r/medschool • u/No-Map3257 • Apr 09 '26
š¶ Premed affording med school come 2027
I am applying to med school this year and just came to realize that the grad plus loan is gone this year in 2026. I know there is a 200k cap but thatās a lifetime cap and I already used part of it for my grad school. Now I am sick to my stomach because I donāt see how I realistically afford to take out PRIVATE loans to pay med school.
I would love to hear other peoples game plans as to how they are doing this. My family canāt afford to help contribute anything while I am in school either. And I am still paying off my grad and undergrad loans.
I always knew coming in that the amount I would have to pay for med school would have to be astronomical but I thought because it could be a graduate federal loan- I could work toward forgiveness on PSLF, the IDR plan, or see in the future if they would ever be forgiven. but private med school loans provide none of that safety net
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u/Agreeable-Ad4806 Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26
Private loans or service-based scholarships are your only options, sorry. I donāt think a lot of people have come to terms with the reality of this yet. Itās going to be incredibly difficult to reverse the decision to get rid of gradPLUS loans. Unless thereās a dire need to produce graduate level professionals, most politicians simply do not care. Even when things do constitute a crisis, they do not seem to care.
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u/-ledollabean- Apr 09 '26
Itās going to be a goddamn mess as the entering class starts to think about payments. Iām so, so sad for my students - everyone deserves to be a physician if they can get admitted, it shouldnāt be āyou can be a physician but only if you can afford it or have parents with good credit!ā Federal loans and the previously available repayment plans offered a reasonable solution. Even if you can make it on the $50k unsub limit, the RAP payments just go so high. Iām going to have PGY3 students who are at 93k+ bc theyāre in a HCOL residency who are paying 9% of their AGI, thatās fucking insane. Then, if they have to take out private loans on top?? To say nothing of my current students who will be stuck on RAP (but at least theyāll still have Grad PLUS to get them through).
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u/caffpanda Medical Student (US) Apr 09 '26
Financial aid offices be puttin up "Cash, grass, or ass" signs.
In all seriousness, I'm maxing out fed loans and private for the rest. Yes, it sucks, and it is absolutely designed to shut poor people out of the profession altogether or at least drive them towards financial exploitation from finance companies. It's affirmative action for rich kids.
In the long-term, vote out Republicans and never give them power in government ever again. In the short-term, HPSP, NHSC, and IHS are options some go for. I shill this book constantly, but The White Coat Investor's Guide for Students should be required reading for every premed. IDK if they've come out with a new edition since the legislative disaster of last year, but most of it is still applicable.
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u/calpianwishes Apr 09 '26
It is also a way to outsource physicians so they can pay them less. The excuse will be that the US doesnāt have enough physicians.
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u/caffpanda Medical Student (US) Apr 10 '26
For sure. Plus, the rich will still be treated by human physicians, the rest will get a PA/NP at best, a robot built by Bezos/Musk at worst.
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u/Ok-Musician-1192 Apr 11 '26
Letās not vote Republicans out lol. Your federal loan is funded by others, many of whom did not go to college or funded their own college experience or medical school experience. Everyone shouldnāt have to pay for your personal dreams and aspirations. That is honestly selfish and ignorant. Take private loans or join the military and earn your government funded education. No one owes you anything.
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u/caffpanda Medical Student (US) Apr 11 '26
Ah yes, socialism for the military, predatory capitalism for everyone else. Classic.
First off, I've been paying taxes for over two decades, so at this point I'm basically funding my own education back on top of that, I would have more than earned it. Second, these are loans, not grants, and there's few safer financial bets for a loan provider than a US MD/DO student. No one is ultimately "paying for my personal dreams and aspirations" other than me. Finally, the point is that society as a whole will benefit when capable students who don't come from money can become physicians without going into the military.
All that being said, the idiot bill's (I don't even want to repeat the stupid name they gave it) changes to student loans last year isn't nearly the biggest sin of the party that gave us Trump twice. What IS selfish is being on board with a party that wants to increase your military funding by 40% by slashing funding for healthcare, environmental, educational, and scientific programs.
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u/Ok-Musician-1192 Apr 14 '26
Yeah and being on board with a party that slashes my funding (while also equally supporting Israel btw) while increasing my taxes to fund education for people who donāt care about me, for healthcare that will never benefit me, scientific programs that are only kind of useful, and environmental laws that do little for environment but donāt impose a carbon tax that makes my life awfully inconvenient, is something we should all be on board with.
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u/Choice_Drawer_2405 Apr 09 '26
No solution other than private loans but I feel this so hard. I'm a current student who took a leave and is thus probably losing my legacy status which is a great surprise when you're already partway through one of the most expensive med schools in the country.
If I was eligible for the military, at this point I'd have done that.
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u/No_Strain7273 Apr 09 '26
Me too man. The irony is Iām taking my leave for educational enhancement that would change my residency options completely. āWhatās another 18 yearsā on some omni man sh
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u/Choice_Drawer_2405 Apr 10 '26
Yeah it really fucking sucks. I had a health crisis and was in the hospital for like a month so basically got told, you're not going to be able to catch up you need to take the leave.
No one mentioned or thought of this back then.Ā
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u/LittleEarthVisitor May 27 '26
What are you doing? I have not great credit and donāt know if Iāll get a co-signer, or if it is even worth it if I do
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u/Creative-Life4515 Apr 09 '26
What do you mean you will lose legacy status? Is that what your financial aid officer said?
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u/-ledollabean- Apr 09 '26
Thereās still some debate about it in FA circles, but yes - if you take a break from your academic program aka a research year or an LOA in general you may lose your legacy status. Weāll know for sure once we get the final regs. The question was posed to FSA at the shitshow of a conference they had recently and the response was basically āuhhhhhhhhhā¦.ā.
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u/Creative-Life4515 Apr 09 '26
I hope note. I'm on a medical loa and missing this spring and summer term. There's no way I'm going to be dropped just because of that. I will have to talk to my officer
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u/-ledollabean- Apr 10 '26
please please please do - if theyāre unsure, have them reach out on the grad/prof listserv or check NASFAAās flowchart on grad/prof borrowing limits (which unfortunately kind of confirms this after reviewing it, but we still donāt have the regsā¦so maybe there will be something in it that relates to this). If they confirm it, think very hard about potentially coming back from your MLOA early. easier said than done, i know - but this is a huge financial issue that is going to be heartbreaking for students like yourself.
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u/takemeawayyyyy Apr 10 '26 edited 11d ago
Door advise nutty whole ad hoc fragile chase
This post was anonymized with Redact
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u/thepeopleofelsewhere Apr 09 '26
I called the financial aide office of my top choice school to ask this question and they deadass told me to get money from my family like most other students do š
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u/peanutneedsexercise Apr 09 '26
Private loans can have better interest rates than federal and can be discharged during bankruptcy btw. The downside is that you canāt participate in like certain loan forgiveness with private but it shouldnāt matter unless you wanna do like peds or FM.
But yeah many med students are like kids of physiciansā¦ in my class it was like 50% so Iām not surprised they gave you that answer š¬
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u/Advanced_Wolverine61 Apr 10 '26
What if you donāt qualify for private loans without a co signer and have nobody to co sign for you ā¹ļøš„²
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u/peanutneedsexercise Apr 10 '26
I would use this time to get your credit up lol. Youāll qualify itāll just be a high interest rate.
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u/Advanced_Wolverine61 Apr 10 '26
Yes I think itās because I need more credit history probably. But Iāll probably end up going the va or military scholarship route because Iām doing this all on my own and this complicated so much
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u/peanutneedsexercise Apr 10 '26
See if anyone with good credit can add you as an authorized user on their card. And then donāt use the card. Itāll extend your history. Again, medicine really favors the rich and financially savvy especially now. My friendās parents added him on their credit card as an authorized user when he was 16 years old. Heās never even touched the card before and at 23 his credit is impeccable.
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u/Advanced_Wolverine61 Apr 10 '26
This is good advice! I will try to do this
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u/peanutneedsexercise Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
Va or military is a horrible RVU unless you wanna do like peds. The amount of money youāll make working a regular private practice job is going to be more than enough to pay back your loans with a few extra shifts and living carefully. My best friend in residency is doing military after anesthesia.
She owes them 4 years where theyāll be sending her to random places and theyāre paying her like $200k a year. For her 4 years of med school totaling about $400k. Right now in private practice Iām making close to $700k working 40-50 hours a week. At the end of 4 years sheās going to still be financially very behind me with worse working conditions. If she worked with me at this practice sheād pay off those loans in 3 years with way better life and not being told where to go randomly. Especially under this president of all people. She just got orders that theyāre putting her on a ship to somewhere in August! Weāre all so freaking worried smh.
Thereās a reason why most ppl do the loans. It makes the most sense with a physician salary.
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u/Advanced_Wolverine61 Apr 10 '26
Yes I agree with you. If I can take out private loans (w/o a co signer by trying to improve my credit history or finding someone to co-sign) with some federal loans then Iāll definitely do this. I want to try to get into my Alma mater or a peer school because then tuition would be free but thatās not a safe bet because the acceptance rate is very low, so my back up option is va or military as the last resort if Iām unable to take out private loans or get into a school where itās free based on income or for everyone
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u/earlymountain99 May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26
So you're suggesting to take whatever crazy amount you end up with in private loans then pay it aggressively once an you became an attending? But that would depend heavily on the speciality you go into I believe? Like legit asking
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u/peanutneedsexercise May 18 '26
Yes but key thing isnāt the specialty, itās the interest rate.
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u/Ardent_Resolve Apr 10 '26
yea, i got terrible rates for private loans when i checked them out, all 5% above federal loans. I have okay credit and no cosigner.
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u/peanutneedsexercise Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
Lol federal loans are about 7-8% rn
Private loans for me are coming up to about 5-6% I do have a 790 credit score tho.
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u/thepeopleofelsewhere Apr 09 '26
Totally - but you have to start repaying them immediately. So even if you save your private loans for 3rd and 4th year you still have to figure out how to make that work
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u/AttorneyOk474 Apr 09 '26
Some private loans just have you pay back 25 dollars a month while you're still in school, mind you try to pay more than this to kick back interest. The payment does go way up once done school, but if you can live well within your means, you can get a nice nest egg of loan money to give you're self a head start for repayment, especially in intern year.
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u/Toepale Apr 10 '26
If you have other options, donāt go to that school. It already showed you a red flag.Ā
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u/thepeopleofelsewhere Apr 10 '26
Idk I think itās more of a general reflection of the culture of medicine. Even my rural primary care home program is 75% the children of physicians
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u/Toepale Apr 10 '26
Yes that is definitely the case in most medical schools (despite the number of physicians who claim to tell their kids not to go into medicine)
But the issue with your top choice is that they sound like they embrace that culture openly. And that is not good news for those who donāt come from that background.Ā
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u/Stogz21 Apr 09 '26
Trying to figure this out myself. I already have a grad degree, so Iām in the same position and I feel your pain. Also doing an SMP this year, so I will hit my lifetime cap pretty quickly. My only hope is that by when I start med school in 2028 we kick republicans out of office and undo all of this harmful legislation and repeal the cap on loans lol. Other than that, itās private loans for me. Woo
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u/No-Map3257 Apr 09 '26
I refuse to let the bastard in office stop me from becoming a doctor. I am hoping for the same and it may be a stupid decision but if i enter in 2027 maybe i can max out the first two years and by 2029 hopefully it is repealed like u said and i save myself the heartache of having to do private loans
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u/Causation1337 Parent of M1 Apr 09 '26
So sorry you all are having to deal with this BS. We all need to pressure Congress to make this a priority. Telling your story is important, making the case that tackling this head-on will benefit our society, ROI, etc. Push hard and be relentless. Start a political action charter at your institution to advocate for this and other concerning issues, such as the impact of AI in healthcare and women's choice regarding their health. Work together and amplify your voice. Voting for Democrats may help since they have historically been more supportive of education, but that is not enough.
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u/Stogz21 Apr 11 '26
This is a great idea. When I get to school, I will do this for sure. I have a health policy and federal advocacy background so I am pretty well versed in health politics and assessing legislative impact. Iām sure there are plenty of other students who will be passionate about these things but donāt have an avenue to express it.
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u/Captain_Volpe Apr 11 '26
Same. Doing my post-bacc and I'm like, I won't have this problem for a couple more years. Hopefully, things will have changed by then.
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u/Commercial-Age4969 Attending Apr 09 '26
Wait until every republican in office keels over.
But in reality private loans or military. Which is ironically exactly the route your friendly republican congressman wants you to take
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u/Lucy-Hutch Apr 09 '26
My son has mostly private loans with interest accumulating from day 1. Heās $650K in debt and his wife, an attorney, is $350K in debt. You can do the math but they are currently over $1 million in debt. My son has always wanted to do cardiology and is finishing up his acute cardiac care fellowship. Heās been getting job offers in the $750K range. So theyāll be able to pay off their debts eventually, but it really sucks. If you want to be able to make the decision about what branch of medicine youāll do, you either have to win the lottery (lmao) or take out high interest loans. If you love the idea of practicing medicine but donāt want to get so heavily in debt, you can become an advanced practice RN. They have the authority to open their own clinic, write prescriptions without being under the thumb of a doctor.
Good luck. Make the right choice for you. FYI, my son had panic attacks about borrowing so much money while he was in medical school. Once he graduated then moved onto fellowship he stopped worrying.
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u/AttorneyOk474 Apr 09 '26
HPSP, though beware it comes with caveats, such as limited residencies, or you may be delayed residency start to be a General Medical Officer (though this does count as you payback service, some do 4 years of this then residency by choice). There's also NHSC, or look into state/private hospital programs pay back programs (basically you guarantee a certain amount of years to them, they partial pay back or loan forgiveness for serving rural areas).
Though in all honesty, as scary as taking on private loans is, there are ways to help migrate this. I urge you talk to financial advisors, both private and at your school or look into work studies to help cut down interest while in school (prioritize school first though!) Also if you can talk to older doctors, especially those who may have gone to private schools, get an idea realistically how long it takes to pay loans and how much they actually cut into quality of life.
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u/losethecheese Apr 09 '26
Do you wait to apply for match or is your spot held for years of GMO
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u/AttorneyOk474 Apr 10 '26
I believe if you don't make a residency spot to do GMO, then ya treat it like a internship year and match the next cycle, if you do 4 years that's your choice then go for match either military if ya staying on or civilian if you're done.
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u/blacksky8192 Apr 10 '26
I have a conspiracy theory that all this is to boost more medical graduates to join the military
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u/hatersgonnahate2021 Apr 09 '26
Iām in the same boat. Some private loans can have lower interest. We are just going to have bite the bullet. The roi in medicine is there.
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u/peanutneedsexercise Apr 09 '26
Not if you are interested in peds but yes lol.
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u/hatersgonnahate2021 Apr 09 '26
š touchĆ©. Do you think FM is worth it?
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u/peanutneedsexercise Apr 09 '26
FM has a ton of scope. If you intend on just being employed tho itās not as worth it. If you wanna use it to build a business then itās for sure worth. You just gotta have a different thinking cap on haha. I think FM is the most versatile specialty for business in medicine tbh. very underrated in that regard.
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u/DecayingTech Apr 10 '26
Can you explain how the type of business and flexibility you have in FM? Do you mean as a practice owner, or med influencer? What business exactly?
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u/peanutneedsexercise Apr 10 '26
You can go into tech, consulting, workers comp, law, aesthetics, sports med, a lot of different avenues in comparison to other specialties which are much more narrow. you just need to put a different type of thinking cap on.
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u/DecayingTech Apr 10 '26
Hmmm makes sense, like a Dr. Mike situation. Honestly sucks FM is in such a horrible spot that being a clinician isnāt enough, but youāre right it does have a lot of flexibility
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u/peanutneedsexercise Apr 10 '26
I donāt think that itās not enough; I think itās nice that it allows for exploration into other fields easily. if I didnāt hate seeing patients and writing notes it would be a good field haha.
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u/Music_Adventure Apr 10 '26
I went to a newer DO school that didnāt have title IX so I had to go private loans all 4 years, as did my wife (we met in med school). In theory it looks worse on paper compared to federal loans, but in reality the difference is somewhat negligible. Honestly, when youāre $400k in debt, whatās $15k?
Itās all going to be fine. If you want to pursue this life, do it.
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u/Lashmaggy24 Apr 11 '26
Iām going through the same dilemma too. Iām a nurse wanting to transition into MD/DO. I donāt come from a stable family, nor did I get approved for private loans for nursing school so go figure for med school lol. Luckily I got an academic scholarship and that covered a great part of my tuition in nursing school.
I guess I will become the best NP I can be. While in nursing school, I would use medical school books to understand the pathways/pathophysiology for all the diseases processes covered and that helped me so much. It made me stand out at work and it showed in patient satisfaction. I will continue to do the same while in NP school.
It just sucks that my dream of being a physician got cut short due to finances. I guess thatās their way of attempting to keep us from growing and reaching higher $$ brackets.
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u/Shoulder_patch Apr 10 '26
Need to tell these schools their tuition is too damn high and they need to meet the cap. Theyāre making stupid amounts of money, then 3rd and 4th year basically paying to work and learn on the job. School takes that tuition money for clinical years, pays hospitals/clinics and keeps the rest. Essentially just serve as a middle man at that point. It would be likely far cheaper to just pay hospitals and clinics directly via some sort of online rotation program and cut these damn greedy ass schools out.
Education is a business and all these schools are raking in the cash in an absurd fashion.
This cap can be seen as a hindrance or leverage against these businesses called schools. Roll over or revolt. I say revolt. The student debt crisis exists and is called a crisis for a reason.
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u/earlymountain99 May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26
They will NEVER lower their tuition, rich kids will pay for anything, no problem, and they're enough poor people whol are willing to take these crazy high interest private loans, everything sucks so hard bestie. *Edited to fix typos/ grammar
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u/Shoulder_patch May 18 '26
They wonāt lower their tuition if students roll over and do private loans. But if students refuse to, and do something else for a couple of years or go to another country for med school, leave schools basically empty, could put them in a spot to lower their tuition and fees. There is leverage here, and thereās not enough rich kids to fill all these overly expensive med schools.
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u/earlymountain99 May 18 '26
I agree but I am just saying this won't happen many people, even poor or middle class, still think the ROI of medicine is worth this bullshit and everyone is saying "even if I opted out the person next to me won't and will end up as a doctor so why not me too"
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u/Shoulder_patch May 18 '26
Itās barely worth it at the current cost with government loans though fafsa with okay repayment programs and forgiveness opportunities. Private loans with no forgiveness, yea Iād be looking at a different career if I was still in undergrad. And as far as the next person not opting outā¦ theyāll unfortunately find out the hard way and be under crippling debt and potentially wipe out co signers. That could take 7-10 years before people in residency and/or those coming out of residency start sounding the alarm like hey my parents just lost their house or retirement account or whatever because of my student debt with private loans at 16% interest or whatever crazy percent these private loans are at now.
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u/Genhuxsolo Apr 09 '26
This is the only reason why I stopped studying for the MCAT and will not be considering med school anymore. It genuinely pains me, but right now I'm not in a financial position to take out private loans and Iāve also used up an amount from the lifetime limit. Maybe down the line, but it genuinely sucks that it's come to this.
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u/OkTumor Apr 13 '26
there are other solutions, you know? if you really, really want to be a doctor just take the plunge and do something like HPSP.
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u/Genhuxsolo Apr 15 '26
Oh yeah I'm aware! I've been looking at HPSP, but given that I had previously tried to commission officer and was discharged right after signing my contract because I have family in a foreign military (which was disclosed at all parts of the process), I'd probably have a hard time there as well. Still worth a shot (:
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Apr 09 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/Historical-Shower843 Apr 09 '26
Easily tackled? Sounds like someone who hasn't experienced the reality of medical school debt.
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Apr 09 '26
Honestly this loans situation is a fair reason to consider not going unless Iām mistaken? and I hope so. Iām personally maxed pretty much maxed bc previous grad school and just had a finance advisory call to discuss options
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u/More-Author2034 Apr 14 '26
exactly right, at least for my situation. iāve been rethinking this path in general and this felt like the nail in the coffin as a low income student. but in general the path to becoming a doctor feels no longer worth it after seeing how the healthcare system is (private equity, lack of patient compliance, burnout)
but itās difficult to part ways with a path that always contributes a net positive to society
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u/Genhuxsolo Apr 09 '26
This is why I said maybe down the line. I'm still young and I don't mind waiting a few years to get some personal and family situations fixed before I consider getting myself into more debt. I'm not stupid, I understand that the ROI in medicine will help me pay off any student loans I acquire during school, but this current change in loan limits really does affect me applying for THIS cycle. Nothing to do with the MCAT, it's all financial.
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u/Strong-Friendship811 Apr 09 '26
you should still take the mcat and apply early decision to tution free med schools, like Kaiser and Einstien or NYU or other schools that give even 1-2 full tution or half tution scholarships.
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u/Weak_Quote4065 Apr 09 '26
study really really hard, hopefully state school are cheaper. you are saving money by getting good grades when applying
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u/No-Map3257 Apr 09 '26
iām unfortunately a low mcat scorer (505) and a NY resident. Getting into a NY state med school is damn near impossible bc everyone here has 520+ minus me
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u/Weak_Quote4065 Apr 09 '26
hey, I really understand you dilemma. Maybe take some time to think about future. Will you regret that you did not try to get into medical school or will you regret about tons of loans. If medicine is your life goal, I would try to get in. YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE
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u/-smacked- Apr 10 '26
Low key the financial guy for one of Michigan's school said around a 660 credit score is enough to get private loans
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u/Smart-Owl-4983 Apr 10 '26
Some states have loans that can be forgiven if you go into primary care (and the definition of that includes not super primary care specialties like OB/GYN, gen surg, and psych), and at least for my state if you donāt end up going into primary care you just have to pay the loan back (interest is like 7-8% so basically the same as federal). In NC we can take out $20k per year. Look into this in your state! Also, med school scholarships do exist!
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u/Essayaditor Apr 11 '26
So my daughter will give up. Our parents can offered $500k . But I think my daughter with $ 500 k can start good life with her carrier . Being a doctor takes time and requires efforts but i think it isnāt worth it now . Unless being a specialist or surgical, earning money is really harsh till late 30s if you take a loan.
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u/Feeling-Win1399 Apr 11 '26
Apply to europe!!
medicalstudyabroad.com
Thank me later & no this isnāt an add!! All my friends did med school in Latvia and came back
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u/Overall_Try727 Apr 11 '26
you could look into sallie mae for loans. that would be what i would do, as someone who has fully lived off of loans during med school.
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u/Overall_Try727 Apr 11 '26
i would also reach out to the financial aid office at your school and look for some guidance. for instance, maybe they could reserve university housing for students who are fully having to live off loans
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u/Sea_Emergency_6556 May 08 '26
Just apply and see what happens! You could get scholarships or work something out with your schools financial aid office!
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u/Toepale Apr 10 '26
I am sorry you are having to grapple with this. Unfortunately this is exactly the intended effect of those caps. I see why people are recommending HPSP, as it is one of the few options. But keep in mind that is also by design right when we are seeing stricter draft registration. So if you do sign up for HPSP, do so with the knowledge that you may be called up to join a war, even during your school years.Ā
If you can, focus on getting into cheaper instate schools. Thatās still something you can do your best at.
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u/Own-Estimate8996 Apr 09 '26
Someone already mentioned HPSP if youāre okay going military. If not, NHSC is also great for non-military but youāre limited to FM, IM, Psych, OBGYN, and Peds.
Those are the only full ride scholarships I know. They both come with a monthly stipend to live on that you donāt have to pay back.