This really means nothing, but one of my co-workers daughter graduates from med school as an orthopedist surgeon in May and here is some interesting information. She went thru 10 years of college to get this degree. She has to do a 5 year residency at $40,000 per year. If she continues on with a Fellowship, that could be another 1-2 years at about the same wage. She has $500,000 in school debt and will defer it until she's out of residency. I don't know how much interest will accrue. So she will be age 34, well over $550,000 in debt when she starts her career. I am told it takes about 5 years to get a practice up to speed, or she could work for less as an associate somewhere. That puts her close to age 40 before she starts really seeing the bling. That's a long time.
Doctors do not make a lot of money when they first start out and a lot stay in debt for 15 to 20 years. There are a lot of ways to make money as a doctor but when starting out they have such a huge debt it can be a little unnerving at times.
It makes me understand why they charge what they do. Half a million for college. About $750K to start a practice. The overhead of a practice... And, they're well into their 30's before they make any money at all.
