Drowning in school debt

March 10, 2010 9:58 AM

Question on grants for veterinarians drowning in debt

My wife is a veterinarian and, after a year of practicing, has been accepted to a residency. While we will not have to pay for her to be a resident, we still owe an enormous amount on all of her school debts up until this point in time.

She will be going into a program to be boarded in Internal Medicine and will be starting in July.

We are making ends meet now, but once she starts, she will be taking a SIGNIFICANT pay cut. Every dollar will have to be stretched.

We are already planning on applying to put her loans in either deferment or forebearance, but that debt isn't going anywhere.

I know for post docs, there are various grants to help pay back school debt, but I was wondering if there are any grants to help veterinarians pay back federal school loans.

posted by TheBones to education (3 answers total)

What state are you in? It looks like some states have loan forgiveness programs if a vet agrees to work in certain specialties where there is a shortage. It seems to be mostly large animal, rural stuff.
posted by selfmedicating at 10:43 AM on March 10, 2010

We will be in washington state, but after she finishes her program and passes the boards, I am not sure where we will be moving, but will most likely not be staying in Washington.

Yes, she will be focusing on small animal internal medicine.
posted by TheBones at 10:57 AM on March 10, 2010

Get all federal loans going under the Income-Based Repayment plan. After 25 (soon to be 20) years of payments under this plan any remaining balance is written off. The payments are manageable, related to your income and family size. Bonus is that the payment formula is soon to change for the better - reducing payments further.

If she is doing a university residency and plans on working in a university, I think that 25/20 years of payments before write-off is slashed to 10.

I feel your pain, I'm a vet myself with big big debt. IBR has taken my stress levels about money way down. The only worry is that the plan and write-off benefit could be taken away in the future depending on the whims of Congress. I'm hoping the program will only keep improving rather than disappear.

Just an FYI, the initial form-filing (which you have to do with each of your federal lenders) is a complete pain. The program is new so the lenders still have some difficulty getting everything sorted out initially.
posted by peanut butter milkshake at 1:47 PM on March 10, 2010