Match Day to First Payment: Loan Triage

Six months is all you get

Match Day was March. Graduation was May. Your first paycheck arrives in July, and your six-month grace period ends in late November — which means your first federal loan bill lands during the hardest rotation of intern year. On a $250,000 balance at a 7.7% weighted average rate, interest accrues at $52.74 per day during grace: $9,651 by the time repayment begins. If you do nothing, the system does something for you. Your servicer places you on the Standard 10-year plan, and the first bill is roughly $2,994 per month — against a gross intern paycheck of about $5,600. That mismatch is how residents drift into forbearance, and forbearance during residency is one of the most expensive defaults in physician finance. The window between Match Day and that first bill is when you choose a repayment plan, document a near-zero income year, certify your employer for PSLF, and decide the consolidation question. Every one of those choices is easier, and several are only available, before the first payment comes due. This module is the triage sequence, in order.