u/professionalask22

For anyone who lives in California, can you share how much your salary is working at an FQHC either for PSLF or NHSC? I was always worried about benefits going into this field. I’m an incoming D1 and I really need my federal loan forgiven while focusing on my private loan repayments. I’m hoping to live with my parents which is the only reason I’d pursue an FQHC in California, otherwise I’d move to the Midwest or somewhere with lower COL and tackle the loans. Any insight or advice is appreciated.

For anyone who lives in California, can you share how much your salary is working at an FQHC either for PSLF or NHSC? I was always worried about benefits going into this field. I’m an incoming D1 and I really need my federal loan forgiven while focusing on my private loan repayments. I’m hoping to live with my parents which is the only reason I’d pursue an FQHC in California, otherwise I’d move to the Midwest or somewhere with lower COL and tackle the loans. Any insight or advice is appreciated.

Unfortunately my only acceptance is a private school with 550k COA and the private loan rate I got is 9.06% on 15 years, I don’t have a reliable co-signer. I’ve been in a really bad mental state for over a month now. I’ve tried my best to make sense of my repayment but it’s coming out to about 5.3-5.7k a month and this is with RAP on the federal. My parents agreed to let me move back in with them after school until I find a spouse but even then I don’t think this repayment number is something I’m comfortable with.

I’m trying to switch to hygiene but just found out that I have to retake 5 science classes to be able to apply to the 2 schools in my area, adding on 1-2 year delay before I can get into the program. I’m already 25 and my family is pressuring me to get a career started soon.

I feel like the past 7 years of my life have been wasted working so hard for dental school and now it seems like it’s out of the picture because the BBB got to me. I’m just completely stuck and don’t know where to go from here. I can only see myself in the dental field. If I go through with dental school , I have a plan to increase my credit score to get a better rate for D2-D4, and plan on applying for NHSC, HPSP but I feel like it will be extremely irresponsible to go to school trying to bank on these competitive scholarships. Reapplying to a cheaper school is out of the picture bc my DAT is expired and my app would be really late this cycle, my application was also not really strong to start with. I applied to 18 schools, got 2 interviews to expensive privates and only 1 acceptance. Any advice or words of encouragement are appreciated. I am in the lowest point of my life

Edit - maybe worth mentioning my school offered me a HPSL loan to reduce my private loan need, unsure if it will be the same amount every year or decreases as the years go by.

I am thinking of withdrawing my dental school acceptance and pursuing RDH instead. My main issue is the debt to income ratio, I will be basically working for free for at least 10 years to service my loans while barely having enough for living costs. On top of that I don’t think associate DSO dentists get benefits (or depends on the DSO).
Can anyone share pros and cons of hygiene? I have heard of DSOs hiring hygienists for 4 days a week and also providing benefits. I just want to view the pros and cons of both before I decide , so please share your thoughts! Thank you

For those who were approved for the HPSL , did you receive the same amount every year? I got offered 20k for D1 and am wondering if it’s something I can expect in D2-D4 and if it will be the same or lower. Thank you.

I got accepted on D Day to a school that I’m not super excited about. I’m grateful to get accepted anywhere but I definitely see myself at different school I’m waitlisted at. Since January I’ve been experiencing such an unstable wave of emotions every single day, multiple times a day. In the morning I’m so optimistic about my future, then later in the afternoon I’m getting FOMO about what my future could look like at another school, then I’m getting stressed about what my repayment looks like after graduation. I just want to ask if there’s anyone else that is grateful but not super excited to start dental school somewhere they can’t truly see themselves at? I was not expecting to feel this way about my acceptance.

Do you all think there will be waitlist movement between May- Orientation, especially for private schools? I thought there would’ve been strong waitlist movement in March and April but it’s been pretty slow.
What are your thoughts?

Just want to make sure before I buy a new laptop - most schools require you to have your own tech, they don’t bake the cost of it into the tuition and provide you one?