A bit offtopic, but 8% interest rate on a loan you can't default on sounds bonkers. I'd rather expect something like 0.5 percentage points over the current interbank offered rate.

We really need to refinance, but the best we can find is ~7%, I think?

Most of the residents I've been around either seem to be in denial about how terrible their debt situation is or quickly change the subject.

Yeah, I didn't mean that you could find a much better deal. Just that the loan market itself is seriously broken with these kind of interest rates.

I did a similar calculation with my S.O.

At the time she's licensed, she'll be over a million dollars behind where she would have been if she went straight into industry. Break even is something like 25 years down the road - even with "high doctor salaries"

a million dollars behind where she would have been if she went straight into what industry?

I based it on her Biochem degree. Many of her peers who decided against medical school went into medical related fields like pharma and medical engineering.