Interest rates for the student loans you might borrow for the 2018-19 veterinary school academic year have been set. As you may have anticipated, the rates are increasing.
Veterinary medicine is experiencing a student debt crisis. Yes, many higher education graduates experience loan repayment hardship; however the magnitude affecting recent veterinary graduates is unique. Every day I counsel pending and recent graduates through the Veterinary Information Network (VIN) and via VIN Foundation who report student debt balances in excess of $200,000, $300,000 and $400,000 with incomes between $70,000 and $90,000 depending on where they choose to live and what type of veterinary medicine they are pursuing.
Student loan repayment is complicated. With the availability of income-driven repayment options like Income-Based Repayment (IBR), Pay As You Earn (PAYE), and Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE), confusion can set in quickly. The VIN Foundation Student Debt Center is here to help! The My Student Loans function and guides you through which repayment plans you can use and the Student Loan Repayment Simulator helps you figure out which plan you should use.
The recently updated 2018 Health and Human Services (HHS) poverty guidelines determine your minimum monthly student loan payment.
Poverty guidelines are used for many different U.S. government programs. One of the most important uses for veterinarians is the Discretionary Income calculation used to generate the minimum monthly student loan payment of federal income-driven repayment plans (IBR, PAYE, REPAYE). Income-driven student loan repayment plans are extremely helpful for those veterinary graduates with student loan balances greater than their annual incomes.
Getting to and through veterinary school takes a long time and a lot of education. Along the way, you can borrow a variety of loan types to finance your education resulting in a complex student loan portfolio. Before you can formulate a repayment plan, you need to understand your student loans. This short video tutorial will show you how to retrieve and upload your NSLDS file.
The VIN Foundation My Student Loans tool will help you make sense of your student loan portfolio. Using your National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) file, My Student Loans will organize your loans by type, date received, interest rate, principal, calculate a weighted average interest rate, and estimate your monthly interest accumulation. This information is crucial for helping you determine which repayment plans you can use.