Law Schools

Lawyers Have It Way Better Than Doctors When It Comes To Student Loans

The extra time spent at school allows interest on student debt to accrue for a longer period, with devastating consequences. 

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It is no secret that it costs an insane amount of money to earn a law degree.  Law schools have increased tuition costs at an unconscionable rate for decades, and the amount of money it takes to earn a law degree now exceeds the price of many houses.  Since most people need to finance their legal educations by taking out student loans, attending law school can have monumental effects on one’s finances for years, if not decades.

It might be easy to believe that the student debt crisis is hardest-felt by attorneys, and that lawyers have unique student debt burdens.  However, although lawyers have it pretty bad when it comes to student loans, doctors have it way worse.

I am a triplet (yes, I am telling the truth, and no, we don’t look alike) and one of my triplet brothers is a doctor.  He and I both debt-financed our graduate educations, and we shared experiences and advice with each other along the way.  However, my brother and I had extremely different student debt outcomes.  My doctor brother recently began writing about his experiences with student loans, and his writing illustrates how doctors have it way worse than lawyers when it comes to student debt.

One of the reasons why doctors usually have more student debt than lawyers is because medical school is a year longer than law school.  As much as attorneys might complain about law school being three years long, this is way better than spending the same amount of time as it took to earn an undergraduate degree to attend medical school.  The fact that medical school is four years long exacerbates many student debt issues.  For one, this extra year means that medical students need to borrow around $60,000 more than law students to complete their educations.  In addition, this extra time spent at school allows interest on student debt to accrue for a longer period, with devastating consequences.  Furthermore, this additional year of schooling means that doctors enter the workforce later than lawyers and cannot pay back student loans for an additional period of time.  All told, the fact that medical school is longer than law school means that doctors are much more indebted than lawyers when they enter the workforce.

The student debt difficulties that novice doctors face continue after they graduate from medical school.  Most new doctors spend a minimum of three years completing a medical residency program.  During this time, they often work 60 to 70 hours (or more) a week under stressful circumstances….which I guess is akin to many Biglaw environments.  Despite this difficult work, however, medical residents usually earn very little money.  Although residents often receive decent benefits, such as free meals, health insurance, and subsidized housing, most still earn less than a third of the income that many first-year associates in Biglaw make.  As I can relate from first-hand experience, even if you work at a small law firm, you will likely make more money than medical residents do.  This pay disparity is despite the fact that medical residents have more education than novice lawyers and possess more hands-on experience than many first-year attorneys.

After completing a residency, and depending on their field of interest, some doctors must then complete a fellowship program.  As a fellow, doctors continue to make a modest amount of money for several additional years despite working long hours.  All told, many doctors will not begin to earn a decent paycheck until at least four or five years after graduating from medical school, and during this time, the interest on their student loans likely accrued at an insane rate.  As a result, doctors typically need to dig themselves out of a much bigger hole than most attorneys who debt-financed their legal educations.

In addition, in order to pay for examinations to continue their training and to be licensed as physicians, doctors need to borrow money or spend cash that could be devoted to student debt.  As most of us know, attorneys need to shell out thousands of dollars to prepare for one or two state bar exams.   However, doctors routinely need to pay significantly more money to be properly credentialed.  In addition to “Step” exams completed during medical school and residency (four in total with increasing costs), doctors must then complete “Board” examinations at the end of their residency and fellowship training.  These exams cost close to $2,000 each, and doctors usually need to be recertified every ten years.  These expenses add to the financial burdens of novice doctors, who oftentimes need to borrow more money to pay for these costs.

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It is of course true that doctors make a decent living once they are fully-credentialed.  In addition, there has been some discussion on the interwebs about how doctors can “game” the public service student loans forgiveness system.  Indeed, some doctors may be able to work at non-profit hospitals, make minimal student debt payments while a resident or fellow, and then receive debt-forgiveness despite the fact that these doctors will eventually earn high salaries.  However, this strategy can only be employed by a subset of doctors.  In addition, if any forgiveness cap is placed on income-driven repayment, or other changes are instituted, this tactic will no longer be available.  In the end, most doctors are more indebted than lawyers, have to spend more money out-of-pocket, and have less working years to pay off their student loans.

Of course, the student debt crisis in the legal community is a huge problem, and lawyers have it worse than many other student loan borrowers.  Reforms should be implemented so that attorneys do not need to be unduly burdened by student debt.  However, it is important to keep in mind that lawyers still have it way better than some other professionals when it comes to student loans.

Jordan Rothman is the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a personal finance website discussing how he paid off all $197,890.20 of his college and law school student loans over 46 months of his late 20s. You can reach him at Jordan@studentdebtdiaries.com.

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