Comments on: Debt – a resident perspective

By: arf

arf — Fri, 27 May 2005 00:19:40 +0000

Uh, oh…….look at this:

http://www.dermatologytimes.com/dermatologytimes/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=157713

By: arf

arf — Thu, 26 May 2005 23:56:40 +0000

Here’s some info on med school tuition.

http://www.amsa.org/about/priorities.cfm

http://www.amsa.org/meded/studentdebt.cfm

http://www.amsa.org/meded/tuition_FAQ.cfm

Med school tuition+fees listed:
https://services.aamc.org/tsf/TSF_Report/report_intro.cfm

By: Ali

Ali — Thu, 26 May 2005 17:50:28 +0000

Oh, also there's some interesting comments here, though the post itself lacks much substance.

By: Ali

Ali — Thu, 26 May 2005 17:27:26 +0000

I’ll second that Amen! But how do we make that change?
If the actual costs of education can’t be diminished (which I suspect is true), at least it seems like a lot of it could be solved if more in the way of grants and loan forgiveness programs were available, especially for the lower-paying specialties. This would at least level the playing field a bit, and would eliminate some of the discouragement people like your reader and me (I expect to be in a similar situation as him in a few years) feel towards certain specialties to which we’d normally be inclined. I don’t really know how things like federal grants and loan forgiveness programs get created, but I assume it begins with legislation, which itself begins with public or lobbyist support. But again, I don’t really know. Does that sound feasible? What is the most realistic course of action to actually do something about the problem?

By: slugger

slugger — Thu, 26 May 2005 16:32:05 +0000

Let me ask a stupd question..
Where is the tuition money going? I am a 1971 med school graduate. My tuition was $700 per year, and I was an out-of-state student. Most faculty members these days are self-supporting via the faculty practice or research funding. The research is obviously self funded. Care for the indigent by med schools appears to me at least to be on the decline; it is very difficult to get a patient seen at my local med school without some obvious funding source.
A gallon of gasoline is up 8 fold since 1971; med school is up 20 fold. Can this burden continue? I certainly would not advise any student to pick a primary care path.