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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI'm a doctor and even I can't afford my student loans
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/20/opinion/medical-school-student-loans-tuition-debt-doctor.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region®ion=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-regionLast week, the New York University School of Medicine became the first medical school in the nation to become fully tuition-free. Dr. Robert Grossman, dean of the medical school, cited young physicians crushing debt as an impetus for the move. One may think that doctors, with their gigantic salaries, are immune to student debt worries, but Dr. Grossmans announcement made official what many medical school students have long known: The crisis of paying for education has finally caught up with the one percent.
My personal experiences highlight the magnitude of the problem. Upon graduation from medical school in 2013, I owed approximately $180,000 in student debt what might seem an outrageously high number that is actually about $10,000 less than the average for todays medical school graduates. I scrounged and saved during residency, living in a tiny Chinatown apartment, riding my bicycle to work every day, and sneaking expired patient sandwiches for lunch so that I could make my monthly $700 debt payment. Yet upon completing residency, the amount I owed had, to my disbelief, increased to $188,000 all my efforts had not been enough to cover even the interest accumulating on my loans.
Growing up, I expected a career in medicine partly to be a ticket out of the working-class circumstances I grew up in. My parents, immigrants from rural Iran, struggled to provide opportunity for their children. A career in medicine promised a better future ahead. But five years after graduating from medical school, that future still seems on a distant horizon. I cannot afford to buy a house, still ride my bicycle to work and continue to skimp on meals in order to cover more than $3,000 in monthly loan payments.
I am far from alone. A mentor in residency, several years my senior and making over $200,000 per year, once revealed that she had moved back in with her mother just to get a handle on her student loans. Another colleague had a marriage proposal rejected because of his mortgage-size debt.
Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)LostinRed
(840 posts)Debt might not be as much but the pay is a lot less
a la izquierda
(11,797 posts)We spend loads of time in school and if were not teaching business or law, were screwed.
former9thward
(32,077 posts)The Department of Education will forgive any loans if you work for the government or a not for profit organization. You just have to make payments for 10 years and the rest of the loan is forgiven. Your loan payments during the 10 years can be income based and that is very reasonable.
https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/node/91
ProudMNDemocrat
(16,789 posts)It does not surprise me that even Doctors and Lawyers are poor with such high amounts of student debt.
Between her undergraduate and post graduate degrees, my daughter still owes over $120,000 . She earned her Doctor of Chiropractic degree 15 years ago, undergrad in 1999 while even taking a gap year between her second and third years of college to work. She is 43 with a house, 2 cars, 2 kids. Her husband is an amazing bartender and handyman who is capable of making a decent income. She hopes to have her loans paid off within another 15 years if she is lucky.
SkyDancer
(561 posts)NOW.
10s of millions in this country will never own a home because of it. It is beginning to come to fruition how much of an economic drag student loan debt is. Wall Street was bailed out, it's time the people were.
Vinca
(50,303 posts)WhiskeyGrinder
(22,431 posts)a living on. Does society really need another doctor? Millennials have such unrealistic expectations about making a living.
Bluepinky
(2,276 posts)especially in non-urban areas and especially for primary care MDs. A lot of bright students are choosing to NOT go into medicine due to the high cost of education.
Cousin Dupree
(1,866 posts)fellowships, debt, stress, just to make a living. There are easier ways to make a living. And yes, there is a doctor shortage and its only going to get worse.