Republished from the AMA-MSS

Available at: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/5349.html

The MSS Task Force on Medical Education Debt reviewed data that were compiled over the last 20 years from the Association of American Medical Colleges, the federal government, and other sources concerning the cost of medical education and the debt burden of medical students.

Key findings include: the average graduating medical student debt has been rising faster than the consumer price index (CPI) for the past 20 years, and tuition at public and private schools has been growing faster than the CPI over these same 20 years.

If left uncontrolled, these exorbitant amounts of debt may cause shifts in specialty choice, increase burnout and decrease the numbers of minorities in medicine. Read the full story

by Megan Hansell Henderson
SDN Contributor

On September 7, 2007, the House and Senate approved the Conference Report (100-317) for H.R. 2669, also known as the “College Cost Reduction and Access Act”. This Act was signed into law by the President of the United States on September 27, 2007 with an effective date of October 1, 2007.

Why should you care? The Act, while providing additional benefits to undergraduate students, eliminated the economic hardship deferment qualification known as “20/220”, used by many health profession students to delay loan repayment while in residency or fellowship. Read the full story

by Barbara Swichtenberg
SDN Staff Writer

There are many lenders competing to meet your federal student loan needs, all with different terms and benefits. Which one is right for you? There are a few things you should know to help you choose.

Choosing a Lender for your Stafford and PLUS Loans

You have filled out your FAFSA and received your award letter — now it’s time to pick a lender. If your school is a Direct school you can only get your loans from Uncle Sam. This takes away the burden of choosing a lender but Direct loans do not offer much in the way of repayment incentives after you graduate. Read the full story

(We’re republishing some of our articles from early 2007, before we modified our content format. This article was originally published Jan 7.)

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the cost of private medical schools has risen 165 percent and the cost of public medical schools has gone up 312 percent over the last 20 years.

Unless you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, chances are you’re going to have to take out a loan or loans to get through medical school. And you’re not alone–according to the AAMC, the average educational debt of graduates of the class of 2006 (including pre-med borrowing) was $130,500, with 86.6 percent of graduating medical students carry outstanding loans, and 33 percent of students with educational debt reporting principle in excess of $150,000 and a significant minority reporting debt as high as $350,000. Read the full story

The worst thing about graduating is the reality of paying back student loans. If, as experts recommend, you were able to keep your debt down to about 10 percent of your expected starting salary, congratulations. Either way, you still have to pay it back, no matter how big or small your student loan debt may be.

There’s no question student owe a lot. The average debt (including pre-med borrowing) for the class of 2006 totals approximately 130,500, and 40.2 percent of 2006 graduates have non-educational debt averaging $16,689, this according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

But there are ways to pay debt down, and even pay it quickly. Read the full story