Debt

Match Day was in March and May brings caps and gowns. The medical school graduates of the Class of 2014 will soon be starting the next stage of training; with luck and hard work they will get ‘real’ jobs in three to eight (or more) years (after completing residency training).

At graduation, the median educational debt last year was $168,000. The median cost to attend a private medical school was more than $286,000 and 11% of private medical school graduates owed more than $300,000. More than a third of students from public medical schools owed more than $200,000.

In 1984 the median private medical school debt was $22,000 ($46,000 in today’s dollars). The monthly loan payment was an annoyance, not a burden.

In order to pay back $300,000 in twenty years, the monthly payment is more than $2000. Many loans allow forbearance during residency and there are options (such as National Health Service) to reduce debt.  Nonetheless, young doctors face a daunting economic challenge: finishing paying their own educational debt before their children start college.