I graduated from medical school in 2002. 9 years ago. Did a 4 year residency (aka poorer than dirt for 4 years while working my ass off).
Just sent in my payment for my student loans. I still owe nearly 70K on them. It seems like they'll never go down to 0.
:(
12 comments:
I graduated from veterinary school more than 10 years ago, and I owe more than you do, even though I did NOT do a residency.
No pity here.
Hit it! Dave Ramsey style. Get that sucker outta your life in two years!! You can do it!!
70k?? That's not too bad. I have a friend who has a six figure debt and others with 40-70k just from bachelor's degrees! And no they're not in fields where they're making six figures. So glad my parents recommended a state school and I took their advice. I receieved a great education and had a great time.
Ahh, it makes no financial sense for me to attack my student loans - my mortgage has a higher interest rate. Plus if I die, my student loans will be forgiven. I doubt BoA would do that for my house. ;)
And don't worry - I live significantly below my means, support 2 households (there's the cash drain - and no, this is non-negotiable), save up for my kids' education. They will not need to borrow to attend college. And I know that those loans have gone down...just not as fast as I would like.
I had no help for college, my masters degree, nor for medical school. I am a first generation college grad, coming from a blue-collar background. I am NOT asking for pity, I am just bitching. But my past choices are in the past and I live now with those consequences.
And Taylo - your friends are idiots for borrowing that much for a bachelors degree. Just saying. All of my degrees are from state schools. I worked my ass off in undergrad, worked as a TA for my masters, and scrimped in medical school and borrowed only tuition in med school. I deliberately went to the cheapest med school I was accepted at. My total borrowing for those 9 years : about 100K.
Haha, I know they're idiots. I laugh b/c many of us work for the same organization and make the same amount of money. Yet they have all these student loans. State schools for the win!
A current second year here, paying off the loan interest each month. I try not to think too much about what's waiting for me in a couple years, because it's pretty depressing. I've considered doing programs post gradutation along the lines of the National Health Service Corps - or a similar loan assistance/service program to help. I guess that's the reality of medical education.
>>I am a first generation college grad, coming from a blue-collar background.>>
So am I. And I didn't have any loans from undergraduate, either: just veterinary school. I went to my state school, but veterinarians do not have much choice, and it was not cheap.
The difference is, I will probably never make six figures. I would never be able to support two households. I would never be able to pay kids' college tuition.
Unbelievable.
wow. I went into nursing. Been working 30 plus years. Didn't have any loans outstanding when I graduated thanks to a $100 per month stipend and almost starving to death. I invested in real estate and I now am up by $1million in equity. I will have a full pension with benefits plus my pension from the government plus any medical expenses paid for in the future. I travel a lot and have 2 1/2 months off vacation yearly and great sick benefits. I make only $75K per year part time and my husband makes $50K so we are doing ok...what with our rentals paying for our future ocean view retirement penthouse.
Too bad you didn't go into nursing.;)
>>Too bad you didn't go into nursing.
I didn't choose veterinary medicine for the money, obviously, and I didn't - and still don't - find anything about human medicine even remotely interesting or appealing. That's why I went to veterinary school instead.
If I were motivated by money, I'd have gone to dental school, no question.
ha, dental is not the answer either. my brother and his wife are both dentists and have over $250k in school loans. They can't afford to open their own practice as it costs about a million to do it these days. so they work for an older dentist and he gets 60% of their production. If they could do it all over again, he'd be a teacher and she'd be a pathologist.
>>my brother and his wife are both dentists and have over $250k in school loans>>
Your brother and his wife very unwisely spent much too much money on school. Poor financial choice of dental schools, and probably a poor financial choice of university. I'm also guessing they're fairly recent graduates.
The average dentist makes about double the salary of the average veterinarian. Keep in mind I'm managing fine with my current salary (debt and all). Then again, my expectations for standard of living were realistic.
I'm a first generation college grad too...went to a very good state university for my bachelors and worked my way through it, so no loans there. For pharmacy school stayed at the same university and I only borrowed what I absolutely had to, paid both interest and principal while in school plus had 2-3 part time jobs to manage living expenses. I have about 25K in loans for the 4 years of pharmacy school. Graduated a year ago. I have classmates that borrowed about 120k and even used some of that money to pay for a vacation trips, weddings, etc...the thing is it would have been cheaper to go to Med School at the same university.
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