Advice on how to best pay for vet school?

[DS2000]

Hey guys!
One of the huge problems that we all face entering vet school is tuition. I haven’t found a lot of advice on how to do it responsibly. Does anyone have any advice on what kind of loan to take out, how fast and how much every month to pay it back?
Are there subsidized loans for vet school?
Do you guys wait until after vet school to start paying them back quicker or start slowly paying them back during vet school?

Any advice would help! I wish i got the chance to take a finance class in undergrad🥲

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[JaynaAli]

The best advice is to go to the cheapest school. Seriously. Go to the cheapest school you get in to. I have yet to hear someone who has debt and is actively paying back loans say they regret choosing a cheaper option and wish they’d gone to a fancy school. But lots of people who owe staggering amounts wish they owed less. School is four short years of your life and the debt is forever (or more accurately 10-25 years). Go to the cheapest school. A “dream school” isn’t worth hundreds of thousands of extra when you’ll all end up in the same spot at the end.

It helps to pay it back if you’re independently wealthy, lol. But more seriously, governmental loans are the way to go if you can’t pay outright. Private loans should be avoided. There are (virtually) no subsidized loans for vet school. You’ll get offered the total cost of attendance in direct and grad plus governmental loans if you’re going to a US school.

Everyone’s situation will vary for the best strategy to pay it back, depending on what you owe, your income, your spouse/dependents situation, other debts, etc. There’s no one size fits all repayment advice.

The math usually works out better in your favor to take out less rather than trying to make payments during school. There’s a period where you can return “extra” money each semester you didn’t use and the math is usually better to return extra rather than just make a payment because they refund the interest (if any) and fees for what you return. Taking out less saves you on interest too, so if you have a part time job it may be better to factor that into your budget and take out that much less.

Find roommates, eat cheaply at home, be frugal. It’ll pay off in the end.

 

[that redhead]

The best advice is to go to the cheapest school. Seriously. Go to the cheapest school you get in to. I have yet to hear someone who has debt and is actively paying back loans say they regret choosing a cheaper option and wish they’d gone to a fancy school. But lots of people who owe staggering amounts wish they owed less. School is four short years of your life and the debt is forever (or more accurately 10-25 years). Go to the cheapest school. A “dream school” isn’t worth hundreds of thousands of extra when you’ll all end up in the same spot at the end.

It helps to pay it back if you’re independently wealthy, lol. But more seriously, governmental loans are the way to go if you can’t pay outright. Private loans should be avoided. There are (virtually) no subsidized loans for vet school. You’ll get offered the total cost of attendance in direct and grad plus governmental loans if you’re going to a US school.

Everyone’s situation will vary for the best strategy to pay it back, depending on what you owe, your income, your spouse/dependents situation, other debts, etc. There’s no one size fits all repayment advice.

The math usually works out better in your favor to take out less rather than trying to make payments during school. There’s a period where you can return “extra” money each semester you didn’t use and the math is usually better to return extra rather than just make a payment because they refund the interest (if any) and fees for what you return. Taking out less saves you on interest too, so if you have a part time job it may be better to factor that into your budget and take out that much less.

Find roommates, eat cheaply at home, be frugal. It’ll pay off in the end.

Hit all the major points. I will mention that many graduates opt for income-based repayment (IBR) which is something to look in to.

 

[battie]

Do the math to figure out if it's cheaper to aggressively pay it off early vs saving for the tax bomb and paying the monthly minimum. I made an excel sheet for student loans that breaks down the interest to the day so you know exactly how much you accrue each month.

 

[EB73674]

The VIN Foundation Student Debt Center also has a debt simulator so you can look at your anticipated amount of debt & interest rates & a bunch of other factors to be able to determine your final payoff value, and then it breaks down your monthly costs on different repayment plans. It really is all going to depend on your total eventual balance, your interest accrued while in school & while paying off your loans, and how much money you'll be able to bring to the table to pay things off. Generally, making payments during school isn't worth it, as you'll barely scratch the interest let alone principal of the loan. Highly suggest going for a high-yield savings account (Ally Bank has some good ones) for any money you make during school that you would have put towards loan payments - that way it will "work" for you and grow, rather than chipping away at an ever-amassing amount of debt. (The exception to this is if you enter vet school with loan debt - I'm incredibly lucky that I have help from a family member to start paying my private loans down while I'm in school, so I put $1000 each month towards that.)

Here is the link to the simulator, and the Cost of Education map that gives you an idea of tuition costs is also available here: Student Debt Center Covid Banner

A lot of vet schools also have career & financial counselors that can help you figure some of this out, and many are starting to institute financial education for students. tOSU has 2 days each semester entirely dedicated to financial planning & education about loans as part of our professional development curriculum. I would ask about that during your interviews to help you make decisions about what schools may have the best resources for you.