Average Medical School Debt [2024]: Student Loan Statistics

Report Highlights. The average medical school debt is $234,597, excluding premedical undergraduate and other educational debt.

The average debt of medical school graduates with both medical school and premedical debt, but no non-educational debt was $264,519.
73% of medical school graduates have educational debt.
31% of indebted medical school graduates have premedical educational debt.
The average medical school graduate owes 2.25 times as much as the average postgraduate college student, including their undergraduate debt.
70% of medical school students use loans specifically to help pay for medical school (as opposed to undergraduate or premed debt).

Average medical school debt on Education Data Initiative

Medical School Debt Statistics

Between medical school and undergraduate study, physicians must pay for 8 years of postsecondary education before they can work as doctors.

Medical school graduates owe an average of $243,483 in total educational debt, premedical debt included.
Indebted medical school graduates who received more than $100,000 in scholarships owe a median average of $115,000 if they attended a public institution and $130,000 if they attended a private medical school.
Average debt increased by 48.5% between 1998 and 2019.
Between 1998 and 2011 the annual growth rate of four-year medical school for private out-of-state tuition was 4.5% and for public in-state tuition, 5.7%.
The compound annual growth rate of medical education debt between 2009 and 2019 was 2.3%.
The compound annual growth rate of medical school cost of attendance for all in-state students between 2009 and 2019 was 3.6%
In Canada, the average medical school debt among graduates is US $62,754.
The median medical student debt is projected to exceed $300,000 by 2042.
The median cost of attendance for in-state students is expected to exceed $300,000 in 2025.

Historical Medical School Debt

The average medical graduate’s debt rate outpaces the inflation of academic costs, which in turn outpaces economic inflation.

In 1978, the average medical school debt in the U.S. was $13,500 which is equivalent to $64,534 in 2024.
The average total student loan debt of medical graduates in the 1999-2000 academic year was $87,020, equivalent to $162,390 in 2024.
Medical school graduates owed an average of $78,660, for medical school alone in 2000 equivalent to $146,789 in 2024.
$223,060 was the average medical school debt owed by 2016 graduates, equivalent to $291,139 in 2024.
In 2010, 86% of medical school students graduated in debt.
75% of medical students who graduated with medical school debt in 2017.
Between 2010 and 2017, the percentage of medical school graduates with education debt dropped by 11%.

Average medical school debt 2 on Education Data Initiative

Public vs. Private Medical School Debt

The cost of attendance for a private medical school is higher than public medical school. The rate of the debt increase, however, is not equal to the increased cost of attendance.

Public medical school graduates owed $15,000 less on average than private medical school graduates.
$200,000 was the median student debt among private medical school graduates in 2016; while the median cost of private in-state medical school was $306,171.
$180,000 was the median student debt among public medical school graduates in 2016 while the median cost of private in-state medical school was $232,838
Private in-state medical school students who graduated in 2019 leave school owing a median of 65.1% of their cost of attendance.
Public in-state medical school students who graduated in 2019 leave school owing a median of 79.9% of their cost of attendance.
In 2009, private in-state medical school graduates owed a median of 73.8% of their cost of attendance, while public in-state medical school graduates owed a median of 89.7% of their cost of attendance. However, the median cost of public school was $73,319 cheaper than private.

Average medical school debt 3 on Education Data Initiative

Loan and Repayment Statistics

Some institutions have responded to the student debt crisis with more scholarships and loan forgiveness programs. Not everyone benefits from these programs, however, leaving some students to face increasing debt even as they continue to make payments.

Throughout various medical career paths, a physician with an initial $200,000 federal loan can expect to pay upwards of $350,000 in repayments, including interest, through the lifetime of the educational loan.
Interest payments alone can account for $164,000 – $254,000 of repayments.
Through the Federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF) which is targeted at physicians entering non-profit or government agencies, after 10 years of repayments, the full loan balance can be forgiven. This can reduce total repayments down to $135,000 including interest.
A federal student loan of $200,000 can more than double in 10 years at current interest rates even with regular payments based on a high-paying salary.
A study of graduates between 1988-2000 found that 31.5% of indebted medical school students received Perkins or disadvantaged student loans.
8.08% is the interest rate on the federal direct unsubsidized loans disbursed after July 1st, 2024 for graduate or professional borrowers.
At a fixed interest rate of 8.08%, borrowers with $200,000 in federal student loan debt would be required to pay $2,435 in monthly payments in order to pay off all educational debts within 10 years.
Going off the same 10-year loan mentioned above, the total payment would amount to $292,202, of which $92,202 is interest.
If the borrower on the previously mentioned loan cannot pay off their educational debts within 10 years, their total educational loan repayments will likely exceed $300,000.
59.9% of indebted medical school graduates between 1988-1992 had Health Professions Student Loans.
By 2000, just 4.4% of indebted students received HPS loans indicating that fewer schools allocated funds to the HPS loan program.

Average medical school debt 4 on Education Data Initiative

Medical School Debt & Socioeconomics

Students who come from families with a good deal of wealth accrued are more likely to attend medical school than those without. Low-income students are attending medical school at decreasing rates, possibly due to the specter of debt.

48.2% of medical school students entering in 2023 cite their ability to pay off debt as a primary concern.
The proportion of low-income students commencing medical school has been steadily dropping since 2017, dropping by 1.3%.
In the United States, the median education debt of students from low-income families was $212,000, larger than any other income category.
Among those with debts that exceed $200,000, those with Perkins or disadvantaged student loans are the majority.
Among students entering medical school in 2023, 16.2% had debts unrelated to their education, an increase from 14.5% in 2020.
Among those who had non-educational debt in 2023, 7.9% had less than $10,000.
2% had noneducational debts exceeding $100,000.

Average Medical School Debt Among Ethno-Racial Demographics
Demographic	Share with Student Debt	Median Student Debt
American Indian and Alaska Native	80%	$212,375
Asian, not Hispanic	61%	$180,000
Black, not Hispanic	91%	$230,000
Hispanic	75%	$200,000
White, not Hispanic	71%	$200,000

Medical School Debt Demographics

Financial struggles affect demographics to varying degrees.

Male medical school graduates are slightly more likely than female graduates to leave school in debt.
Black non-Hispanic medical school students carry more debt than any other race or ethnicity at 91%, compared to the 72% average across all students.
The median educational debt is also significantly higher for Black non-Hispanic medical students at $$230,000, compared to the median of $200,000 for all students.
Asian non-Hispanic medical school students have the lowest proportion of graduates carrying debt at 61%, and the lowest median education debt balance at $180,000.
Black non-Hispanic medical students reported that on average only 8% of their medical education will be funded by personal or relative funds. This is compared to 33% of Asian non-Hispanic and 24% of all students.

Medical School Tuition and Fees

Just applying to medical school costs thousands in entrance exam fees, preparation courses, travel & interview expenses, transcript processing fees, etc. The price of public in-state medical school has increased at more than twice the rate of currency inflation between 1998 and 2011; this has been a significant contributing factor to the rise in medical school graduate debt.

$58,327 is the average cost of tuition and fees for a first-year medical student in the 2023-2024 school year.
$23,196 was the average cost of tuition and fees for the average first-year medical student in the 2000-2001 school year, which adjusted for inflation 2024 is equal to $41,868.
The cost of medical school increased 39% in 23 years after adjusting for inflation.
During that time, the cumulative rate of inflation of the U.S. dollar was 80.5%.
The average cost of medical school application fees in 2023 was $2,833.
$10,000 is the application budget recommended by academic counselors.
In 2023, 157 institutions awarded over 22,981 medical degrees each.
52,577 unique applicants submitted a total of 966,947 applications to medical schools for the 2023-2024 academic year.
22,981 applicants were accepted in 2023.
40.1% of those accepted were from out-of-state.