UPDATE: What to understand about your veterinary student loans 

UPDATE 3/28:

Earlier this week, income-driven repayment (IDR) applications reopened.

Original Story: 

In 2024, 39% of veterinarians graduating noted that the debt they had was between $200,000 and $400,000, according to data from the AVMA. It’s a staggering number, especially since that same report notes that those graduates will likely make far less than what is necessary to pay off those loans, if, for example, payment options were not available. 

Additionally, on Friday, Mar. 21, President Trump announced that federal student loans would move to the Small Business Administration (SBA) as several executive orders were signed in a plan to eliminate the Department of Education. 

All this brings us to now, where the future of payment options available to veterinarians with student loans are up in the air amid federal uncertainty. And with that, there’s a lot to understand about your current federal student loan situation.  

The VIN Foundation

This is where the the VIN Foundation comes into play. They are the nonprofit arm of the Veterinary Information Network (VIN), which operates as an entirely separate entity. The foundation’s focus is to provide programming that’s relevant and helpful to veterinarians throughout their career. “It starts with pre-vets, and it goes all the way through retirement,” said the VIN Foundation’s executive director, Jordan Benshea. 

Their programs are free, with their student loan-focused information being by far their most popular program. “We’re doing podcasts, webinars, blog posts, we’re doing everything we can to keep people updated,” Benshea added.  

The current state of student loans 

Since the concept was introduced in 1994, income-driven repayment plans (IDR) have allowed borrowers to make payments based on their income, according to Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA, a VIN employee and VIN Foundation board member who’s been the go-to for all student loan related questions. Over the years the IDR options have progressively gotten better for the borrower, with payments becoming more manageable when compared to time-driven options for borrowers, like veterinarians, who have high student debt-to-income ratios (we’ll get into that in a minute). But now, the future of these payment plans seems uncertain.  

“There’s been a block placed on the income-driven repayment plan applications as of a couple of weeks ago” Bartels said. “That has pretty much paused anybody from applying for or managing their student loan payments, using an income-driven repayment plan.” 

According to a post on the Federal Student Aid website, that block is “preventing the U.S. Department of Education from implementing the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan and parts of other income-driven repayment (IDR) plans. As a result, the IDR and online loan consolidation applications are temporarily unavailable.” And if you were on something like the SAVE Plan, you are now in general forbearance.  

As of now, Bartels notes that there is no actual way to apply for an income-driven plan. This pause essentially removed access to IDR applications and stopped processing applications that had already been submitted for those plans.  

Other hurdles

But even if you’re already on an IDR plan, you can run into issues. He notes that people on an IDR plan need to update their income from time to time, but since you cannot access it to update, your monthly payment is automatically moved to a different payment plan, something that looks more like a fixed 10-year plan payment – where monthly payments are much steeper, Bartels says sometimes 2-5 times greater than the amount they were paying before. 

“[Borrowers] must make that payment or call their loan servicer and request a forbearance or another time-driven plan, like a graduated or extended repayment option,” Bartels added. “While those might be lower than the fixed 10-year payment amount, they are still quite high since they are based on the student loan balance and interest rate rather than factoring in their income. Extended and graduated payments are also not forgiveness eligible.” 

So, if you’re worried about the state of your student loans, regardless of your plan, what can you do? 

The actionable steps you can take now  

To help paint a clearer picture of someone’s loans, Bartels and the foundation approach looking at the loans not necessarily from a finance angle, but by giving your loans a “physical exam.” 

“The first step is usually helping them do what we call a student loan physical exam,” he added.

Here’s how that process works:  

1. Log into studentaid.gov (anyone who has federal student loans can log in). 
2. Obtain your federal student aid data file and download a copy. You can view a walkthrough on that process here.
3. Go to the VIN Foundation’s My Student Loans tool, one of the freely available tools the foundation has and upload the file.  

“[The My Student Loans tool] gives [veterinarians] a summary of what’s in there. Their principal, their interest, their unpaid interest. What repayment plan they were in, what their minimum monthly payment used to be,” Bartels said. “Also depending on their borrowing history, that largely determines what options they have available to them.” 

Next steps

After that, Bartels said their team looks at what they call their “income-driven repayment plan profiles” which shows what someone’s options might be if the SAVE Plan, or a different IDR option is not available. That can be more beneficial versus something like the standard 10-Year-Plan payment plan, which could drastically increase someone’s typical monthly payment. Essentially, this is coming up with a “treatment plan” for your loans.  

The focus typically is for anyone who has a federal student debt-to-income ratio that’s greater than one (or 100%), meaning their federal student exceeds their annual income. Despite this focus, the foundation will help anyone who has student loan questions. 

Crunching the numbers

About 25% of the 2024 veterinary graduating class had a student debt-to-income ratio of 2. For students with a 2 or higher, there is a good chance you’ll reach forgiveness, notes Bartels. The VIN Foundation also created a chrome extension that downloads your IDR forgiveness payment count history, which is then saved to your computer as a .csv file. 

At the end of the day, Bartles says doing a “physical exam” is the best way to get the whole picture when it comes to your loans. Benshea added that knowing your loan details and status, even if it’s just simply updating your contact information and login is a way to take an action step right now.  

“Above all, the important thing is to know where you’re at,” she said “Be aware of that. Make sure your contact information is up to date.” 

 What comes next? 

Bartels and Benshea both acknowledge the confusion going on right now, but there are some things they are keeping an eye on when it comes to possible updates at the federal level regarding student loans.  

“I expect to see some access to at least the income-based repayment plans hopefully soon… sooner rather than later would be nice. Then we can reassess what those longer-term options look like,” Bartels added.  

Those with the VIN Foundation are also keeping an eye on Congress to see if there will be any updates from them about student loans that could impact veterinarians and future veterinary students, Bartels notes.  

“Don’t make any kind of quick emotional decision without checking first, Bartles said. In most cases the answer is, unless your payment has significantly increased, you don’t really need to do anything right now, but examine what your current situation is, and have a really good understanding of the data that you’re dealing with.” 

Additional resources from the VIN Foundation:  

Vin Foundation Website 

Tony Bartels, DVM, latest updates on student debt blog 

“What you can do now” PDF from the VIN Foundation 

Photo Credit: zimmytws via iStock / Getty Images Plus 

Disclaimer: Trends content is meant to inform, educate, and inspire by providing an array of diverse viewpoints. Therefore, any content published should not be viewed as an official stance, position, or endorsement by the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) or its Board of Directors.