Pharmacy Student Loan Forgiveness Options
Pharmacists feeling overwhelmed by their student loans may benefit from taking a look at a comprehensive guide to state and federal pharmacy student loan forgiveness programs.
Pharmacists feeling overwhelmed by their student loans may benefit from taking a look at a comprehensive guide to state and federal pharmacy student loan forgiveness programs.
James Karnezis of the content and education team at Credible, a website that helps graduates pay off student loans, spoke with Pharmacy Times about the impetus to create the guide.
“Pharmacists graduate with a significant amount of debt, typically around $100,000,” Karnezis said. “We’ve found that by refinancing their student loans, many pharmacy graduates can save tens of thousands of dollars in interest payments.”
Credible works with several pharmacy organizations, including the Texas Pharmacy Association, the Massachusetts Pharmacists Association, and the Pennsylvania Pharmacists Association, to help their members save on student debt.
After holding webinars with pharmacy associations to help communicate which options graduates have for managing their student loans, the Credible team found many pharmacists were interested in student loan forgiveness programs.
Credible created the guide by researching each state to see which forgiveness programs were available to pharmacists on both a state and federal level, and then reaching out to state loan repayment programs. Many states have extended their health profession forgiveness to pharmacists for 2015, according to Karnezis.
A surprising research discovery was the variety of student loan forgiveness programs nationwide.
“Some states offer very generous programs with forgiveness of up to $50,000 per year for working in areas where there is a shortage of pharmacists, while some states have no such programs,” Karnezis said.
This is not the first Credible project devoted to pharmacists. A guide to student loan refinancing includes information about schools with the highest and lowest tuitions and states with the highest salaries. Credible also has state-specific guides for its partners, such as the Texas Pharmacist Association Student Loan Refinancing Guide.
