Has anyone seen this?

[MAPPLEBUM]

Resident friend posted to Facebook, it's called "I went $230,000 into debt to become a doctor in America"

http://qz.com/67304/i-just-finished-...l-school-debt/

Also, does anyone read the white collar investor blog?

[ladymoreta]

Several of us have reposted it on Facebook. I think it's good for non-medical people to see the real numbers. They hear "We have a lot of school debt" and think it's in the $20k-50k range.

I don't read WCI regularly, but I've looked up specific things on there.

[corn poffi]

Oops! Double post.

[corn poffi]

I read that article and found the author utterly obnoxious.

I hate the "doctors make so much money" people too, but this was so long and poorly written that it missed the point. He claims it's not a "feel sorry for my life choice" letter, but it really is.

It's good for non-medical people to know the costs and sacrifices that go into training, but his 80-million word essay about himself is not going to change anybody's mind. It just comes off as whining, IMO.

[migirl]

I've seen it on FB too, and my initial thought was that no one held a gun to head and forced him go to medical school.

The explanation of the financial and personal sacrifices that doctors make was okay, but still ... it felt too whiny to me.

[JDAZ11]

I agree with CP, it wasn't well written. Plus, I don't think his sacrifices seemed that compelling. I'm sure all of us could have come up with some better ones.

His reference to lawyers also pissed me off. A tiny tiny fraction of all lawyers work in big law - the rest make sacrifices that negatively impact their finances as well... Particularly when those lawyers marry a doctor that drags them all over the country chasing their dream. (Not that I'm bitter or anything). Getting an advanced degree is expensive - for everyone that does it. And med students aren't the only ones that get crappy interest rates on their student loans.

That said, I do think it's good for people to realize that becoming a doctor today is expensive, and that there is a lot of catching up to do when a decade of training is over. Plus, life still kinda sucks when training is over - so drastically lower salaries will likely result in few bright people going into the field. Which will suck for everyone in the long run.

[Mrs. MD, Esq.]

Has anyone seen this?

His reference to lawyers also pissed me off. A tiny tiny fraction of all lawyers work in big law - the rest make sacrifices that negatively impact their finances as well... Particularly when those lawyers marry a doctor that drags them all over the country chasing their dream. (Not that I'm bitter or anything). Getting an advanced degree is expensive - for everyone that does it. And med students aren't the only ones that get crappy interest rates on their student loans.

I feel you. I was not making a huge salary, but I was making a good one and was paying off my loans. Moving to a new state (twice) basically killed my career (and all progress made on my loans...I'm now just accruing huge interest).

Although, admittedly, part of me hasn't been trying too hard on this move since A. I make the same or more doing temp atty work, B. It's super flexible so I can take all of DH's vacations with him and C. It's hard to motivate myself to put my heart into a career/building my practice when I know we'll likely be leaving in less than 3 years. I did that already. It was fun, rewarding and I loved it while I was doing it but it got me exactly nowhere once we moved. I just don't have the motivation to do it again.

[metroguy]

personally, i think the time sacrifice is worse than the money sacrifice. residency is so inflexible. vacations are 1 yr plan in advance. sick days are nonexistent.

[MAPPLEBUM]

Yes I definitely agree that the blog was whiny and poorly written. I also disagree with his comparison to law school, which often entails much debt, and is an especially difficult profession to enter right now. Hell, I have friends who have taken out way over 100k for degrees in music. Despite the articles shortcomings I was somehow relieved however that there is SOME kind of discussion generated about all the looming changes in American medicine. Physicians have so little time the only comments I've heard (forgive me for saying) make them sound like far right Republicans. I know many of them ARE far right Republican, which is fine, but for those who aren't they need to generate some better arguing points. I guess just the fact that this blog is circulating was a relief.

[The White Coat Investor]

It might sound a little whiny. But I run into people all the time with $400K+ in med school debt. I heard of some the other day who couldn't refinance their medical school loans because their debt to income ratio was too high. He was an attending. He had an income of $150K, but his debt load ($400-500K) was too high for a bank to take a chance on him.