Current Events > 29yr graduating Orthodontist Residencey with $750k+ student debt

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/99u7yt/im_29_years_old_and_in_one_year_i_will_be/

I'm 29 years old and in one year I will be graduating from my Orthodontics Residency with approximately $750k in debt at ~7% interest and I'm panicking!

I'm hearing from the class that graduated ahead of me that finding work is not easy regardless of where you go and that in southern California (where I currently live) it's exponentially harder. From what I can find online it seems that the average orthodontist is making right around $200k per year pre-tax.

I don't know much about finances and I'm wondering if I should be as worried as I am given those figures. Did I make a poor decision by going to dental school and specializing?

The problem is that the market is saturated and it difficult to find enough work. Most of the graduates are trying to piece together a full schedule from multiple jobs. One day a month here, two days a month there, etc.

Like, wow.

Why do people do this?
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It's kinda ridiculous that the interest is so high. Why is it acceptable to bleed young adults dry just for an education?

If he went since he was 18 until he was 29, then yeah it makes sense it cost that much, he must of had some years fucking around in college for sure
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Only in America.
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He'll be paying that shit off for a majority of his life.
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Lathissamus posted...

He'll be paying that shit off for a majority of his life.

Not necessarily. Those kind of student loans can sign up for loan forgiveness/income based repayment type programs. Something like 10% of your income for 10 years and remainder is forgiven. Usually tied to public service/underserved type work.

An orthodontist making 200k in california means he can make a lot more in a rural area where they are in demand. Continue living like a college student for 5-10 years and aggressively pay it off. But yeah, it's still a really shitty situation.

Also, there was definitely some mistakes along the way if he's at 750k. I go to one of the more expensive medical schools and I'll finish with around ~300k. If he's over double it probably means he went to a very expensive private undergrad and probably did an expensive private master's program to be more competitive for dental school. So probably went into dental school with six figure debt at that interest rate, and by the time dental school + residency was done it had capitalized that much.

So his story is more the exception rather than the rule. It's more of a story of someone who wasn't competitive for dental school and took the most expensive route at each step, out of necessity.
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