How do middle class kids afford med school?

[Anonymous]

How do middle class kids afford med school?

My daughter is a HS Senior and wants to be a doctor. We have about $180k in 529..This should cover her undergrad.

How the hell is she going to afford med school? We are behind on retirement saving and starting to focus more on that now. So we can't even co-sign loans for her when she gets there.

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[Anonymous]

In many countries kids start med school right after HS. And the governments cover the fees and even give students a small stipend. As a result, the socio economic background of Drs in those countries is quite diverse.

Not in the US. I wouldn't be surprised if most Doctors trained in the US came from affluent families. At least the vast majority don't come from poor or middle class families.

Her best bet is to be a medical scholar MD/PhD. But as you may imagine you need stellar academic credentials

[Anonymous]

go to undergrad where you can get full scholarship and good grades. state medical school.

[Anonymous]

Go to the cheapest, best undergrad she can. Get straight A's and kill the MCAT. Then take out loans for med school like everyone else. Pay them off around 45.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go to the cheapest, best undergrad she can. Get straight A's and kill the MCAT. Then take out loans for med school like everyone else. Pay them off around 45.

That is my daughter’s plan!

[Anonymous]

I’ll let you know. Starting in June. I’m paying room/board with 529 and tuition will be loans. After first year they can get financial aid. In state is cheaper, thank goodness they got into schools in our state.

Note:if she wants to do family medicine or internal medicine, there are free programs and financial aid from beginning.
Geisinger in PA, for example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go to the cheapest, best undergrad she can. Get straight A's and kill the MCAT. Then take out loans for med school like everyone else. Pay them off around 45.

That is my daughter’s plan!

There is a cap on the loans now, it may not cover it. That’s why using 529 for room/board. Loans can be limited to tuition then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do middle class kids afford med school?

My daughter is a HS Senior and wants to be a doctor. We have about $180k in 529..This should cover her undergrad.

How the hell is she going to afford med school? We are behind on retirement saving and starting to focus more on that now. So we can't even co-sign loans for her when she gets there.

$180K. Oh, more than enough. You first go to public state college for undergrad. Maybe even do one or two year of community college to knock out all the prerequisite courses and then shift to state school. Maybe she even lives at home for the first 2 years to save on room and board. So in 60K or less she does her undergrad. GPA is completely important, have a plan (chatGPT and other AI this), shadow drs, do the volunteer work necessary, work in clinic/emergency EMT/VA hospital etc, study for MCAT and do organic chemistry from multiple sources (online course, tutors, you tube etc) so that you do not flunk out of the course that kills med school dreams.

Once she gets admitted, the funding and the loans will come her way.

[Anonymous]

I'll tell you how I did it. My parents (very middle class) generously paid for my undergrad. I went to med school from 2007-11, racked up $316K in student loans, and paid them back by moonlighting during my residency between 2011-2016. I was working about 90 hours a week, but I easy paid them back by the time I finished training. Having student loan debt fueled me to work harder and I'm grateful for it.

[Anonymous]

Join the Air Force before med school. That's what my uncle did. Came from a poor family.

So Air Force officer during med school, residence, and then afterward for a while. Then resigned his commission and joined a private practice.

Many such cases. Never a penny of debt.

[Anonymous]

Go to an SEC school like Alabama. Presumably grades / test scores are good enough for almost all tuition paid. Incredibly supportive pre-med program. They have labs for research by undergrads and a hospital on campus for clinical. Their program placement is outstanding, several top 10 admits all over the country.

[Anonymous]

Real middle class or 300k or more dcum middle class? Financial aid, loans, income, work summer, save like mad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Join the Air Force before med school. That's what my uncle did. Came from a poor family.

So Air Force officer during med school, residence, and then afterward for a while. Then resigned his commission and joined a private practice.

Many such cases. Never a penny of debt.

You owe a lot of years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Join the Air Force before med school. That's what my uncle did. Came from a poor family.

So Air Force officer during med school, residence, and then afterward for a while. Then resigned his commission and joined a private practice.

Many such cases. Never a penny of debt.

Yup. We live close to a large military base with a hospital and their doctors often rent in our neighborhood and their kids have gone to school with ours. They get school paid for, do their time, often moonlighting for extra money, and go into private practice when their military commitment is over or when they're eligible to retire. Same with dentists. It seems like the docs don't have to move as often as other officers.

[Anonymous]

I wonder how much Sofi spent to lobby congress on the student loans cap.

Sofi is salivating right now.