Med School on a Budget

I was the first in my family to go to college and was very lucky to not have any loans from undergrad thanks to government grants, scholarships and working 30-40 hours a week.

However, that didn’t keep away the anxiety of accruing hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt from graduate school. As I’m writing this and beginning my third year of medical school, my current debt sits at about $138,000. With two more years to go, that number will at least double.

I started medical school after taking 3 years off and during that time, I was able to save up about $15,000 to put towards my first year. To save that money I worked really hard to live as frugally as possible because I didn’t have parental support or any other outside help.

If I had to give some advice to the graduate student in my similar situation, I’d say the top things I’ve done to be successful at this are the following:

1. I Chose the Least Expensive Medical School

I got accepted to a few schools and while deciding between them, the one I currently attend ended up giving me a $20,000 scholarship. That combined with the fact that the yearly tuition was about $5,000 cheaper than the other ones saved me about $35,000. That was probably the biggest chunk of money that I was able to save.

When applying to schools as well, I had a tuition cutoff, I didn’t apply to any school that had over $55,000/year tuition. Additionally, my school gives out yearly scholarships, and I was about to get another $3,000 for M2 year.

2. Side Hustle

I’ve always had a side hustle when I was working before med school, this was tutoring for high school kids. In medical school, it’s dog sitting. This was great during the first two years because most of my time was just spent studying and it was perfect to just go and with dogs while I studied.

I’ve made thousands of dollars doing this but it could really be anything you wanted, just to have a little income without compromising your studies, the thing you are, in fact, actually there for. I wouldn’t recommend a real job where you have you actually be there working.

3. Live Well Below Your Means

Even though you are getting a lot of money for living expenses from student loans doesn’t mean you have to spend it. I’ve made choices like living with 3 other roommates, not having a car payment, and finding the local market with the cheapest produce in order to cut back as much as I can on daily living expenses.

In addition to having roommates, make sure you are all on the same page about home stuff, for instance how I don’t need the extreme TV package. Even though I’m 27 and living with 3 roommates isn’t exactly ideal, the This doesn’t mean you can’t spend money on fun stuff, but if you save money on the mundane things, you can use some of that to enjoy life a little when it matters.

4. BYOL (Bring Your Own Lunch)

I bring my own lunch/snacks/coffee every single day. We all know that buying coffee everyday can break the bank but I see so many of my peers making excuses about being busy and using that to buy lunch/dinner out. And you could convince yourself of that but it’ll cost you.

5. Budget and Stick to it.

If you create and budget and stick to it, it’ll give you some accountability. I use Mint.com to link all my accounts and makes it really easy to see where I’m at.

6. Play the Credit Card Game

I have a cashback credit card that gets me 2% back on every purchase and when I opened it I got an additional $350 bonus if I bought $3000 of stuff in 3 months, so I got it at a time when I knew I was going to be spending a lot of money. I plan to do this again around the time of residency applications: use the credit card to pay for STEP 2 and residency apps to meet the purchase requirements and then use the cash bonus toward my interview flights.

This lifestyle I trained myself to have has been surprisingly easy to keep up in med school and anytime I feel unmotivated, I think about how grateful I’ll be to myself in the long run if I spend less money during these four years. However, at the same time, you can’t just pause your life for four years without having any enjoyment.

So, like I mentioned in the above tips, if you can save on big things like tuition and rent and have a little income on the side, you can still spend some on quality of life while spending minimally overall. There will no doubt come a point where you think: I have over ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS of debt, honestly what’s another $20 here or $20 there? But stick with your budget!!!! Every dollar adds up and you will thank yourself later.