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I am an American Medical Student in a Foreign Medical School That is Looking for a Private Student Loan

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Question:

Dear Steve,

I am a Caribbean med student who is an American citizen. my school located in Curaçao, I am looking for a private student loan. That I can use to finish the rest of my clinical studies at a hospital in the states. I have asked a lot of palaces, but have gotten denied, Do you have any suggestions as to which companies would be willing to lend.

Ann

Answer:

Dear Ann,

I’m sorry to say foreign medical schools scare the hell out of me from a debt point of view. The percentage of students accepted back into the United States in a residency program is smaller than those from U.S. schools. So students have a lot of debt but can’t get the break they need to practice in the United States. See this report.

“Historically, positions obtained by foreign-trained physicians (IMGs) have been concentrated in a few specialties. In 2020, 67.7 percent of matched IMGs obtained positions in Internal Medicine (categorical), Family Medicine, and Pediatrics (categorical). Between 2016 and 2020, a larger proportion of IMGs matched in Neurology (2.3% in 2016 to 3.2% in 2020). In addition, the number of IMGs who matched to Emergency Medicine rose from 1.7 percent in 2016 to 2.5 percent in 2020.”

If your clinical studies are part of an educational program and you have been accepted in a specific school in the United States to complete your studies then the best place to contact is going to be the Financial Aid office of that school. This is an issue they deal with on a regular basis.

However, private student loans are the worst kind to owe. Federal student loans are preferable based on current full or partial forgiveness programs and/or adjustable repayment options.

Proceed cautiously. Don’t become one of the many that took on loans for medical school educational debt but never became a licensed physician.

Sincerely,


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Steve Rhode
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Steve Rhode is the Get Out of Debt Guy and has been helping good people with bad debt problems since 1994. You can learn more about Steve, here.
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3 thoughts on “I am an American Medical Student in a Foreign Medical School That is Looking for a Private Student Loan”

  1. I agree completely with Mr. Rhode’s advice. Here are my thoughts:

    Ann needs to be careful about enrolling at a medical school outside the United States because sometimes graduates are unable to practice medicine in the U.S.

    Also, I wonder why Ann is seeking a private loan rather than a federal loan. If her medical school is not on the Department of Education’s approved schools list, then the school is not eligible to participate in the federal student loan program. To my surprise, there are some foreign medical schools that are on DOE’s approved schools list, and students who attend those schools can get federal loans.

    I blogged awhile back about a medical school graduate who took out a private student loan to attend an African medial school. Ann might find it helpful.

    https://www.condemnedtodebt.org/2017/09/does-citizens-bank-routinely-make.html

    Richard Fossey

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