financing medical school

First - happy holidays all.


Second - I am just curious to how the post-bacs are financing medical school. I am over on SDN reading about financial aid but is there anything I should be considering since I am not a traditional student? I remember when starting my post-bac I had to continue to payoff student loans from undergrad days (even though I started my post-bac less than a year after graduating college) because I was not a matriculated student or fulltime or taking the courses at the same school I graduated from. Will I have to continue to do that while in medical school and if so how?


What about my car note and credit card bill (its only one card but its 10k+)? What do I do about that?


Also, anyone know any other resources to look for advice besides, fastweb, sdn and of course here?



  • obesedude Said:
I remember when starting my post-bac I had to continue to payoff student loans from undergrad days (even though I started my post-bac less than a year after graduating college) because I was not a matriculated student or fulltime or taking the courses at the same school I graduated from. Will I have to continue to do that while in medical school and if so how?



No, you should not have to continue to payoff undergrad loans. Once med 1 actually starts and you show up for the first day, your school will have to fill out a form verifying that you are enrolled as a full-time student which should put your loans into deferral status. You will have to continue to make payments on them until you start med school AND your lender approves the deferral. If you are right on top of that and get the forms in ASAP, you shouldn't have to make more than one payment after starting med school. The loans will stay in deferment until you graduate, although you may have to fill out a new deferral form every year.

  • Quote:
What about my car note and credit card bill (its only one card but its 10k+)? What do I do about that?



Most schools do not budget any money for credit cards and car loans. I personally think the car loan thing is particularly stupid, especially when you are really required to have a car at many schools in order to get to and from clinical sites. In any case, you can look at a sample budget for OSU here.

At OSU, if you are an in-state student, you can cover nearly all of the budgeted amount for tuition and living expenses with Stafford (federal loans). This past year, I think the maximum amount was around $42000. This varies a little bit from area to area (some schools allow more due to high cost of living).

If you need to borrow beyond that, there are a couple of options. Some schools now offer PLUS loans for graduate and professional students. These are federally backed loans at a slightly higher interest rate (~8%). I'm not sure how much you are allowed to borrow - it may be only enough to cover the gap between Stafford loans and the budgeted amount. You'll have to ask your financial aid office about that and whether or not your school is eligible for PLUS loans.

If plus loans aren't an option and you have good credit and/or a co-signer, there are multiple private lenders out there. Private lenders usually aren't restricted to the budgeted amount, so that may be an option if you can't reduce other budgeted expenses enough to meet your car loan and credit card obligation.

  • Quote:
Also, anyone know any other resources to look for advice besides, fastweb, sdn and of course here?



Contact the financial aid office of the school you will be attending. Immediately after the first of the year is probably not too bad of time to meet with them as FAFSA's usually aren't due until end of Feb/first of march. Also check out the financial aid websites for various medical schools. Lots of them are very good and have a ton of good info. There are several good links on the website above, for example.

Hope that helps!

Dude,


now that you’re in… assuming you have your day job still, I would find a nights/weekends job for the next ten months–stacking boxes at Costco, pushing wheelchairs at the hospital, whatever–work 70 hrs/week and PAY DOWN that credit card debt. You’re already going to accrue a lot of new debt and the card is nothing but an albatross at this point–get rid of it as soon as possible and don’t let it come back. Just my humble advice! Best of luck and congratulations,

Dude,


As Terry mentioned, you really need to pay off that credit card because that is going to affect how much that you get, AKA your credit rating.


Basically, take any extra money that you have and pay off that credit card. Second, come April you will need to fill out the FAFSA in order to see if there are any programs from the government you are eligible for. In addition, start looking for scholarships. Also, start putting together a budget. I am assuming that you are going to be in the UMDNJ school system? If so, then UMDNJ is going to have you fill out an electronic form after they get your FAFSA. What you are going to need to do is get some help from your family if possible.


You can also apply for private medical school loans through banks.


Once you fill out everything and you start your semester, go the website of primary lender of your current student loan and fill out the form for deferment. They will temporarily defer your loan until they get another form from the registrar’s office. You have to print this out and once the semester starts and you are officially a student, take this form to the registrar and they will fill it out and send out from there. Now you are on deferment while you are in medical school.


Just get that credit card debt down as much as possible. Even if it means you will have to have nights at home for most of the time.

  • Quote:
Most schools do not budget any money for credit cards and car loans. I personally think the car loan thing is particularly stupid, especially when you are really required to have a car at many schools in order to get to and from clinical sites.



Actually, I believe that it is a federal law that you cannot use educational loan money to finance an auto loan. Just get a jalopy that is good enough to get you to/from school. Remember live like a doctor when you are a student and you will live like a student when you are a doctor.

I just got a 1997 Toyota Corolla at 107K for $3400, and put another $1400 into it–it’s like a new car now and I expect it to go another 100K, probably enough to last me well into residency. I always believed that it’s better to buy a new car and drive it forever, but now I’m not so sure; if you shop carefully you can find a real bargain for a LOT less than $25K.


Gets great gas mileage, too.

  • ttraub Said:
I just got a 1997 Toyota Corolla at 107K for $3400, and put another $1400 into it--it's like a new car now and I expect it to go another 100K, probably enough to last me well into residency. I always believed that it's better to buy a new car and drive it forever, but now I'm not so sure; if you shop carefully you can find a real bargain for a LOT less than $25K.

Gets great gas mileage, too.



Actually, Toyotas are one of those cars that are great new or used. Take care of it and it can last forever!

Kris

Thanks for the advice all. I would have responded sooner but I don’t think the subscriptions feature works for me because I haven’t gotten any e-mail that people replied.


Anyway, I bought the car three years ago. There is no getting around paying for the rest of it. Its a Hyundai Santa Fe, and once I drove it off the lot, I would be lucky to get $10,000 for it.


I definitely spaced on getting a second job. I was all set to take this time and hit the gym hard, practice my spanish, and learn anatomy. Oh well, I got to take care of bills first so I guess I will put that off.


Thanks for the advice everybody!

I woke this morning thinking about the FAFSA form. How do you fill out the form when it comes to family? In my senior year of college, I had to fill in my parents and siblings information. Will I still have to do that now? I graduated in college in 2003. Would I still have to fill out that information or am I now considered independent?


If I was a bit older, married, and had children this answer would be clear cut for me (I don’t think you would have to fill in your parents information but maybe information about your ‘new’ family) but I am in that in between stage. Anyone had any experience with this?



All professional students are considered independent, so technically, no, you don’t have to fill in your parents information. However, many medical schools require you to submit parental information if you want to be considered for institutional aid (college sponsored scholarships/grants. Choosing not to submit parental information will not impact your eligibility to receive federal or private loans, but it may impact your ability to get additional aid from your school.


If you fill uncomfortable filling in your parents info, they can request their own pin and fill out their own info online and electronically sign it. I do know some people who do it that way.

Will their finances cut into the amount of aid I get? I know it did when I was an undergrad.

It will not affect your loan eligibility at all. All medical students are eligible for the maximum amount of federal stafford loans (which may or may not be enough to cover all your expenses, depending on tuition at your school). If your school uses parental income to determine need-based scholarships, then yes, it may cut into the amount of need-based aid you receive. You may want to talk to the financial aid office of the schools you are considering and ask them their policy, as there are some schools that don’t use parental income to determine aid. My school says that the fairest way they can come up with to determine need based aid is based on parental income, even though they know that not all students are getting financial help. However, our FA guy also said that you would be really surprised at how high the cutoff is for need based aid (at our school, anyways).

OldManDave’s Strategy


> Prostitution


> Stripping for tips


> Pole dancing


> Bouncing for dollars


> Working as a “BEFORE” model!!!

Lol. Being an ‘obese dude’ I don’t think I could garnish much doing any of your first four suggestions Dave, but your last one is intriguing! Thanks dude!