VETERINARY STUDENTS
Student Loan
Borrow Better Challenge
The 2026 Student Loan Borrow Better Challenge is now open!
The 2025 Student Loan Borrow Better Challenge is now closed. Please learn more about the challenge below and explore the tools from this year’s challenge. If you would like to be kept informed when the challenge launches next year, you may sign up to Get Updates.
Share your student loan experience, for a chance to win prizes
Borrowing and repayment are changing. By sharing your student loan experience (anonymously if you’d prefer), we can learn from each other and build more helpful resources to help you navigate these confusing times.
WHO:
Open to all veterinary school students with U.S. student loans
WHAT:
2026 Student Loan Borrow Better Challenge
WHERE:
VIN and VIN Foundation message boards
WHEN:
September 11, 2026 – October 27, 2026
WHY:
Major borrowing and repayment changes are here. By sharing your student loan experience, we can learn from each other and build more helpful resources to help you navigate these confusing times.
WIN:
When you complete the challenge you will be entered to win one of many DoorDash gift card.
Borrow Better Challenge Tools
- Student Loan Borrow Better Challenge Webinar Recording
Miss the live session? Want to review a couple of topics again? Watch the full recording of the session below. - Student Loan Borrow Better Challenge Prezi
Think of this as the “slide deck” you can scroll through with clickable links to the resources referenced in the presentation. - Student Loan Borrow Better Challenge Message Board
Review your classmates’ entries to learn how other students are borrowing and trying to reduce their student loans.
How to enter the VIN Foundation 2026 Student Loan
Borrow Better Challenge:
Check your current student loan balance
Run an In-School Loan Estimation
Post your results to the Message Board
*Participants who complete steps 1-3 in this challenge by 11:59 PM PT on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, will be entered into a drawing to win one of many DoorDash gift cards.
Student debt sucks. But for more than 80% of eligible U.S. students attending AVMA COE-accredited colleges of veterinary medicine, it is a necessary tool to achieve the dream of becoming a veterinarian.
Major borrowing and repayment changes are here. Paying for your veterinary education is complicated. Even more so with new student loan limits and repayment updates. How do you know which changes will affect your borrowing and repayment plans?
Share your student loan borrowing experience, strategy, and thought process on the Student Debt Message Board (anonymously if you prefer). With your post, you will be entered to win one of many DoorDash gift card.
1st years:
You’re the official guinea pigs for the new borrowing limits: $50,000 annual and $200,000 Direct Unsubsidized Program limits. Anything you need above those limits will need to come from scholarships, grants, personal/family funds, or private loans. The private loans we’ve seen thus far are all very different. Share yours (if you have them) to see how your loans stack up against some of the other loans out there and potentially improve your terms for subsequent years.
2nd years:
If you received a federal Direct Loan for your first year, then you are “grandfathered” into the old borrowing limits, with access to both Direct Unsubsidized Loans and Direct Grad PLUS loans. You should now have a better idea of how much money you need to get through each semester. Can you use that experience to borrow less for this year?
3rd & 4th years:
Same as the Second Years, you should also have access to both Direct Unsubsidized and Direct Grad PLUS loans. Borrowing gets a bit more complicated with clinics. Your tuition could be higher, your living expense estimates are higher, and you may have interviews or internship visits planned. Build a plan (dare we say, “budget”) to know exactly how much you need to cover your expenses.
Did you know?
All students who receive federal Direct student loans have 120 days to return loan amounts. Doing so will also return the interest and fees associated with the amount you return. Even if you took everything, not knowing exactly how much you need, you have time to figure that out. Build your budget and reassess monthly. When you get about 100 days into your semester, see if you have amounts you can return before you reach the 120-day deadline.
You’ll put a bigger dent in your student loan balance by reducing the amount you borrow or returning excess funds within the 120-day window vs. making interest payments during school.
Borrow Better during school, and you’ll have less to manage after school. Your future self will thank you!
MORE TOOLS TO EXPLORE
STUDENT DEBT CENTER
The VIN Foundation Student Debt Center is a comprehensive resource helping veterinary students, veterinarians, and those who support them manage student debt through school and beyond.
BLOG
Student Debt News
The student debt posts on the VIN Foundation blog features recent student loan news and helpful information.
PODCAST
Student Debt Series
The Veterinary Pulse podcast Student Debt Series discusses all the latest information and changes, and what borrowers need to know now.
BLOG
Student Debt News
The student debt posts on the VIN Foundation blog features recent student loan news and helpful information.
PODCAST
Student Debt Series
The Veterinary Pulse podcast Student Debt Series discusses all the latest information and changes, and what borrowers need to know now.