Options once you hit the stafford loan lifetime limit

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Hello, I am a non-traditional student who is going back to school and am projected to hit my 224,000 lifetime stafford limit during my 4th year of med school. Basically, I will finish third year with approximately 24,000 left in stafford eligibility which means I will not be able to get the full 40k (annual stafford limit for med school) for 4th year. So, my question is once I use up the remaining 24k and hit lifetime limit, can I use grad plus (assuming no adverse credit) to cover the balance? Thanks.

Originally Posted by PREMED501

Hello, I am a non-traditional student who is going back to school and am projected to hit my 224,000 lifetime stafford limit during my 4th year of med school. Basically, I will finish third year with approximately 24,000 left in stafford eligibility which means I will not be able to get the full 40k (annual stafford limit for med school) for 4th year. So, my question is once I use up the remaining 24k and hit lifetime limit, can I use grad plus (assuming no adverse credit) to cover the balance? Thanks.

Yes. If you're going to a med school that has COA under $40k, count your blessings.

Originally Posted by DrMidlife

Yes. If you're going to a med school that has COA under $40k, count your blessings.

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Thank the Lord for Texas residency! The cheapest school I've seen here is $12,000/yr. Most expensive I've seen was $16,000/yr.

Originally Posted by Only Zool

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Thank the Lord for Texas residency! The cheapest school I've seen here is $12,000/yr. Most expensive I've seen was $16,000/yr.

That's not cost of attendance (COA), that's tuition, and you can assume it's going to be higher soon due to budget cuts.

Cost of attendance includes lots of fees and living expenses, for which you're also responsible. If you have financial backing and you don't have to borrow full COA, yep, count your blessings.

I had to go through 4 Texas med school financial aid web sites to get to one that even talks about cost of attendance. Houston shows what you're responsible for, and it won't be much different at other schools (yes I know it's cheaper to live in Lubbock): https://ww2.uthouston.edu/sfs/financ...attendance.htm

Best of luck to you.

Originally Posted by DrMidlife

That's not cost of attendance (COA), that's tuition, and you can assume it's going to be higher soon due to budget cuts.

Cost of attendance includes lots of fees and living expenses, for which you're also responsible. If you have financial backing and you don't have to borrow full COA, yep, count your blessings.

I had to go through 4 Texas med school financial aid web sites to get to one that even talks about cost of attendance. Houston shows what you're responsible for, and it won't be much different at other schools (yes I know it's cheaper to live in Lubbock): https://ww2.uthouston.edu/sfs/financ...attendance.htm

Best of luck to you.

Tuition was about $27k the last year I paid and my COA wasn't much more than $40k. I can't imagine COA being much more than $20k on top of tuition in most places unless you live in New York, SF, etc.

Seems like Grad Plus should be an option, I don't think that applies toward the Stafford upper limit

Yes Grad Plus is designed to fill in the remaining gap up to the cost of attendance.