to graduate from, and I'm not going to have to take out loans for undergrad. I qualify for both need based and merit based aid, plus there are tons of scholarships for nurses, not to mention work commitment programs. Several hospitals in my area will pay off your loans if you work for them for two years, and the HRSA will pay tuition and fees+ monthly living stipend in exchange for working in an underserved area. Also, since I went to a career center to get my LPN first, I can get a decent job so I wont have to go in debt if I do end up needing to pay for something myself.

I think this is more common now a days. It seems like my parents generation was told that a degree would guarantee you a good job and comfortable life, and therefore it was worth taking out loans as an investment in your future, and that since you would have a good job they would be easy to repay. My generation saw our parents struggling with loans, and grew up knowing a degree doesn't guarantee a life above the poverty line.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.