<prompt> Human: Another student load question... My son has recently been accepted to Dental school. We are very excited for him and proud as he has been focused on this since high school. Our position as his parents ha s always been that we would fully pay and support his undergraduate degree but he would need to paytake loanswork to support post-graduate work. This particular dental school is going to be 450,000 for four years which is absolutely staggering to me. My questions are 1 are there institutions that will loan a student 450,000? 2 I thought student loans needed to be paid back over a 10year period and therefore it does not really seem feasible even with a generous assumption on what would make as a dentist 3 He likes dentistry and the idea of being a dentist but is also attracted to being financially successful.. is there a way to calculate how long that would take with a 450,000 loan X vs getting a decent job now with a Chemistry degree? I just want him to fully realize the downstream consequences. 4 any money based on financial need is not possible based on our income... but when does his income determine financial need in that regard?  <response>: Maybe see if rdentistry has any advice about aspiring dentists regarding how much it costs to become a dentist.There have been a few other posts I can remember regarding dentists being half a million bucks in debt to be in this particular profession, so what youre going through is not uncommon. 