As you are already well aware, medical school in the United States is ridiculously expensive.
The average cost is $60,000 per year for public medical schools, and even higher for private
medical schools. The average debt for medical students graduating in 2017 was close to $200,000.
I was fortunate enough to graduate with actually very little debt. I'll show you how to do
the same.
What's going on guys, Dr. Jubbal, ‪MedSchoolInsiders.com‬. Quick shout out to the Patreon supporters
that voted for me to make this video. If you want to vote for upcoming video topics and
get a bunch of other perks, visit the Med School Insiders Patreon page. Link in the
description below.
Now the funds to pay for medical school will come from one of three sources: you and your
family's pockets, loans, and scholarships or grants. You want to minimize the first
two and maximize the latter, which is free money. Let's go over each one.
First, most schools will ask for your and your parents' financial information. Even
if your parents are not going to contribute a dime to your medical education, schools
often require their tax information in determining who they should offer financial aid to. Remember,
your parents are not required to contribute to your medical school education expenses,
so be very grateful if they contribute at all. My parents were not able to contribute
to my college or medical school costs, but I was still able to become a doctor with very
little debt in the end. We'll get to how I managed to do that shortly.
Next, loans. There are three main categories of loans: federal, school, and private. Federal
and school loans generally have more favorable terms, such as longer periods of deferment
and lower interest rates. Private loans have some of the worst terms, and should be avoided.
Only sign private loans when absolutely necessary.
When you start medical school, you'll be served a financial aid package which will summarize
your school's offerings for federal and school loans, grants, and scholarships. It's important
to create a realistic budget for yourself and only take out loans for the amount of
money that you actually need. You'll be paying interest on every dollar you take out. Again,
only take the amount you actually need.
I initially was planning on giving you a detailed summary of each type of loan and the optimal
strategy in signing up for loans to minimize your long term cost and interest. However,
I wasn't able to fit all of that in this video. If you would me to cover those topics in a
future video, leave a comment down below so that I can gauge interest.
With recent changes in the education budget on a national level, federal loans are not
nearly as favorable as they were a few years ago. However, some subsidized school loans
will not accrue any interest for the period of medical school, and sometimes even through
residency. That's right, you don't even have to pay back for inflation! These are awesome
loans, so if you are offered them, I highly recommend taking them.
Private loans generally have the highest interest rates and are not included in most forgiveness
programs. Loan forgiveness programs are a popular way to reduce your overall loan burden.
They are most advantageous for students with significant debt. The way it works is simple
- you work for a organization, employer, or program for a set period of time, and in return,
you receive either partial or complete loan forgiveness or loan repayment.
The Department of Education's Public Service Loan Forgiveness program offers loan forgiveness
for working in the government or non-profit organizations. After making 10 years of monthly
payments, the remaining loan balance is forgiven. The National Health Service Corps offers a
loan repayment program for those in primary care specialties practicing in under-served
areas. There are also a few options through the military.
Now on to the fun part, free money. The main reason I was able to graduate with such little
debt is through obtaining scholarships and grants.
When you first get accepted to medical school, I recommend reaching out to the financial
aid office, even before classes start, and asking them about what scholarships or grants
are offered. Most medical schools keep a list of annual scholarships and grants, many of
which you may be eligible for. Awards are not just for good grades. Eligibility criteria
widely varies - some may be specific to a certain background or ethnicity, specialty
or practice type, religion, home town or place of birth, etc.
In addition to reaching out to your school's financial aid office, definitely search online
for medical student grant and scholarship offerings. I have links to websites and resources
I personally found useful down in the description below.
Now the juicy part. Here's a little known secret that can make the difference of hundreds
of thousands of dollars: if you get accepted to multiple medical schools, let them incentivize
you to come to their school over others with scholarship offers. Obviously, you need to
me accepted to more than just one medical school. Simply send an email to the admissions
office, explain you are interested in their program but are weighing other acceptances
as well. Ask if there are any scholarship or grants they can offer to reduce your out
of pocket cost. After sending out these emails to the schools I was accepted to and interested
in, I was able to get almost all of my medical school paid for. Had I not sent out these
emails, I may have been in hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.
Now I'm going to say this not to toot my own horn but for full transparency: I was a highly
competitive medical school applicant, obtaining interview offers at the majority of schools
I applied to, interviewing at most of the top medical schools, including 3 of the top
4, and gaining acceptances to several. Ultimately, I went to a program I was excited about because
of its location, the people, and the culture. And did I mention the location? They also
offered me their highest merit based scholarship and I only took small loans to cover a portion
of my living expenses.
Many of the largest scholarships, like the one I received, are merit based, and are offered
to students with stellar medical school applications. This means having a top MCAT, GPA, research,
and being well rounded with impressive extracurriculars. A compelling personal statement and crushing
it on interview day with refined interview skills are also essential. You have to be
a beast of an applicant. And I want to help you be that stellar applicant.
Now while its impossible to guarantee merit based scholarships, multiple advisors on ‪MedSchoolInsiders.com‬
also earned sizable or even full ride scholarships to medical school. These are real doctors
who were top performers. At MedSchoolInsiders we don't settle for anything less. We can
show you exactly how we did it, and teach you from our own first hand experience of
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Check out these emails I recently received from YouTube subscribers. These were fans
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For a limited time, use the coupon code SCHOLARSHIP15 for $15 off your purchase of $100 or more.
As always, thank you all so much for watching. Let me know in the comments below if you want
me to make a video going into more detail about the different types of loans, or any
other video requests you may have. If you know someone else going to medical school
and you want them to have less than $200,000 of debt, please share this video with them.
If you liked the video, make sure you press that like button. Hit subscribe if you have
not already, and I will see you guys in that next one.