Repay Wiser

LEARN HELPFUL LOAN REPAYMENT STRATEGIES FOR YOUR SPECIFIC STUDENT DEBT SITUATION

Choosing the right student loan repayment strategy for your situation can save you a ton of time, money, and stress — a concept VIN Foundation calls Repay Wiser.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO REPAY WISER?

Student loans are often a necessity to pay for your veterinary education, but understanding your federal student loans can help you reduce your stress, improve your repayment success, and let you get on with enjoying your career and life.

Using the Repay Wiser strategies veterinarians with student loans can answer the following questions:

What’s the latest on updates and changes?
What’s the “best” way to repay your student loans?
How long will you be in repayment?
How do you know if you will reach forgiveness and what you should do if you think you’ll get loan forgiveness?
Why should you reassess your situation regularly?

Use the free tools available in the VIN Foundation Student Debt Center to perform a good “physical exam” of your student loans with the help of the My Student Loans tool. Then review various repayment scenarios using the VIN Foundation Student Loan Repayment Simulator.

Climbing Mt. Debt webinar: What’s Next for Your Student Loans? by VIN and VIN Foundation, February 5th, 2025

1) Climbing Mt. Debt: What's next for your student loans

This webinar recording covers where things stand with SAVE, PAYE, and ICR; how to do a student loan physical exam; where to find your forgiveness payment count details; and how to think about switching repayment plans during this period of uncertainty.

Another benefit of viewing the recording is seeing the 250 questions you asked during the presentation get answered by Tony!

2) Climbing Mt. Debt Prezi

Review the Climbing Mt. Debt: What’s next for your student loans? presentation materials including clickable links to the resources referenced in the presentation. Think of this as the “slide deck” you can click through and review at your own leisure.

Review what was covered and explore additional content as well.

3) Q&A from the Climbing Mt. Debt Live Session

There was excellent engagement from the live session with over 1,000 registered, and 250 great questions about student loan repayment.

This Q&A post summarizes some of the questions asked during the webinar, including additional details and links to help you better understand and navigate your federal student loans during this period of uncertainty.

4) Introducing the NEW Download My IDR Progress Chrome Browser Extension

During the live session, we introduced the newest tool in the suite of resources VIN and VIN Foundation has to help you navigate the complex world of federal student loan repayment: The Download My IDR Progress Chrome Browser Extension.

The extension helps you download a copy of your IDR forgiveness payment history to your own device since the Department of Education has not yet provided this function.

The extension is now available in the Chrome Web Store (free), which makes it much easier to install and update:

Get the Download My IDR Progress extension
Instructions and support information for installing the extension to your browser
Download My IDR Progress extension terms
Link to where we demonstrated installing and using the extensions during the live session

Please email studentdebt@vinfoundation.org with questions or feedback on this extension. We’d love to hear how it’s working for you!

Are you a class of 2025 veterinary school graduate?

Do you have student loans? Are you confused about how or when to get your repayment plan started? What’s the “best” strategy for paying your student loans now that you’ve graduated veterinary school? The VIN Foundation Class of 2025 Student Loan Playbook webinar is coming up, and will help answer your questions.

Are you an intern or resident?

Conventional wisdom and reflex in the medical training community often says to defer your loans while pursuing internships and/or residencies. However, income-driven repayment (IDR) is often a much better option for veterinarians with federal student debt pursuing advanced education. The VIN Foundation Climbing Mt. Debt – Interns and Residents webinar and tools are here to help!

Repay Wiser is part of the VIN Foundation Student Debt Center three part series of helping veterinary colleagues throughout their student loan path. It starts with pre-veterinary students learning how to Apply Smarter to veterinary school, continues for veterinary school students as they learn how to Borrow Better while in school, with the final (and longest) journey along the path helping veterinarians Repay Wiser.

As always the VIN Foundation welcomes questions and feedback on all of the tools and initiatives available.

The helpful three-part student loan series Apply Smarter, Borrow Better and Repay Wiser is part of the VIN Foundation Student Debt Center. The VIN Foundation Student Debt Center is a mobile-friendly comprehensive resource helping veterinary students, veterinarians, and those who support them manage student debt through school and beyond. Explore the VIN Foundation Student Debt Center.