Hi guys,
I’m graduating college in May 2026 and planning to take a gap year before hopefully starting medical school in 2027. I recently sat down and fully organized all of my student loans for the first time and honestly got overwhelmed, so I’m trying to figure out the smartest strategy moving forward.
Current total debt is about ~$103k:
- ~80k private loans
- ~20k federal Direct loans
- ~5k institutional university loan
The private loans are the part stressing me out because most are between 9–10.8% interest. Most are currently in “school monthly,” deferment, or grace statuses.
My highest-interest loan is:
- ~$15.7k at 10.8%
I also have several smaller private loans:
- ~$277
- ~$2.9k
- ~$3.1k
Federal loans are mostly between 4.99–6.53%.
I’ll be taking a gap year and expect to make around ~$2k/month take-home income, plus some additional flexible research income. I’m trying to decide what the smartest move is before med school:
- aggressively attack the 10.8% private loan?
- eliminate the small loans first?
- prioritize savings because med school is coming?
- split money between savings + loans?
One thing I’m confused about:
If I aggressively pay down private loans during my gap year, but then they return to deferment once I start med school, how much does that realistically help long-term? I understand reducing principal helps reduce future interest growth, but I’m trying to figure out how impactful it actually is in practice.
None of my loans are delinquent or in default. I’m mostly trying to avoid making dumb decisions before entering another long training period.
Would appreciate any advice from people who went through med school/professional school with significant private loans.
Gap year before med school — should I aggressively pay private loans or save cash?
byu/Amazing_Ring4599 inStudentLoans
Posted by Amazing_Ring4599
5 Comments
* sidenote Im living with my family, so im not paying rent right now!
Your private loans will continue to accrue interest while you are in medical school and you are only eligible for four years so you won’t have any protections during residency and will have to pay. I’d work on paying them down during your gap year to reduce interest that capitalizes.
Holy. How did you get yourself in this position? Why did you take private loans? Do you not have any advisors or parents in the picture?
As a med school graduate I’m gonna be real with you – unless you have some family money or the law changes really quickly, med school isn’t happening for you in 2027. And you’re welcome to PM me if you want to brainstorm how to get out of this incredible mess. I’m sorry dude.
Wait you have 103 but you’re going to add another 300-400k for med school?!?!
I have a few questions for you regarding your financial plan for the gap year and how to pay for law school? Namely
* With $80k in private loans I would expect you to have at least a $900/month payment towards that set of loans, do you have a plan to cover the payments during your gap year?
* With the OBBB Act eliminating Grad PLUS loans, what is your plan for paying for med school currently? Do you know how much you’ll need to borrow per year and overall? Are you likely to be borrowing additional private student loans?
* For your existing private loans, what is the plan for those loans while you’re in med school? I ask because typically there are a limited number of in-school deferment periods in private loan contracts, so it’s common for private loans to go in to repayment while you’re in grad school and still a full-time student… so I have to ask if you’ve accounted for that too in your plan
Those questions need to be answered first, because I think it could turn out badly if you pay off a chunk of loans now only to end up delinquent later in the middle of med school