My husband is a physician, currently in his last year of residency and facing three more of fellowship. He had enough “educational potential” to lead him to a prestigious out-of-state college and then medical school, which left him with a mortgage’s worth of student loans which are racking up interest during residency. The average debt after med school (for his graduating class) was about $200,000, so students will be starting out their adult lives deeply in debt. Painful, yet doable, if you specialize, but tough if you want to be a family physician or generalist, who make significantly less money. Also tough if you even entertain the desire to stay home with children for any length of time.

Going straight through college, medical school, and residency (mostly 3-4 yrs, excluding surgery residencies), one will be about 29-30 before being eligible for a “real job” (32-33 for those who decide to specialize). Residency caps your time at 80hrs/wk of work (averaged over a 4 week period), fellowship has no cap on work hours. Balancing work and family is tough for everyone, especially tough for residents/fellows–especially if the spouse has an equally demanding job.

Thinking about how your student pictures his/her life (being the primary breadwinner, being part of a two-earner family, working part-time to stay home with children, etc) and how work fits in to that picture should have a big impact on this decision (ie, if you end up with hefty loans but only want to work part-time to be with children, will that be feasible?).

I don’t know much about nursing as a career, but I do know my sister in law will graduate from college as an RN and be ready for a good, in-demand job. If your student’s interests seem to be pointing to being an RN but nagging doubts remain (“why not go “all the way” to the MD?”), thinking clearly about how his/her life will play out for the next 6-10 years may be enough to put those doubts to rest.