$295,000 In Medical School Debt
I am currently a third year medical student and already $226,000 in debt because I'm out-of-state and have no other means of funding my education except through loans. I'll graduate with at least $295,000 in debt, an amount that will only increase as interest accumulates during residency training and over my 20 year repayment period.
The thought of starting life with such a huge debt is very frightening, especially since I plan on going into primary care and not a lucrative medical specialty or subspecialty. Primary care physicians are grossly underpaid compared to many specialists, yet they work longer hours and have to deal with the administrative burden associated with insurance companies. As a result, the number of medical students choosing to pursue primary care as a career is declining each year. More and more, students are taking debt load and lifestyle into account when making career choices.
My goal is to help increase the public's awareness of medical student debt and its impact on health care. The American Medical Student Association (AMSA) has implemented legislative proposals for creative solutions to medical student indebtedness and the growing shortage of primary care physicians.
Why do medical schools charge students so much money? Frankly, they do it because they can. We have enough students who want to become physicians that we can increase tuition rates yearly.
It was not this way when I went to medical school. I paid an average of $1000 per year in the early 1970s. Using an inflation calculator, that would become around $5000 per year in current dollars. Yet that same school and most state schools charge 3 times that much.
What has changed? I believe that medical schools and universities have become an industry. I understand medical schools better than universities, but it is clear that you can understand the implicit mission if you follow the moneys.
Student debt has an insidious influence on our physician workforce. Students clearly will often choose a specialty that has double the income, even when they do not have a strong attraction to that specialty. Money does matter, and it contributes implicitly to student decision making.
The AAMC should address this. I applaud AMSA for making this issue one of high priority.
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I would love to see a dollar by dollar account of where my medical school tuition goes. I understand that it costs money to run any educational institution, but I can’t imagine that it is anywhere near as expensive as the fees they charge us.
I think the most ridiculous fees I am charged at my institution are the “student activity fees” that are distributed to student groups regardless of whether I am associated with them. So I wind up funding groups like Medical Students For Choice even though I am completely opposed to their views. Let students pay dues to organizations they want to participate in and keep the money if they don’t.
Medical school tuition (and private college/university tuition) is obscene. Med students facing enormous debt will be further repelled from primary care, where they are needed. If medical school tution is to be subsidized, where will the money come from? Who will give up tens of millions of dollars every year to make medical school affordable? While the ultimate objective is noble, I see no clear pathway to achieve it. http://www.MDWhistleblower.blogspot.com
Does the congress and public know that several thousands of foreign medical students entering this country to gain residency here and allmost all of them are debt free when they start residency!!!! Why are those countries able to educate their Med students ( ironic that some leave their country with degree though) without loading them with debts??? when we have enough students here interested in MED SCHOOL why dent them and then turn around and import them for residencies. We are so foolish!!!!!!!
How much does medical school cost now? $226,000 for 3 years would be $70,000/ year… is that really what it is?
I went to a state school in the 70s that cost $900/semester. That is why I can afford to be in primary care I guess.
Tuition at an instate school is in the neighborhood of $16-17,000, plus living expenses has students borrowing either the max allowed or close to it, which would be $35-40,000 per year. Students going to private schools are paying double, or more tuition prices.
Also, small correction, medical school is 4 years, so that $226,000 is ~$55,000/year. Plus you have to figure in interest.
There is a bubble in education, the same way there was a bubble in the housing market. If the physician income decreases (very likely), it will be difficult to justify economically going to a medical school, even if you really love medicine. Reality will prevail. Also, if you socialize a market too much while other markets remain free, eventually the smart kids will fly to the free markets.
Medical schools will face very soon a harsh economic reality and they will have to adjust. The goose with the golden eggs is dead.
Part of medical school tuition inflation derives from the subsidization of student loans by the federal government; this leads to medical schools raising tuition because they know the students can get the loans to pay it. I think we are now seeing the breaking point of that phenomenon, because the same federal government that subsidized the loans for the medical education is introducing ever more reductions in reimbursement for those professionals once their training is complete.
my med school raised tuition by 7% this year, 3-4% previous years. they tell us this happened because the state is broke. despite having 15+ deans for one medical school making more than $200k a piece.
the required health insurance that the school sells us doubled from MS1 to MS3 (that’d be $3000 a year, that covers … nothing).
not only do we get screwed on loan interest rates, but we get origination fees too!
i’m graduating with $240k. i consider myself “lucky”. out of state students who did a master’s before matriculating may reach half a million. my state school costs $28k a year in tuition. $52k if you are out of state. that’s NOT including living expenses. i’m taking out $55k a year for tuition and living expenses.
i try not to think about it. i suppose that’s bad. but it gives me a panic attack just looking at it.
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