The RAP plan for residents: should you enroll?

For most residents, the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) produces a very small monthly payment and stops the balance from growing. Whether you should actually enroll depends less on your resident salary and more on what happens to your loans after training.

What RAP is

RAP — the Repayment Assistance Plan — is the income-driven plan created by the 2025 federal law that replaced SAVE. It becomes the main IDR option going forward. For the full picture of what changed and why, see what replaced SAVE and the 2025 law summary for physicians.

What a resident actually pays under RAP

RAP charges a graduated share of your total income — starting at 1% at low incomes and rising toward 10% once you earn more than about $100,000 — reduced by $50 per dependent child, and never less than a $10 monthly minimum. Just as importantly, RAP waives the unpaid interest each month, so your balance doesn't quietly grow while you're earning a resident salary. On a typical resident income, that usually means a modest payment and a flat balance. To see your exact figure, run your numbers in the RAP calculator and plan comparison or read how the formula works in how IDR payments are calculated.

Does RAP count toward PSLF?

Yes. RAP is a qualifying repayment plan for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. If you work full-time for a qualifying employer during residency — and most teaching hospitals qualify — months you pay under RAP count toward your 120. Confirm your program is a qualifying employer using the PSLF eligibility checker, and see the resident-specific details in the PSLF residents guide.

The catch for high earners: RAP has no cap, IBR does

This is the part residents miss. RAP charges up to 10% of total income with no cap. Legacy IBR charges 10% of discretionary income but is capped at the 10-year Standard payment — it can never exceed that amount. At a resident salary the difference is small, but once you're an attending earning several hundred thousand dollars, IBR's cap can make IBR meaningfully cheaper than RAP. The full comparison, with break-even tables, is in RAP vs. IBR for physicians.

The deadline and the trap

Access to the legacy plans is closing. There is a June 30, 2026 consolidation deadline tied to preserving legacy-plan eligibility, and taking out a new federal loan after July 1, 2026 can forfeit access to those legacy plans, leaving you with RAP (or IBR, where still available). If you're a resident weighing consolidation, model the outcome first — see double consolidation and the PAYE/ICR sunset timeline.

Should you enroll? A decision frame

There is no universal answer — it depends on your path after training. Use this frame, then model it:

• Pursuing PSLF? A low RAP payment during residency maximizes the balance forgiven tax-free at month 120, and RAP counts. For most PSLF-bound residents, a low IDR payment is the point.
• Planning to refinance or pay off quickly as an attending? Then your residency plan matters less; the bigger decision is the refinance math later. See should I refinance.
• Expecting a high attending income with a smaller balance? Compare RAP against IBR's payment cap before defaulting to RAP — the cap can win once your income jumps.

Model your numbers

See your resident payment, your projected attending payment, and your total cost under each plan in the RAP calculator and plan comparison, or start with the focused income-driven repayment calculator.