Good afternoon all. I am wondering if anyone has any leads on grants or possible funding that may be available for older pre-med students. I am currently owner and operator of my own realestate appraisal company, but medicine is my true passion. I want to take some time off from business so I can focus on re-taking my pre-requisites and applying to med school, but my business is what has been buying the groceries. Any suggestions??
I know that there are many on here going back to school on student loans. I don’t know exactly how they do it. May be private. I also know that I was told to keep my “major” as nursing so as to qualify for loans if I needed them.
I started my pre-reqs last year, and did it entirely on borrowed money. I’ll be doing the same this coming year. I qualified for a little government funding, but not much, so mostly I took out private loans. That’s not an ideal situation, as those interest rates are variable and you have to be careful about high fees and what loan rate you get. Plus, it can be very difficult to get a private loan to begin with in this economic climate (I had to have a co-signer, in spite of the fact that I had very good credit and owned a home). It’s difficult, but it can be done. I did it because I, like you, wanted to focus completely on my studies and not work.
Best wishes to you, and keep us posted on your progress!
As the owner of your company, why not do both?
I also run my own company but I didn’t completely stop working when I went back to school. I worked part-time (~20 hrs/week) so I could still pay the bills while taking my pre-reqs. Prevented me from having to borrow any money.
I have my own corp as well, which works out nicely because I can work around my school schedule. I typically schedule classes all day M/W/F and then work T/Th/Sat. It seemed daunting to me at first, but once I decided to just dive in, it all worked out better than I expected. Is it possible to tweak your work schedule?
I would suggest trying to squeeze both in so as not to lose money or your business profile.
It may be hard work, but is usually prefferable than letting one slide.
If you are doing appraisals, you can schedule them around classes. I schedule my real estate showings and closing around mine. It’s hard, but you can do it!