Medical Residents: Our Focus from the Start

When Laurel Road kicked off student loan refinancing in 2013, our mission was clear: to help qualified graduates reduce the burden of student loan debt. But in 2015, we discovered an underserved subset of that market – physicians who were in residency and still had to pay back their student loans, regardless of their salary.

When a doctor enters a residency program, they are only making a fraction of what they will be post-residency. In fact, most residences and fellows make between $40-60K per year – hardly a reflection of the average doctor’s salary. This only makes student loan repayment more stressful as doctor’s try to balance high student loan payments with a moderate resident or fellowship salary.

This group doesn’t have many other payment options, either. They are often declined by financial institutions when attempting to refinance their student loans and lower their monthly payments. Our aim was to help doctors in this sticky situation by giving them payment options that other lenders wouldn’t, and to cap their monthly student loan payments at $100/month while in residency.

It’s Logical – Reward Hard Work

Advanced training and professional achievement deserve to be rewarded. It seems logical to us, and we couldn’t believe that no other lender truly appreciated the value of hard work before now. The math behind our idea is straightforward and may seem like a no-brainer – but for many, it wasn’t.

This is Our Specialty

Laurel Road was one of the first companies to offer a specific solution for doctors with qualifications based on their future earning potential, not what they’re making during their medical residency or fellowship program.

And because we’ve been working with physicians from the beginning, we know the kinds of loans that work for doctors at every stage of their journey. As an FDIC-insured bank – not just a third-party lender – we also know how to service these loans quickly and efficiently.

Lenders are Finally Taking Notice, and We’ve Expanded

Years later, other lenders are waking up to the unmet needs of medical students and residents and are offering to refinance their loans. The national student loan debt has nearly tripled in the last decade. A strong clue that the student loan debt crisis was, and continues to be, a real issue. Now, since the problem has worsened, it is an opportune time for lenders to engage with their customers, figure out what they need, and provide solutions that can help them. We continue to listen to our customers and now offer more than in-school student loan refinancing. We offer post-graduation and parent plus loan refinancing, too. Learn more about our product offerings here.

We may agree under certain circumstances to allow a borrower to make $100/month payments for a period of time immediately after loan disbursement if the borrower is employed full-time as an intern, resident, or similar postgraduate trainee at the time of loan disbursement. These payments may not be enough to cover all of the interest that accrues on the loan. Unpaid accrued interest will be added to your loan and monthly payments of principal and interest will begin when the post-graduate training program ends