Graduating College Debt free or close to it.

Question

well here's my plan

1. obtain many scholarships, hopefully a full one

2. join the Coast Guard reserve, to have the government pay whatever the scholarships won't cover.

3. Graduate undergraduate school, and repeat 1 and 2 for Med school

4. Use what my parents have saved up for Med school, and then complete my residency for anesthesiology. Hopefully I will graduate and start a career debt free this way. any suggestions, Am I doing this right or is there something I'm missing? Thanks. I might get deployed once in the Coast Guard, but It's something I think I would enjoy, there are few things I enjoy more than the water.

Answer 1

Medical school is going to run you well over $200,000 by the time you get there if you follow that "plan." You'll be well into your 30s when you start your residency and very few people I've met have ever gone the full distance without debt, even if they've had a good job for a few years. The reason I succeeded without any debt is because my parents put aside money for my education, including graduate school, based on projections made by our accountant in the 80s.

I should mention that getting a full ride to any school can be pretty difficult. I think the only people I ever met that had those were athletes.

I'm not sure what you mean by missing steps or repeating going through the Coast Guard. Please clarify, as it makes no sense either syntactically or in practice.