Paying for school

Hi everyone,


Just wondering how people are paying for school, particularly the undergrade parts. I know it varies from person to person, but I was just kind of curious to see what the “norm” is. Scholarships? Out of pocket? Loans?


I’m guessing I’m going to be taking loans for a good portion of it, and I was just wondering how normal that is. (Seeing as the expensive part of my education will be actual med school, I was hoping to get more paid out of pocket. Hm…)

I am around 30K in Student Loans. Mostly private, this means I am paying interest. Last year I went fulltime to school and I knocked out about 50 credits. I CLEP’ed eight classes so that was 24 credits there.


This year I am working part-time and I have only 6 credits for my BS. Now I just need all my science classes completed which I am taking at a CC due to the cost factor.


I figure if I get into medical school, I will owe well over 200K in loans. For what I understand, that is not uncommon. I figured I can pay that off in five years once out of residency. If I can live off of 75K a year, I can pay 75K toward the student loans. That is only if the starting pay of a FP physician stays at 150K.

Keep in mind that starting salary of 150K doesn’t really mean you can split 75/75. There’s that great little thing called taxes! :slight_smile:


Not that it’s not worth the investment or not possible, just that paying off in 5 years may be a little ambitious.

Good point on taxes. I forgot to mention there are loan forgiveness programs. From what I understand, if you sign a contract saying that you will work in a low income area for a certain period of time they will forgive a portion (maybe all) of your government loans. For what I understand, private loans do not count.

My employer has a tuition reimbursement program up $5250/yr for undergraduate/graduate courses.


Beyond that it’s on my dime.

I work full time right now at a Hospital/University that will cover a certain portion per semester. After that, it is out of my pocket, but I will be trying to do it without loans…leaving the loans for Med School. I might go to a cheaper state University for some of my missing undergrad classes, as I talked to the admissions department at my med school of choice and they basically said what is important is to take the classes at a reputable school and get A’s.