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Latest Data: Average Med School Grad Owes Over $166K


Know a virtuous young person who wants to become a doctor for all the right reasons? Think their soaring idealism might need a bit of ballast from financial reality? Here it is: The latest figures on medical school debt, just out today from the Association of American Medical Colleges.

The mean debt load for students from all medical schools is $166,750, up 3 percent from last year, and the median is $170,000, up 5 percent from last year. And it doesn't much help if you go to a public medical school — the mean debt is about $156,000, compared to nearly $184,000 for a private school.

Depending on your repayment schedule, the new AAMC data show, your total repayment after graduating could total as much as $476,000. And we wonder why health care is so expensive in this country? Doctors' salaries are of course only one element of our high price tags, but it's an element that sets us apart from Europe, where medical education tends to be lower-cost or free.

Amednews.com reported recently here:

Meanwhile, tuition rates continue to increase dramatically. The median cost of attending a private allopathic medical school has grown at 1.8 times the rate of inflation during the last 13 years. At public schools, it has grown more than twice the rate of inflation, the AAMC said.

Public medical schools have been particularly hard hit, as states have reduced funding in a poor economy.

Readers, what is to be done? See the full AAMC data below. One interesting note: 30% of graduates plan to enter loan forgiveness or repayment programs:

(Source: AAMC)
(Source: AAMC)
(Source: AAMC)
(Source: AAMC)

This program aired on October 22, 2012. The audio for this program is not available.

Headshot of Carey Goldberg

Carey Goldberg Editor, CommonHealth
Carey Goldberg is the editor of WBUR's CommonHealth section.

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