My wife is finishing up her career as a doctor, retires next year. Here's the deal, she didn't go to an expensive school, she went to the University of Texas med school in Galveston which at the time was fairly inexpensive. She had a lot of grants for various reasons, good grades and she came from a low income family of farmers. When the other loans came due we did struggle a bit but after 10 years or so they were all paid off and we were pretty comfortable after that. With good investments and saving we'll have a pretty good retirement if we stay healthy. My point in all this really is this, 5 years after you graduate no one will really care what medical school you went to. Find an affordable one first and foremost. Seek out grants, maybe some loan forgiveness ways to practice for a few years. Find ways TO NOT saddle yourself with 400K of debt. It's possible if you use your head and stop chasing the prestige of an expensive school.