Grad School Debt Holding You Back? How to Get It Under Control

Graduate school can boost your career prospects and earnings — but it can come at a steep price. Nearly half of grad students take out loans, with an average balance of $77,300, according to a 2023 report from the National Center for Education Statistics.

That debt can be tough to manage — it adds up fast. All grad school loans, whether federal or private, accrue interest while you’re in school, says Brittany Brinckerhoff, a Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based certified financial planner and certified student loan professional.

You also have fewer repayment options than you do with federal undergrad loans, says Brinckerhoff, who’s worked with attorneys and medical professionals repaying hundreds of thousands of dollars in grad school debt.

If graduate school loans are holding you back from achieving your financial goals, consider these expert-approved strategies.

The first step is understanding your debt. Your loan type can determine what repayment plans are available, says Glenn Sanger-Hodgson, a Tallahassee, Florida-based accredited financial planner and certified student loan professional who specializes in medical school debt.

Log into your StudentAid.gov account for federal loan details, including balance, loan type, interest rate and repayment plans. The Education Department’s loan simulator can help you understand federal repayment options. For private loans, check your loan documents or contact your lender.

Once you understand your debt and repayment options, it’s time to choose a path forward. Use the rules of thumb below as a starting point. But also run the numbers on all available repayment plans to find the one that best fits your financial goals and career plans, Sanger-Hodgson says.

Forgiveness is usually time-based. For example, you can get forgiveness after 10 years of payments while working a public service job, or after 20 to 25 years of payments on an IDR plan.

So if you aim for forgiveness, choose the repayment plan with the smallest monthly payment. That way you maximize the amount of debt forgiven when you reach the finish line.

For most borrowers, that means signing up for an IDR plan. The IDR plan called Income-Based Repayment (IBR) is the only IDR plan that’s not going away in 2028 as a result of the recent budget reconciliation bill.

“Your goal needs to be paying as little as possible over the life of the loan,” Sanger-Hodgson says. If you put extra money toward your debt while on a forgiveness path, “you’re just throwing money away that would have been forgiven otherwise.”

If your student debt is roughly equal to or less than your income, you’re less likely to benefit from a forgiveness program. With an IDR plan, you could end up paying off your debt in full before achieving forgiveness.

Instead, assuming you’re on track for other financial goals, try “aggressively throwing every financial resource [you] have at getting those student loans paid off as quickly as possible,” Sanger-Hodgson says.

• Make additional lump-sum payments. If you have federal student loans, call your servicer and ask if you can apply extra payments toward the principal, rather than interest. And if you have multiple student loans, tackle the ones with a higher interest rate first. 

• Refinance, if you qualify for a lower interest rate.

Carefully consider the decision to refinance if you have federal student loans. They will be replaced with private loans, and you’ll permanently exit the federal student loan system. That means forfeiting access to income-driven repayment plans, forgiveness and other relief.

If you refinance, “you’ve got to be 110% certain that you’re gonna be paying off your loans in full and that you’re not going to need forgiveness at any point,” Sanger-Hodgson says.

Government policies, including the recent budget reconciliation bill, are poised to reshape student loans repayment and forgiveness options. Keep an eye on the news and official Education Department announcements.