Paying for Medical School

Having read the AAMC article for non trad. students on the home page I am starting to worry about affording med. school. This year, the year before med school, I will make roughly 200k. Naturally, in med school it will drop to about 0. Does anyone know what kind of loans I will qualify for? I have used most of the 200k to pay off law school student loans and to pay for living expenses–Ie…I paid of 70,000 of law school loans this year. Any advice? I don’t want not being able to get loans to keep me from school?


Thanks!!!


Bill

I did not proof read-please forgive the grammatical errors.

Bill -


I suggest you talk to a financial aid person at a med school, if you have one close by.


Generally, no matter what your income prior to medical school, you are eligible for the maximum amount of federal subsidized and unsubsidized loans. For most schools, this is currently $38,500, but some schools are eligible for more due to being located in areas with higher costs of living.


The reason I suggest that you talk to a financial aid officer, though, is because there are limits on how much you can borrow in federal loans (I want to say that my FA person recently told me it was ~$189,000). I don’t know how much you borrowed for law school, and I don’t know if that could affect how much you could borrow in medical school (i.e. do they have a life time cap, or would you still be eligible to borrow the max since you have already paid them off).


Assuming your credit is good and you don’t have a lot of debt, borrowing from private lenders is also an option. There are several private lenders that lend specifically to medical students. Usually you are allowed to borrow up to whatever your school sets as a “budget” for students. This includes tuition and living expenses.



i think you will be okay. as long as your credit is good, you will be able to get private loans. you might not get much federal loans because you made 200k a year and federal loans are based on what the federal government feels you should contribute. the more money you make, the less federal loan you are eligible for.


the fact that you paid of 70k of law loans is outstanding. i also went to law school and still have a ton of debt. you should feel good that you got 70k off your plate. you are in a better position than i am in.

Actually, it shouldn’t matter how much you made prior to attending school. For professional school, they will assume that you won’t be working and you are usually eligible for the full amount of federal loans. I know several people who were making significant amounts of money in industry immediately prior to medical school and were still eligible for the full amount of federal loans.


What will be affected by your prior income is your eligibility for need based aid.