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The VIN Foundation Student Debt Center is a comprehensive resource helping veterinary students, veterinarians, and those who support them manage student debt through school and beyond.
With veterinarians leaving school having a student debt load routinely exceeding two times their salary, and far surpassing the "healthy" debt-to-income ratio recommended by most financial professionals, this is a critical issue impacting the veterinary profession.
Veterinary student debt-related stress is taking a toll on individuals and the profession – a toll measured in physical, emotional, and financial stress.
Helping veterinarians understand their borrowing and loan repayment options is key to successfully navigating their student debt. It starts before veterinary school and continues for the duration of loan repayment; this is where the VIN Foundation can help. We're here to help you, and by helping you, we help the profession.
The VIN Foundation Student Debt Center is made up of four sections:
1. The Cost of Education Map is a realistic look at the cost of veterinary schools, taking into consideration resident, non-resident, and private tuition along with living expenses and student loan interest.
2. My Student Loans helps you make sense of your federal student loans. Getting to and through veterinary school often results in a complex student loan portfolio. Upload your federal student aid data file into the My Student Loans tool to get a breakdown of your loan types, a weighted average interest rate, and an estimate of your monthly interest accumulation. Pre-veterinary and veterinary students also have access to the In-School Loan Estimator to help you project your total educational borrowing costs. If you're done borrowing, you can send your My Student Loans summary to the Student Loan Repayment Simulator to see what repayment might look like for you!
3. The Student Loan Repayment Simulator is an interactive program giving detailed repayment cost comparisons based on anticipated income, family information, total loan amount, and repayment plan. A forgiveness planning module also helps those utilizing income-driven repayment understand and plan for potential tax consequences due to forgiveness.
4. WikiDebt is a resource library for all things dealing with educational debt specific to veterinary students and veterinarians. Search various student loan topics or explore the available categories. All of the content has been created directly from student loan repayment questions that have been asked by your veterinary colleagues.
Take some time to look around. Please share it with your colleagues, and as always we are here for any feedback or questions.
Additional veterinary student loan borrowing and repayment resources are available on the VIN Foundation Blog and Veterinary Pulse podcast.
***Please Note: The VIN Foundation Student Debt Center is designed specifically for veterinary students and veterinarians with veterinary school student loans. While anyone is welcome to use the Student Debt Center, the tools are specifically configured for those with U.S. federal graduate/professional school student loans only.