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I am with someone who is no longer interested in pursuing medicine and has accumulated 300k of student debt.
The person is not working and if the individual continues the program, the school had noted they may have to dismiss the individual due to lack of grades, performance, etc. I understand med school is not for everyone, I don't think I could ever do it-- but what is the outlook on this person's life?
The person is currently not working and not yet interested in working, likely because there is ~50k-100k of student loan money that is available to this person in the bank (I believe).
I have tried to explain the gravity of the situation to the individual but the person responds "all you care about is money." This seems like a no-win situation, am I wrong?
How does someone have 50-100k of student loan money sitting in the bank? Most loan money first goes to the med school and the student gets whatever is left over. You usually can't take out so much in loans that you accumulated a large sum. Can he/she return some of the loan money to decrease the total loan burden?
Is your SO almost done with med school? If so, I would push on and complete med school if possible. Most schools aren't looking to kick students out and will try really hard to work with the student if he he/she is on probation and shows a willingness to improve. Some schools will also let students take a semester off to get medical treatment (like for depression) and re-evaluate life. Job prospects are better with an MD than without it (even for someone not pursuing residency). Your SO is going to need a well paying job to pay off those loans. Either that, or get a job that qualifies for the 10 year loan forgiveness program and hope that the program is still in place down the road. Your SO could also see if moving to the PHD track is an option. Maybe medical research will be more enjoyable than clinical medicine?
I am with someone who is no longer interested in pursuing medicine and has accumulated 300k of student debt.
The person is not working and if the individual continues the program, the school had noted they may have to dismiss the individual due to lack of grades, performance, etc. I understand med school is not for everyone, I don't think I could ever do it-- but what is the outlook on this person's life?
The person is currently not working and not yet interested in working, likely because there is ~50k-100k of student loan money that is available to this person in the bank (I believe).
I have tried to explain the gravity of the situation to the individual but the person responds "all you care about is money." This seems like a no-win situation, am I wrong?
It depends on how much of the debt is federal vs. private. Federal loans can be put on Income-Based Repayment (IBR) - to keep the monthly payments manageable in relation to earnings. The big problem is the Private loans - how much is owed on them? If the private debt is less than (or comparable to) the amount in the bank - then it is not a huge disaster because they can simply be paid off or down to a manageable size (e.g. if $70k in bank and $85k in private loans, this is NOT a disaster because the loans can be slashed down to $15k plus a small emergency fund, and then paid the rest of the way off with a "normal" non-medical job.)
The key here is to pay off some of the private loans all the way to $0 rather than paying down one big loan - this way, you only have small payments left (plus IBR payments on the Federal loans), and any job with reasonable earnings can cover payments.
But I too would like to know how so much loan money got in the bank. Normally it goes to the school, in the US at least, and a refund cannot exceed expected living expenses which are usually quite modest.
The individual has been removed from the med program on more than one occasion-- in the first instance it was for 1 year and during that time, the individual had received the loans but did not attend school, I do not know the amount the individual has in the bank currently but this person has stated last year, their loan amount was 200k and now it is 300k so based on that I can suspect there should be some of that in the bank due to the 1 year off. However, they have again removed this person from the program pending for many reasons which I will not mention here. The dean had stated to the person "have you considered other career choices?" during the second time the person was removed from the program.
> Has he been screened for depression?
The person is on anti-depressants.
> He has to pay all that back, he knows right?
The individual believes they can pay $200-300/month and just do that for the rest of their life, I personally have NO idea how loans work as I worked and went to school and paid off everything myself. Is what this person is suggesting possible? If the interest continues to accrue to an astronomical amount, I do not see them liking it if the person is only paying $200-300/month until the person dies?
> how far into med school?
2 years into med school, the person needs to complete 2 more years to complete med school, then 3 years of residency if this person is to be successful
> maybe change it to be a researcher/scientist? at least salvage it into a $90-100k job instead of higher?
I have spoken to this person about that and they do not want to do anything in the medical system. The person states they want to be a teacher. Is this a viable choice for this person's situation? I agree a job that paid 90-100k would be ideal and if the person worked their butt off they could put in a lot of OT and pay it off quickly. However, when I suggested this, it was out of the picture for this individual, they did not want to do that. If they do not want to do that, then who is going to pay the loans back?
> How does someone have 50-100k of student loan money sitting in the bank? Most loan money first goes to the med school and the student gets whatever is left over. You usually can't take out so much in loans that you accumulated a large sum. Can he/she return some of the loan money to decrease the total loan burden?
See above, the person has been out of school for 1 year and 1-2 months, multiple loans had been received but the individual had only just started one part of the course before getting removed from the program on multiple occasions so I suspect not all of the money has been used for the semester, I am not sure how med school is paid for (is it all up-front) or in chunks. I have suggested if the person has a substantial amount in the bank they should definitely return it but that also fell on deaf ears.
> Some schools will also let students take a semester off to get medical treatment (like for depression) and re-evaluate life. Job prospects are better with an MD than without it (even for someone not pursuing residency). Your SO is going to need a well paying job to pay off those loans. Either that, or get a job that qualifies for the 10 year loan forgiveness program and hope that the program is still in place down the road. Your SO could also see if moving to the PHD track is an option. Maybe medical research will be more enjoyable than clinical medicine?
Yes, I can let this person know that as well. When I had asked about pursuing additional schooling of any type, the person seems as if they are "done" with school and want to start working. However, the concept of what 300k is and the amount of loans the person has is not being taken into account.
> It depends on how much of the debt is federal vs. private. Federal loans can be put on Income-Based Repayment (IBR) - to keep the monthly payments manageable in relation to earnings. The big problem is the Private loans - how much is owed on them? If the private debt is less than (or comparable to) the amount in the bank - then it is not a huge disaster because they can simply be paid off or down to a manageable size (e.g. if $70k in bank and $85k in private loans, this is NOT a disaster because the loans can be slashed down to $15k plus a small emergency fund, and then paid the rest of the way off with a "normal" non-medical job.)
This is what the individual read about (IBR), however they believe it applied to all of their loans, not just federal. I do not have the specifics of the loans but I do know there are both federal and private loans-- with the private loans I believe I saw them at 6.8%. I will ask the person about this though, this is a very good point and I did not know about it
> But I too would like to know how so much loan money got in the bank. Normally it goes to the school, in the US at least, and a refund cannot exceed expected living expenses which are usually quite modest.
Understood, I will try to get the details but thus far this individual has not stated any ballpark figure; however, it seems like it may be a lot because they have absolutely no interest in working. By this I mean they are not submitting resumes, not contacting recruiters, doing nothing and this is extremely concerning to me.
Last edited by itp1201; 09-10-2015 at 07:59 AM..
Reason: correction
I am with someone who is no longer interested in pursuing medicine and has accumulated 300k of student debt.
The person is not working and if the individual continues the program, the school had noted they may have to dismiss the individual due to lack of grades, performance, etc. I understand med school is not for everyone, I don't think I could ever do it-- but what is the outlook on this person's life?
The person is currently not working and not yet interested in working, likely because there is ~50k-100k of student loan money that is available to this person in the bank (I believe).
I have tried to explain the gravity of the situation to the individual but the person responds "all you care about is money." This seems like a no-win situation, am I wrong?
If you really care about money, then this person isn't for you.
09-10-2015, 08:31 AM
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n/a posts
Quote:
it was for 1 year and during that time, the individual had received the loans but did not attend school
That doesn't really make sense. You generally have to actually be in school to get student loans.
In any case, he might want to look into public service loan forgiveness, especially given that he wants to be a teacher.
I have relatives who racked up similar amounts of debt from med school that they never completed and they've generally been able to do ok with some sort of income based repayment and public service programs.
We have a student loan system that highly favors those who spend enormous amounts of money while in school and then get low paying jobs after, so yeah, they'll probably be just fine.
I am with someone who is no longer interested in pursuing medicine and has accumulated 300k of student debt.
The person is not working and if the individual continues the program, the school had noted they may have to dismiss the individual due to lack of grades, performance, etc. I understand med school is not for everyone, I don't think I could ever do it-- but what is the outlook on this person's life?
The person is currently not working and not yet interested in working, likely because there is ~50k-100k of student loan money that is available to this person in the bank (I believe).
I have tried to explain the gravity of the situation to the individual but the person responds "all you care about is money." This seems like a no-win situation, am I wrong?
Breakup. Seriously. Hit the eject button. That kind of debt barring some serious income is a lifestyle nuclear bomb.
If you really care about money, then this person isn't for you.
If you car at all about living a decent lifestyle, owning a home, and affording kids this person is not for you.
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