Financial Challenges Different from the Past
The financial challenges facing today's medical
students are increasingly different from what most physicians experienced during
their own medical training for a number of reasons.
- Over the two decades since 1980,
medical school tuition costs have almost tripled, or -
- More than twice as fast
as the general cost of living, and
- Nearly three times as fast
as students' expected future earnings.
- Opportunity for medical students
to earn supplementary income during their school year is virtually impossible
due to demanding schedules.
- The way that medical students
are trained has also changed. Since the elimination of the rotating internship
and the establishment of family medicine as a specialty, all graduates now
go directly into a residency program, and can no longer moonlight with their
general licenses during their residency.