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I agree that for medicine you really have to like it to do it. I thought I could suck it up and get it done because I do enjoy learning about the body, but my interest decreased over time. Aside from that, loans would've been an important factor in my mind - but won't I have to be just as concerned about it if I get a PhD?
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Glad to hear that you are interested in helping people work out their problems, not just working to help people fix their problems.
If you go down the path of getting a PhD, regardless of where you end up or how much you spend, thinking of what you want to do with it might be a good start. You mentioned teaching before, is that what you would want to do? Is there any way you could shadow your prof. for a day or two to see what it is like? Even interview a few of them to get a better idea of what their daily life is like? That will give you more insight into whether or not it is something you want to do.
Ie. What would your long term goal be? Helping people is a great idea, but what else would be your goal? Would you want to be the 'best' professor out there? Could you see yourself developing some type of system to help people out and then writing a book about it? If you went into teaching would you have any desires to be published? Etc... Overall I would think through some type of plan, some idea of where I would ultimately want to end up.
Don't have to get caught up in figuring everything out now, having a 10 year plan, etc... but some idea of where you want to go would be a good start.
The above would end up taking care of the paying off the loans. PLUS if you get in good at some places, you can be a teachers aide or some other type of position for the university where they will pay for your PhD for you and help defray some of the costs. Granted you won't make much money during that time and times will get lean, it is one way of approaching the situation with financial concerns in mind.