I'm 41....and free of student loan debt!
Posted by Clark Venable on 4/6/2006
I turned 41 years old today. Perhaps more significant to me, however, is that I finally paid off my last outstanding student loan! I finished medical school in 1992 and residency in 1996 so it took about ten years.
My total debt amounted to about $70,000 for college and medical school combined (without interest). Here are some interesting numbers from back then:
"Median U.S. Medical Schools Tuition and Fees for First-Year Students in 1992-3:
Mean level of Educational debt of indebted graduates in 1992:
- $20,597 for private schools
- $7,544 for in-state residents at public schools
- $16, 739 for out-of-state residents at public schools
Mean level of Educational debt of indebted graduates in 1992:
- 19.5% of medical students had no debt
- $47,088 for public schools
- $69,479 for private schools
And here's the data from 2003:
"Average Educational Debt
- $115,218 – According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the average educational debt of indebted graduates of the class of 2004 (including pre-med borrowing)
- 63% of graduates have debt of at least $100,000
- 81.4% of graduating medical students carry outstanding loans, combined with 62.4% with loans on college/premedical education
- $91,438 – Mean per capita debt for 2003 allopathic graduates
- $109,457 – Mean per capita debt for 2003 allopathic graduates excluding students without loans
- $123, 800 – Mean per capita debt for 2003 osteopathic graduates, up 2.3% from the previous year
- $7,277 – non-educational debt (allopathic)
One final note: If I'd stayed in academic anesthesia it would have taken at least another ten years to pay these loans off...
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