Like every good veterinarian blogger, I have to spend at least one blog post on student loans. I try not to complain about them excessively, because I did sign on the dotted line for them. I chose to go to vet school and finance my education with student loans.
HOWEVER...my vet school tuition per year was $25,000 (a little less at the beginning, and little more at the end since tuition just soared every year I was in school). My total loans owed came out to be $131,000. Tuition alone cost me $100,000. The remaining $31,000 was a combination of accrued interest and money I had to take out to pay rent, electric, eat, etc. I worked quite a bit in vet school. Sometimes working 2 or 3 jobs at once just so I wouldn't have to take more loans out to live on. This means that between four years, I lived off of $7750 per YEAR plus whatever I could scrape together by working. At any rate, vet school wasn't living the high life, and the neither is the life now.
My student loan payment every month is $970 (one third of my monthly paycheck)...for the next 25 years. This means I will pay off my student loans by age 51. Currently I feel like an indentured servant just working to pay my loans and not much else. I am unable to save significantly for large items like a house, retirement, or anything else. I also get no health insurance from my job nor any retirement savings plan, because, as a small business, they can't afford to provide either. My salary is average for a new vet. Unfortunately, salaries for seasoned vets aren't much higher, and I don't have large raises to look forward to.
Even though helping animals is fun and rewarding job to have, I honestly have to say that my resentment for the profession stews every day because of my student loans. The profession as it is now is unsustainable. How can we sell large debt amounts and servitude to people looking to get into the profession?? I'm lucky. I have a husband that works and brings a decent paycheck. He got a four year degree and has minimal student loans (less than $3000). He makes almost double my salary. I often feel like he supports me while I "play" in a hobby that just barely pays for itself. My financial contribution to my household is minimal; and, honestly, I'm embarrassed. I'm embarrassed that I am a smart person and was kind of tricked into following my passion even though it put me and my family into nearly unpayable debt, and set back many of our financial goals by years and decades.
My boss always tells me, "Don't be resentful of the job and profession because you overpaid for your education." I try to not have ill feelings towards it, but some days it really gets to me, and it stings really bad.
My second choice to vet school was to go to medical school to become an orthopedic surgeon. While perusing jobs, I came across an ad for such a position. The base salary was $450,000 per year. Passion for animals only goes so far, and while it's a nice thought, it doesn't pay the bills. If I was making a $450,000 salary, I feel that I could probably do more to help animals than just being a veterinarian. Sighhhh...
Off to start an insanely long day!
Ouch! You did other veterinary bloggers one better by actually posting your debtload and payment size. I've spent the past 24 hours trying to think of something comforting or profound to write that might help with your feeling of resentment toward a job that you looked forward to with excitement - but words of wisdom escape me where this is concerned. Please let us know if you find a way to make peace with this dilemma.
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