Question about Loans when accepted to Medical school

[Nasem]

Are non-trads able to get loans to pay off for med school even without a co-signer? I don't have anyone in my family that is capable of co-signing for a 200-300 thousand dollar loan for the 4-year medical education... I do have a good credit score, but by time I apply / get accepted to a medical program, i'll have to quit my job and my income will drop down to.... zero lol

I have already maxed out the undergrad loans (federal, I believe its capped out at 46,000$).... I am wondering, would this cause an Issue for me when I try to get into medical school?

I really don't know anything about the medical student loans, so if anyone can plz shed some light on this topic, i'd really appreciate it

Thanks

[Doctor Bagel]

Provided that your credit is OK (doesn't have to be great), you shouldn't have trouble getting the loan money you need without a cosigner. The only time where nontrads run into more trouble than trads is when they need money to either pay off previous debt (credit cards, etc) or to support their families.

[TMP-SMX]

You'll be fine. Your aggregate federal unsubsidized stafford loan limit is $224,000 for undergrad and med school. I don't know if this is good or bad, but since tuition keeps rising they will probably increase the stafford maximums again. The max per year is 40,500 for stafford loans (sub and unsub) with 8500 of that being subsidized. So either way you can probably dip into Grad Plus loans when you reach your limit by fourth year.

I'm a little fuzzy about a new 60,500 aggregate number they have that after that you can only get unsubsidized stafford loans and not subsidized. I'll have to look more into it.

[dragonfly99]

No you won't need a cosigner if your credit is OK.
Better to try and pay off part of your undergrad loans now, while you have a job.

[Doctor Bagel]

Originally Posted by dragonfly99

No you won't need a cosigner if your credit is OK.
Better to try and pay off part of your undergrad loans now, while you have a job.

Or not, depending on the interest rates and your other financial goals. I know all bets are off with this market, but normally it's better to put money into retirement savings than it is to pay off school debt early. Actually, it's probably true now, too, because now's not a bad time to be entering the market (well, I guess we'll see).

If you've got student loans sitting at super low interest rates, hold on to those for as long as you can. My pre-medical school students loans are my bottom financial priority.