SoFi Blog

Houses are adorned with festive decorations, busy shoppers are filling the stores, crossing items off of their shopping list—the holidays are here. It’s a time full of family, friends, traditions, and new memories.

Unfortunately for the millions of Americans facing the hefty burden of student loan debt, the joy of the holiday season can be overshadowed by the stress and anxiety that can come with making student loan payments during the holidays.

The average student in the class of 2017 graduated from college with $32,731 in student loan debt. If you’re a parent or family member looking for good gifts for millennials this holiday season, you may want to consider making a student loan payment on his or her behalf.

As a kid, there’s a strong chance you dreamed about becoming a doctor. In fact, according to Fatherly’s Imagination Report , becoming a doctor is the number one dream of young girls nationwide. It’s also the number one dream career for children living in the West and the mid-Atlantic, and second in the Great Lakes, Midwest, Southeast, and Southwest, according to Fatherly.

And apparently a lot of those kids actually followed through on their dreams, as more than 51,000 people applied to med school in the 2017 to 2018 school year. Of those applicants, more than 21,000 actually got in. (And if you’re wondering what it takes to be part of the 40% who got accepted, the Association of American Medical Colleges revealed that the average MCAT score for applicants was 501.8 in the 2016 to 2017 school year and 504.7 for 2017 to 2018. The average score for matriculating students was 508.7 in the 2016 to 2017 school year and 510.4 for 2017 to 2018. In other words, MCAT scores aren’t trending down.)

Upon graduation, these medical school students turned doctors can expect an average salary of $294,000 a year, and more if they follow through with a specialty such as becoming an orthopedic surgeon, a job which commands an average salary of $489,000 . Or if they choose to live and practice in a state that pays medical professionals particularly well, like North Dakota, they can expect to make an average of $361,000.

No one likes high interest rates any more than they like managing multiple student loan payments every month. That’s why refinancing can help. It means you can consolidate to one monthly payment, instead of several, and refinancing can potentially lower your interest rate or help make your monthly payments more manageable.

We’ve created a straightforward comparison chart, so you can see exactly why SoFi is a smart choice when refinancing student loans. We’ll compare loan structures, discounts, and how easy it is to actually refinance. We’ll also look at perks like unemployment protection, so you know what to expect if you find yourself facing an employment gap.

The goal of this information is to allow you to compare and contrast SoFi and First Republic Bank, based on information available on both websites, so you can choose the loan that works best for you and your unique situation. If you’re ready to refinance your student loans with SoFi, you can find your rate in just two minutes.

Feeling like you’re stretched thin by college tuition costs? You’re not alone. The annual cost of a four-year public college education for residents is $20,770 .

That’s just one year. Ouch. Many parents are trying to balance daily expenses, retirement savings, and college costs at the same time and it can be a struggle. Some may even be prioritizing college payments over retirement contributions, a practice most financial advisors advise against.

While students can take out loans to fund their education, a parent might only have a retirement account to fall back on. Parents can be so worried about paying college costs that they may even be tempted to pull from their 401(k) for their child’s college, which can lead to unfortunate tax situations.

There are better ways to find the best retirement strategy for 50-year-old parents while still pulling together cash for college. In fact, here are eight ways to uncover hidden money.

It’s that time of year again, when the leaves change, the weather turns a bit colder and summer vacation seems like a distant memory. And if you graduated from college or an advanced degree program last spring, your student loan vacation is over, too.