How to Pay For Medical School Part 1: The Cost

“How to Pay For Medical School” is a three-part article all about the answer to a painful question:

“How much does medical school cost, and how am I going to pay for it?”

I’ll address these questions in three parts:

Part 1: The Cost of Medical school
Part 2: Medical School Loans
Part 3: Scholarships for Medical School

If you’re thinking about becoming a doctor, figuring out how to pay for medical school is something you should start thinking about right away. Money issues are stressful, and worrying about covering the costs of medical school can be a big distraction from the more important parts of the application process.

The good news is that once you get a good idea of how you are going to pay for medical school, you can shift your focus to the important pieces of your application that are going to give you the edge over your competition.

How much does medical school cost?

Here are the facts, straight from the AAMC:

For the 2011-2012 academic year, the average medical school tuition at a state school was about $25,000 for in-state residents and about $46,000 for out of state students.

That was a six percent increase from the 2010-2011 academic year.

At private medical schools, tuition ran about $43,000 for in-state residents and out-of-state residents alike, an increase of about five percent from the previous year. It’s getting more expensive every year!

To tally that all up: Four years of medical school tuition alone will cost $100,000 – $180,000. And don’t forget to factor in living expenses; about $13,000 per year.

Medical School Debt

Approximately 86% of medical school student graduate with some debt. After graduation, the typical student carries about $160,000 in debt from financing tuition, fees and living expenses.

That’s a big stack of cash that can take years to pay back, but there are many ways to pay for medical school that have favorable terms and conditions. I’ll be discussing these here.

The most common way to pay for medical school

In Part 2 of this series, I discuss loans, which are the most common way to pay for medical school. But if you’re interested in some alternative ways to pay your tuition and expenses, you might be interested in my free report called “How to Go to Medical School For Free.”

There are six ways that you can get a free ride to medical school and I tell you everything thing you need to know about each in “How to Go to Medical School For Free.”

You won’t hear much about the six different ways to go for free from most articles about paying for medical school, but you should consider the six ways to go for free as you begin to weigh your options.

Some of the ways to go for free aren’t very well-known, and others are ignored because premeds assume they are “too hard to get,” but it’s worth your time to see whether any of the ways to go for free appeal to you because you could potentially save $200,000 or more if you land a big scholarship.