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Your math doesn't add up. 4 years at $50k = $200k and $30k from undergraduate, I guess you were living off student loans as if it was income.
I looked up Iowa college, it's around $20/year including room and board.
I guess you never got a doctoral degree. It's not like undergraduate school, where you have time to get a job. Every free minute is spent either studying, eating, or sleeping. Unless you are independently wealthy, you have to live on loans as if it was income. I had $250k in loans when I finished medical school.
Also, I don't know anything about this school, but I would be extremely surprised to learn that ANY vet school is only $20K per year. That seems low. Even for state residents.
Your math doesn't add up. 4 years at $50k = $200k and $30k from undergraduate, I guess you were living off student loans as if it was income.
I looked up Iowa college, it's around $20/year including room and board.
Where are you getting that info from? It's 21,000/semester for vet med and $18,000 for the summer which brought my 4th year while I was in clinics to around $60,000 in tuition alone when I was there (I graduated in 2011 - not too long ago and they froze tuition this year from last). You cannot live in the dorms as a vet student either so you were clearly looking at tuition for other programs. Housing is NOT included in tuition for veterinary students. As I said I also did summer programs which added about $10,000 more per year. I spent one summer in South Africa doing wildlife immobilization and another in the Galapagos/Ecuador studying zoo/wildlife medicine. Exotics is my main passion in the field. This is also not including books (medical and veterinary books are ridiculously expensive even used if you can find them) and other surgical/medical equipment that you must buy or rent. Don't even get me started on the computer and programs you are required to purchase as well that I could have bought on my own for a lot cheaper. Iowa State is actually one of the cheaper vet schools plus the housing is much lower than many other areas with vet schools - it actually could have been much worse.
You HAVE no choice but to live off loans as income in vet school. As I said you cannot work. People have no concept of what it takes to get through these programs - it was pure hell (with the exception of the summer programs which were desperately needed to maintain my sanity). So after around $50,000 in tuition a year and around $25,000 for living expenses plus that additional $20,000 for the summer in clinics and interest on the loans, etc it comes out right. Would you like to see my student loan statements? I'm not exaggerating one bit.
Last edited by GoYanks34; 07-09-2013 at 08:58 AM..
I guess you never got a doctoral degree. It's not like undergraduate school, where you have time to get a job. Every free minute is spent either studying, eating, or sleeping. Unless you are independently wealthy, you have to live on loans as if it was income. I had $250k in loans when I finished medical school.
Also, I don't know anything about this school, but I would be extremely surprised to learn that ANY vet school is only $20K per year. That seems low. Even for state residents.
People have no clue what it takes to get through these programs. I think the divorce rate in my class was at least 50%. If you're not going through it or haven't been through it there's no way anyone can possibly understand what it's like. Let them try memorizing every bone, muscle, organ, nerve, etc and what their function is in a cat, dog, horse, cow, goat, pig and bird in two classes (one semester was small animal and one was large) with 5 other classes at the same time and get a job while doing it. Good luck with that. I swear I was in that stupid anatomy lab more than my apartment. And when you have NO interest in Large animal and have to memorize the bones of horses and cattle (which are no where close to that of small animals) it's torture.
They must have been looking at undergrad fees since there is no housing for veterinary students included in tuition. I posted the link for tuition and fees so they can redo their math.
Someone who grosses $100K and saves can afford to buy a $350K home in a few years assuming 20% down. Of course it won't be Chatham or Short Hills but that mentality seems to be the reason why so many get into financial trouble.
In NYS, one can find starter homes in places like Bethpage and Farmingdale that will fit your budget. Presumably there are places in NJ that offer homes at those price ranges as well.
The problem is those places are disappearing rapidly. How many truly middle-class towns with moderate priced housing and good (not necessarily great) schools are left? Towns seem to be going in one direction or the other. There are plenty of towns for the super rich, and some for the not-so-rich (and just about all of those not-so-rich towns seem to have declining schools and increasing crime rates). The formerly middle-class towns are being pulled into the group with the rich towns (towns like Midland Park, Waldwick, Westwood, Fair Lawn, Nutley, Edison) or into the groups with the less affluent towns (towns like Bloomfield, Belleville, Clifton, Wanaque, or Butler).
People have no clue what it takes to get through these programs. I think the divorce rate in my class was at least 50%. If you're not going through it or haven't been through it there's no way anyone can possibly understand what it's like. Let them try memorizing every bone, muscle, organ, nerve, etc and what their function is in a cat, dog, horse, cow, goat, pig and bird in two classes (one semester was small animal and one was large) with 5 other classes at the same time and get a job while doing it. Good luck with that. I swear I was in that stupid anatomy lab more than my apartment. And when you have NO interest in Large animal and have to memorize the bones of horses and cattle (which are no where close to that of small animals) it's torture.
They must have been looking at undergrad fees since there is no housing for veterinary students included in tuition. I posted the link for tuition and fees so they can redo their math.
I have stopped trying to explain it to people a long time ago. Words can't possibly do it justice. It's just one of those things that can't be understood unless you actually go through it.
There are plenty of towns for the super rich, and some for the not-so-rich (and just about all of those not-so-rich towns seem to have declining schools and increasing crime rates). The formerly middle-class towns are being pulled into the group with the rich towns (towns like Midland Park, Waldwick, Westwood, Fair Lawn, Nutley, Edison) or into the groups with the less affluent towns (towns like Bloomfield, Belleville, Clifton, Wanaque, or Butler).
Crime rate is not increasing in Bloomfield, Clifton, Wanaque, or Butler (it is in Belleville).
Your math doesn't add up. 4 years at $50k = $200k and $30k from undergraduate, I guess you were living off student loans as if it was income.
I looked up Iowa college, it's around $20/year including room and board.
Almost all doctoral programs require students to borrow their living expenses, unless they get a fellowship (which does not occur often, if ever, for vet med). Grad students are expected to work on their theses, work in the lab, or in the hospital instead of having a part time job. Hence the need to borrow the living expenses.
50k/yr is high but not ridiculously so, for a someone in veterinary school, especially since its 21k PER SEMESTER.
Almost all doctoral programs require students to borrow their living expenses, unless they get a fellowship (which does not occur often, if ever, for vet med). Grad students are expected to work on their theses, work in the lab, or in the hospital instead of having a part time job. Hence the need to borrow the living expenses.
50k/yr is high but not ridiculously so, for a someone in veterinary school, especially since its 21k PER SEMESTER.
I think you meant to write "scholarship" instead of "fellowship". A fellowship is only in human medicine and is done after a residency in a specialty field. In vet med we only have internships (1 year) and residencies (3 years) but neither is mandatory. A residency is for those who want to be board certified in a specialty field but you usually have to do an internship first before you can even apply for a residency. It's very hard to get one since there aren't many around so it's extremely competitive in vet med and you only get paid about 1/2 what you would be making as a vet (around $35,000/year). So once again if you aren't independently wealthy forget about it.
Scholarships in vet med are endowments from former alumni for the most part, given out after the first year and only range between $100 - $2500 per year and you can only get one if it's over $500. I got a few from exotics scholarships that were set up but they didn't add up to much. Don't know about human medicine.
Just pointing out that most here are discussing house hold income.... not individual. This often means kids too. Increases in cost of living in recent years have impacted families more due to the goods and services that have gone up; Food, gas, childcare, education (college!) etc...
Of course there are people making due with less (single parents etc), but there is a big difference between $100k individual and $100 family. Some of my coworkers making less than I do (individual income), actually end up having more consumer power than I do. They are singles with no kids and may be sharing an apartment.
My current salary sans family... I'd be really banking the savings, driving the nice car, AND still be able to party out every week.
since when was paying for college considered anything less than something higher income households could handle? My parents did pretty well in Northeastern PA, where their house is probably worth about $200,000 but would be close to $1M here. They did what they could to send us to a private high school because our school district was horrendous. All 3 of us went to college, and all 3 of us took out federal and private student loans to pay. My parents occasionally throw a few hundred bucks now and then onto our payments, but otherwise, paying for college was never part of the equation. And we lived a very decent middle class lifestyle.
I always thought doctors and MD's are overpaid, I guess not after I read these posts here.
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I swear I was in that stupid anatomy lab more than my apartment. And when you have NO interest in Large animal and have to memorize the bones of horses and cattle (which are no where close to that of small animals) it's torture.
