Hi everyone,

Has anyone who has a family gone to med school on loans only? My husband will be a SAHD and we are trying to figure out how to live off of loans + (some) savings. Of course, with the loans being so crazy (cost of attendance), I don't even know if you can borrow what we need! We don't have any debt. It would simply be housing/tution/health insurance/incidentals. Any thoughts - it gives me so much anxiety just thinking about it!

Thank you!!

Puggy-all I can say is, be careful what you borrow and read the dotted lines or it will come back to bite you-I went to school while I was single, but lived solely off of my loans. At the time, about $1000 a month for everything. Rent was about half of that. So I had $500 for food, books, utilities, car, gas, phone, etc. Not a lot, especially when your car dies and you need $1800 for repairs. Needless to say, I got some loans 'for med students' that were basically high interest credit lines. When I met DH I had about $160K in debt between those loans and regular student loans. With a lot of budgeting and 90K in loan repayment, I will have it all paid off in about 2 months-took 9 years and was very stressful in the beginning....

Plenty of guys in my class have kids and stay-at-home wives. Totally possible, you just have to live very cheaply.

It is not for everyone - certainly - and you really have to figure out if you would like being in the military too, but I took the HPSP scholarship for the AF. I'm very happy with it, and in contrast to all the griping and moaning you see on SDN, I'm actually friends with a fellow in the AF who I have talked with extensively about her experiences, and I have met and talked to many others - in person. Not just in cyberspace. I'm pretty content with my decision, and I have a stipend I am paid by them. I will graduate from medical school without any debt from it, but I still have some undergrad debt to pay off. However, it is manageable.

Wanted to put my choice out as an option, although let me emphasize again - it is not for everyone nor should it be. The military lifestyle can be tough, and you have to accept the fact that it is the military - not civilian - and you will be practicing medicine inside its realm. In other words, I am paying for medical school - just not with loans.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and suggestions! I was doing some *reseach* and it appears that some people work in med school. Granted only a few hours per week...but I'm wondering if that might be an option for me. I could easily get a part-time job doing similar work to what I do now...any other thoughts on this?

I think it depends on your medical school. You absolutely could not work even a few hours a week at a part-time job if you went to my school. Everyone in my class studies too much for that. I go to a PBL/small group/lecture hybrid type school. I read about 1500-2000 pages in a four-week period. There is no time for working. However, if you went to a pure lecture-based school - maybe. Although I probably wouldn't advise it.

Yeah, I second that. I'm at a lecture-based school, but they do not cover everything in lecture. I'm sure the time commitment is less than PBL... but only a little. We read less, but we're studying ALL the time - and still not on top of the material.

You could fit something in with med school... maybe two things. So if you want to get a job, you should nix time for exercise, church, friends, family - You see where I'm going? I think the people who work are the ones who live alone one block from campus and have no other obligations.

Just the opinion of a grumpy and disillusioned first-year.

Medical school is expensive and it's probably not safe to assume you'll be able to work -- although some people are. Why can't your husband get a part-time job in the evenings?

Melbelle, it gets soooo much better. MS1 is a slog, but MS2 is better. chin up - don't forget to raise your head every once in a while to remind yourself there's light at the end of the tunnel. Gross is the worst of the worst in MS1 (ok biochem sux too but by then you have more efficient study habits so it's not quite so bad).

I don't advise working in med school. I think any spare moments should be spent working on your physical and mental health and your relationships. Just my thoughts though.

Thanks jonesie.

I'll try to stay positive. I'm in gross right now, as you probably guessed, and in over my head! It's nice to hear that it gets better. Within two weeks I had resolved myself to hating the next four years of my life... but maybe I'll only hate the next few months.