StudentLoanPlanner

In honor of the poster who made the Hangover meme about dental schools asking for donations your first year out, I thought I'd publish my latest graphic for my post "Go to Dental School and Maybe Drive a $5,000 Used Car One Day" If it speaks to you, feel free to print it out and put it up on your bulletin board to throw darts at

You all inspired it, from the Townie who joked about how the deceptive Porsche 911 and four day workweek sale to the dentist who talked about their $5,000 books on CD they had to buy every year.

A couple highlights

-The average general dentist I do student loan consults with has approximately $400,000 in student debt

-The average specialist I do student loan consults with has approximately $667,000 in student debt

-There are fewer and fewer economically viable paths left in dentistry every year, but the ones that remain involve going to an in state dental school in Texas, Oklahoma, or other non-California western or southern state with a low cost of living. Then, you need to practice in a similar region, preferably away from a high density city as a practice owner. All this person has to worry about is refinancing to find a better interest rate and paying off their debt fast

-Outside of this narrow path, optimizing student loans is critical to financial health in the profession

-If the profession were to be represented by a car, I suggest it's now the 2003 Toyota Camry. My goal is to help folks come up with a better plan and move that to at least a 2012 Ford Fusion.

What vehicle do you think represents the current state of the profession? Would enjoy thoughts on the economics of dentistry being as bleak as I think they are as an outsider looking in

Articles on dental school debt I've authored:

Dentists Get Drilled on Student Loans

5 Tips for Managing Dental Student Debt

Travis Hornsby

Founder

Student Loan Planner, LLC

travis@studentloanplanner.com