The first three years of medical school, I was living almost entirely off of
loans. My student loan balance, as of now, is around $350,000.
By the time I graduate, I expect it to probably hit $400,000,
maybe a little more.
My name is Alexandra
Capellini and I'm a 26-year-old medical student living in New York City on a
$28,000 stipend.
Right now I'm on a research year in between my third and fourth years of school.
The average week for me is pretty busy because I'm taking master's
classes, mostly at night.
And then working full time with the research team during the day.
I live in med student housing on the Upper East Side, which is extremely
subsidized to be about $650 each month.
And for this neighborhood that is almost unheard of.
Almost all of my friends in medical school rely on some form of family
support in order to make ends meet here because we're 26, 27
years old and none of us have the $80,000 that you need a year for
tuition and living expenses.
I would say that I've known I've wanted to go to medical school for a very,
very long time.
So when I was seven years old, I was diagnosed with a very aggressive bone
cancer in my right knee, and that led to the amputation of my right
leg above the knee.
You know, I was going through a really hard time on chemo and adjusting to the loss of
my leg. And I had nurses and doctors and therapists all around
me who every day showed me these levels of selflessness and compassion
and empathy and care and kindness that I feel so blessed to know
even exists. And I've known ever since then that I wanted to be part
of that experience for another child.
And so years down the later, it's been almost 20 years and that's
my motivation every day.
There are definitely challenges that come with living in such an expensive city like New
York on this research stipend.
And even then, I wanted to be in medical school for so long that
none of those sacrifices have felt like deal breakers to me.
They've just been a challenge to kind of navigate, but one that I'm
working through. It definitely gets tricky.
Planning to meet up in New York with friends of mine who are five years out
of college graduation and have been making nice, comfortable salaries this entire
time and don't have to think too much about budgeting, at least not in the same way that
I do on a research year stipend.
This is a pricey city and I try not to go overboard, but I also
want to enjoy the weekend with friends.
It's refreshing knowing that I can do that.
But I also know that at the end of this year, when I go into fourth year,
I'll go back to letting that savings account sit pretty quiet.
I'm very much relying on the debit card.
My parents were pretty strict with me wanting to be financially independent and had
basically told me, you know, like, you can open up a credit card when you have a
stable, consistent income and you can pay it off in full at your own
pace every single month without needing to lean on us.
And I think that's one of the biggest things I'm looking forward to when I actually start making a
salary and residency is finally having that.
I've always known how expensive med school was going to be.
I've always known that my family would not be able to afford full tuition at medical
school. So I took out all these loans in undergrad, also knowing that
I would take out loans again for med school.
But I was really trying hard not to let the cost of med school be
any kind of factor that was going to affect whether I wanted to go because I so badly wanted
to apply and go.
So my salary as a resident, which is the next step of training after you graduate from
medical school, would probably be something in the range of maybe
$55,000 to $65,000, and that would be my salary
for the next four or five years.
And so I could start paying back some of my loans during that time.
When I think about future salary, I think I can expect to earn the range of the
mid $200,000s and I think that would leave me in a good place to at least make a
dent with these loans.
But it's still going to take decades.
I walk on and above knee prosthesis with a computerized knee
for about 16 to 18 hours a day.
The computer in the knee is what controls the change in the speed
that the knees bend in and a little bit of the bounce in my step.
My health insurance will cover the cost of the full leg, including the knee,
and that will last maybe about four or five years before I'll be due for
something new. But I go in for a lot of maintenance checks just to make sure that the
computer and the knee is working properly, that everything's charging correctly, that there are
no kinks to work out.
And a lot of the mechanics of how the leg's working.
My leg also fits based on suction.
And the suction is really what determines how tight of a fit the leg has
around me, which is really important because I want to walk around not feeling like the legs
falling off. Like I want it to feel as attached as possible.
I swim about twice a week at the Y near my school, and that's something that I
really got into during college because it was really fun thing that I could do on my own
time early in the morning or late at night.
I also really like to rock climb.
About three years ago, I discovered an adaptive rock climbing group
in Long Island City, which is just a short train ride away from here.
And so I started going one night a week to climb with a really great group of
volunteers and other athletes, and that took a little bit of a pause during
COVID. But now I've been gradually getting back into it, and it's something I try to make time to
do every few weeks.
I have a lot of different reasons for swimming and rock climbing.
You know, one of them's definitely because they're fun things to do, and I enjoy
them. And it's a perfect break from school.
And I think another reason outside of that is that it's really good for my body in
general because I'm trying to stay in good shape as much as I can.
I'm going into a field that's going to demand a lot of hours standing around,
rounding, being on your feet.
And so I really want to be in a good place where my body can take on all of
that.
I definitely consider myself a product of so
many people within medicine and the health care system who have
spent a lot of time and energy and put a lot of thought and care
into really guiding me through cancer survivorship and life as an
amputee. And I carry that with me in
everything that I do every day.
So when I think about having an opportunity to someday be in a care team that's
taking care of a child who's facing a cancer diagnosis
or limb loss, and what that whole family is going through that is so meaningful
and rewarding that I don't think too hard about
the costs of getting there, because that's still my guiding force.
That's still what gets me up in the morning.
And I'm just trying to find a way there.