How to afford interviews?

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In a bit of a dilemma that I had not anticipated- I had a rough falling out with one of my parents recently, and I thought we would reconcile by now. They told me a few hours ago they wouldn't support me financially from now on. Fortunately, I got a scholarship recently that will take care of my finances starting in late June. And I have enough money to survive until then. However, I am having trouble gathering money for applications. FAP won't help because of my parents' income level. How do I resolve this issue? Anyone else in a similar situation? I am thinking about applying to just safety schools around where I will be living next semester. And maybe a couple top-tier that are accessible via Greyhound (if I am fortunate enough to get interviews). I decided it would be better to apply to 15 schools rather than applying too few, not get in somewhere, which would put me in a deeper financial hole.

So the question - how do I cough-up ~$2000? Are there loans that are available for medical school applications alone?

Gah! So frustrating!!!! Can't believe my luck right now. Ahhh!!

Would FAP even help cover costs if you qualified? (Sorry, this is sort of a selfish question because I qualified and I'm curious.)

Originally Posted by theclem

Would FAP even help cover costs if you qualified? (Sorry, this is sort of a selfish question because I qualified and I'm curious.)

No worries! I don't think it covers interview costs...I am curious about loans. Can you take out like a small loan?

You could pay for the interview costs with a credit card. A part-time summer job would also cover some of the costs while giving you time to work on your applications.

Sorry to hear about your falling out.

You'll have the whole summer to save up for interviews. Work part-time, or even full-time. "Donate" plasma (this can net $225 per month.). Also realize your financial aid for the fall will have been dispursed, probably, by the time you get interviews. If you're really in a crunch, only take 12 hours (full time, but barely) so you'll have a nice amount of money left over from financial aid to use for interviews. Good luck.

Don't do something foolish like get a car title loan. I would also highly disrecommend using a credit card unless you have a reliable way to pay it off.

And be proactive! I needed a second job last summer and found one working construction. It literally took me 15 minutes to get the job. It sucked but between my two jobs, giving private guitar lessons, and "donating" plasma, I was making $900/wk. Most of that was tax-exempt, too.

Look into cheap forms of transportation (so, take buses/trains/etc instead of planes when you can). Try to room with a student on campus (if that is offered) rather than staying in a hotel. I think you can take out small private loans if you need to (but don't hold me to this), but interest rates'll probably be really high. If you don't have a job already, look for one...if you go to school near a fairly large hospital, they're almost always hiring unlicensed personnel to do some of the "smaller" jobs in and around the hospital, and the pay usually isn't bad, and they'd be pretty understanding if you ever had to take off for interviews. Look for summer tutoring jobs (also pay really well), and definitely save up as much as you can from here on out.

If you can use part of your scholarship money towards applications, then I'd submit your applications in late June (you won't be considered "late" at that time).

If you're still in college/university, take out a loan. That's a no brainer. If you aren't, enroll in a community college, sign up for a class and then take out a loan through them. If you can't do that, try to sign up for a credit card and hope you get a large credit limit. My app process cost me $5k+ and I didn't get in anywhere. So I'm in this again and I'm taking out another loan through a community college when the time is right. It's better to have a studnet loan capped at around 7% APR then to have a credit card debt with a 20% APR.

you could take a bs summer class and take out stafford loans for the full cost of attendance. If you're already taking summer classes, you could fill out a finaid revision request form and revise it to get loans for the full coa. Assuming your finaid office isn't nosy, they'll usually accept generic reasons for the revision.

I'm really sorry that this is happening to you; it's an extremely hard place to be in. I'm glad that you're persevering.

The advice given by the other posters in the thread is pretty spot-on. You're going to want to get a summer job or two. If you can swing a part time and a full time job, teaching test prep is a good way to go, especially if there are plenty of high school students in your area. It tends to be far above the minimum wage and have a flexible schedule that you can work around the schedule of whatever full time job you're able to find.

Can you tell us a tiny bit more about your situation? Are you entering your senior year in the fall or are you graduating?

You shouldn't need to take out loans for this. Working just full- time during the summer (and if you can swing it, a second job) and minimizing your expenses should allow you too save at least $2000+, then continue to work part time throught the semester to put that into savings while using fin aid for school.

If you stretch your limit to take buses/trains to schools in your area, stay with student hosts, and take buses not taxis you should be able to manage a fair number of interviews

If you do a search, you'll find some other threads about how to interview on the cheap. If you're in a part of the country where they have it, you see if Megabus runs to the cities that you need to go to. I met some people on the interview trail last year who were only spending $10-$20 roundtrip for transportation by taking it.

Thank you for all the great advice.

So, I have a full time job for the summer that will pay for my food, housing, etc. If I use my money sparingly, I will have $2000 saved up for applications (I will get a credit card and then start paying the $2000 once I get the money). First, I am going to check and see if I can get FAP though.

For interviews, I have a 7,000 cash coming way through a scholarship (thank you, God). I will take out a credit card or a loan to get to interviews and start paying it off once I get the money. I really hope I can get an acceptance early so I won't have to travel to so many places.

Originally Posted by Mazdave

If you do a search, you'll find some other threads about how to interview on the cheap. If you're in a part of the country where they have it, you see if Megabus runs to the cities that you need to go to. I met some people on the interview trail last year who were only spending $10-$20 roundtrip for transportation by taking it.

+1. Also check out Boltbus as well. Both companies are pretty solid and I didn't have any trouble using them. If you're lucky, you might even get a $1 ticket .

Megabus is ULTRA cheap...like 8$ on way (or round trip, idr). This was my friend going from Atl to NC or DC, don't remember. Either way, pretty cheap. Check out their rates.

If you need to stay somewhere, www.couchsurfing.org !
Awesome community (I'm part of it). Just make a profile and spend some nights at hoster's house...totally for free! You may even get food!

i covered it with student loans (but then again I had a scholarship that freed up a lot of funds for the finer things in life)

Originally Posted by Mazdave

If you do a search, you'll find some other threads about how to interview on the cheap. If you're in a part of the country where they have it, you see if Megabus runs to the cities that you need to go to. I met some people on the interview trail last year who were only spending $10-$20 roundtrip for transportation by taking it.

Ooh good idea. I actually used Megabus to gof from KC to Chicago. Round-trip it was $90 lol. It was so awesome. And a long bus ride will give you plenty of time to review the crap you wrote in your primary/secondary apps and go over interview responses.