1. Medical Professionals (Doctors and Surgeons) Medical professionals consistently top the list of careers with the highest student loan debt. Reason for debt: Lengthy education (4 years of undergraduate studies, 4 years of medical school, plus residency and possibly fellowship).
Dentists had the largest average increase per year in debt ($10,525) followed by pharmacists ($8356), while physicians and optometrists had the smallest average changes ($5436 and $5397, respectively).
Going into $100000 of student loan debt for a degree is very risky. Only one in four who matriculate graduate and get a good job. The odds are that you will end up trying to pay off your debt while working for Starbucks. There are different protocols used to determine the amount of debt advisable.
The best majors for a better debt-to-income ratio
Those who earn typically high starting salaries, in fields like engineering and computer science, often have the lowest debt-to-income ratios. Others who fall into this category may include business, health, math, and science majors.
Though school debt consistently exceeded income for healthcare occupations -- except for physicians -- between 2017 and 2022, dentists had the highest debt-to-income ratios. The study was published in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education.
In general, the majors that often lead to less post-graduation debt are certain STEM fields (like Engineering, Computer Science, or Health Sciences), because these fields often have high starting salaries, which could make it easier to pay off any loans you take out for your education.
Adults with a postgraduate degree are especially likely to have a large amount of student loan debt. About a quarter of these advanced degree holders who borrowed (26%) owed $100,000 or more in 2023, compared with 9% of all borrowers. Overall, only 1% of all U.S. adults owed at least $100,000.
The average student borrower takes 20 years to pay off their student loan debt. 43% of borrowers are on the standard 10 years or less plan with fixed payments. Some professional graduates take over 45 years to repay student loans.
As of March 2020, 45% of the outstanding federal education loan debt was held by the 10% of borrowers owing $80,000 or more. Student loan debt is the second largest debt, aside from a mortgage, in a household. 83% of borrowers have a loan balance of $50,000 or less.
Doctors typically carry a lot of student debt. According to the Education Data Initiative, on average, physicians graduate with about $241,600 in debt, dentists with $292,169, and veterinarians with $183,302, which can take a considerable amount of time to pay off.
Arts and Humanities majors who attended non-selective schools are the most likely to default on their student loans. U.S. Department of Education surveys of recent graduates show that 21.8%of Black/African American student loan borrowers have defaulted on a student loan.
1. Physicians and Surgeons. There are diverse types of doctors specializing in various areas of the medical field, but the highest paid doctors are physicians and surgeons.
Anesthesiologist — $302,970/$145.66 per Hour
All that time and effort pay off, however: Anesthesiologists top out as the highest-paid profession in all of America, at $302,970 per year on average, making them by definition an overpaid career.
Women are stereotypically seen as irresponsible spenders, but the data doesn't back this up. According to a 2019 Experian study, men carry more debt than women across nearly all categories, including credit card debt — the study found that men have $125 more in credit card debt than women on average.
They avoid debt
In fact, 73% of millionaires surveyed in the US have never carried a credit card balance,1 while 56% of active credit card accounts in the United States currently have a balance. One big exception is mortgages, and even some of the super-rich use mortgages when buying their homes.
Here's the average debt balances by age group: Gen Z (ages 18 to 23): $9,593. Millennials (ages 24 to 39): $78,396. Gen X (ages 40 to 55): $135,841.
If you repay your loans under an IDR plan, any remaining balance on your student loans will be forgiven after you make a certain number of payments over 20 or 25 years. Past periods of repayment, deferment, and forbearance might now count toward IDR forgiveness because of the payment count adjustment.
Who has the most student loan debt by race? Black adults are more likely to have student loan debt than those in other racial or ethnic groups. They are more likely than white adults to hold student debt at every level of educational attainment.
According to Experian, average total consumer household debt in 2023 is $104,215. That's up 11% from 2020, when average total consumer debt was $92,727.
What is considered a lot of student loan debt? A lot of student loan debt is more than you can afford to repay after graduation. For many, this means having more than $70,000 – $100,000 in total student debt.