Student Debt Center

WE’RE HERE TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND YOUR VETERINARY SCHOOL STUDENT LOANS

The VIN Foundation Student Debt Center is a comprehensive resource helping pre-veterinary students, veterinary students, veterinarians, and those who support them reduce their costs as well as manage student debt through school and beyond.

Saving money starts with pre-veterinary students learning how to Apply Smarter, continues with veterinary school students learning how they can Borrow Better, and follows through with veterinarians supporting them with interactive student loan information for repayment with Repay Wiser.

See the latest information on the continued pandemic forbearance benefits and recent Department of Education announcements on student loan forgiveness for new and not-so-new graduates:

With veterinarians leaving school having a student debt load routinely exceeding two times their salary, and far surpassing the “healthy” debt-to-income ratio recommended by most financial professionals, this is a critical issue impacting the veterinary profession.

Veterinary student debt-related stress is taking a toll on individuals and the profession – a toll measured in physical, emotional and financial stress.

Helping veterinarians understand their borrowing and loan repayment options is key to surviving this crisis. It starts before veterinary school and continues for the duration of loan repayment; this is where the VIN Foundation can help. We’re here to help you, and by helping you, we help the profession.

The VIN Foundation Student Debt Center is made up of four sections:

The Cost of Education Map is a realistic look at the cost of veterinary schools, taking into consideration resident, non-resident, and private tuition along with living expenses and student loan interest.
My Student Loans helps you make sense of your student loans. Getting to and through veterinary school often results in a complex student loan portfolio. Upload your National Student Loan Data System file into the My Student Loans tool to get a breakdown of your loan types, a weighted average interest rate, and an estimate of your monthly interest accumulation. As a veterinary student, send your My Student Loan data over to the In-School Loan Estimator to project your remaining school costs. After graduation, send your My Student Loan data to the Loan Repayment Simulator to compare your repayment options.
The Student Loan Repayment Simulator is an interactive program giving detailed repayment cost comparisons based on anticipated income, family information, total loan amount and repayment plan. A forgiveness planning module also helps those utilizing income-driven repayment understand and plan for estimated tax consequences due to forgiveness.
WikiDebt is a resource library for all things dealing with educational debt specific to veterinary students and veterinarians. Search various student loan topics or explore the available categories. All of the content has been created directly from student loan repayment questions that have been asked by your veterinary colleagues.

Take some time to look around, please share it with you colleagues, and as always we are here for any feedback or questions.

The Student Debt Center is part of the Thrive in Five Toolkit to help recent veterinary school graduates thrive in their first five years out of school. Learn more about the Thrive in Five Toolkit.

For new veterinary graduates, be sure to check out the New Veterinary Graduate Student Loan Playbook. This playbook is full of new content designed to help veterinary graduates worry less about loan repayment and focus more on being great veterinarians!

This program is helpful if you are: thinking about being a veterinarian, a veterinary student, a new veterinary graduate, a veterinarian.
You can support this initiative by selecting Help for Veterinary Students on the GIVE page.

Tools to help pre-veterinary students understand the true cost of veterinary school and improve their odds of acceptance, while saving money with student loans.

Valuable information for veterinary students to learn how they can save money on student loans while in school and identify the most useful loan types to help them during repayment.

Interactive loan information, simulations, and tips for new veterinarians to help them understand the options available and choose the best student loan repayment plan for their career and family plans.