The med school debt calculator doctors actually use.

Most physicians take 10–15 years to fully repay medical school loans. The exact timeline depends on specialty, total debt, interest rate, and chosen strategy (PSLF vs refinance vs aggressive payoff). Primary-care doctors at PSLF-eligible employers can often get to a positive net worth in under a decade; surgical specialists who refinance and pay aggressively can do it in 5–7 years.

PSLF can save six figures for doctors who work full-time at non-profit hospitals, the VA, or academic medical centers. It forgives the remaining federal loan balance tax-free after 120 qualifying monthly payments (10 years), with payments during residency counting if your training employer is PSLF-qualified. The math is most favorable for high-debt borrowers in lower-paying specialties (primary care, pediatrics, family medicine, psychiatry).

Per the most recent AAMC Graduation Questionnaire, the median MD graduate carries roughly $236K in education debt, and about 73% of MD graduates have any student debt at all. DO graduates typically owe slightly more. Because federal grad-school loans accrue interest from day one, the balance at the end of residency is usually 15–25% higher than the day-of-graduation number.

Usually not. Refinancing converts federal loans to private and permanently gives up access to PSLF, IDR, federal forbearance, and federal forgiveness protections. Most residents are better off staying on an IDR plan (SAVE/PAYE/IBR) until they have confirmed their long-term employer is NOT PSLF-eligible. The calculator shows the dollar cost of that decision both ways.

No — PSLF forgiveness is tax-free at the federal level under current IRS guidance. This is different from the 20- or 25-year IDR forgiveness, which is generally taxable as ordinary income in the year forgiven (the so-called "tax bomb"). The calculator models PSLF as tax-free; if Congress changes that rule, the math will have to be re-run.

Yes. Every default — debt size, interest rate, residency length, attending salary, fellowship modeling — is calibrated to physician training paths, not generic student loans. The 16 specialty presets handle variable training lengths (e.g. 3–4yr EM, 5–7yr general surgery, 6–8yr cardiology) and split residency from fellowship phases automatically.