Financial Aid Question

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Willy38

you're killin' me smalls
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Ok so I have a kind of different situation here. I am planning on applying this cycle but am confused about how financial aid will work. If I apply this year and have to use last years tax/income data I doubt I will get much financial aid (made good money due to signing bonus). But if I wait until next year I will be able to use this year's tax data which is considerably less (8k for the year). Will I be eligible for better financial aid from schools if I wait or will it just help concerning the AAMC with regards to application fees etc.?

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If you're planning on applying to medical school this upcoming 2014-2015 cycle, then you will be hypothetically matriculating Fall 2015. As such, you'll be submitting the 2015 FAFSA with your 2014 tax information.
 
If you are applying this cycle, you will be filling out your FAFSA next year (2015) after you file your taxes from this year (2014).

Edit: haha @Doctor Strange got to it before me!
 
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If you're talking about being accepted from this coming cycle you would use this years tax info for financial aid.

Edit - I'm slow:(
 
Awesome, I didn't know. Thanks for the help !
 
Ok so I have a kind of different situation here. I am planning on applying this cycle but am confused about how financial aid will work. If I apply this year and have to use last years tax/income data I doubt I will get much financial aid (made good money due to signing bonus). But if I wait until next year I will be able to use this year's tax data which is considerably less (8k for the year). Will I be eligible for better financial aid from schools if I wait or will it just help concerning the AAMC with regards to application fees etc.?
With grad schools, you should assume that the only "aid" you'll get is loans. Institutional grants almost always require the parents' income, not yours.
 
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With grad schools, you should assume that the only "aid" you'll get is loans. Institutional grants almost always require the parents' income, not yours.
I will meet the age requirement to not use my parents income, so the only thing to go on will be my independent FASFA. Some med schools do a little need based aid if I'm not mistaken?
 
I will meet the age requirement to not use my parents income, so the only thing to go on will be my independent FASFA. Some med schools do a little need based aid if I'm not mistaken?
You will not qualify for need based grant or scholarship unless you provide your parents' income information. Doesn't matteri f you're 45 years old and found your passion late in life.

Every school ahs its own policy, but that's the case for 20 schools I've applied to.
 
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I also had a relatively high income for tax year 2013 and applied for matriculation in 2014. When they calculated my student contribution they put in my entire bank account (I had never been so glad about being terrible at saving money...) So I think you should expect to give up tons of money for the first year as long as you have income and savings. But if you talk to financial aid they'll tell you what the expected student contribution is for years 2-4 (about $1-2k for me per year) when you have no income and much less savings, so that should help to give you a more longitudinal picture.
 
You will not qualify for need based grant or scholarship unless you provide your parents' income information. Doesn't matteri f you're 45 years old and found your passion late in life.

Every school ahs its own policy, but that's the case for 20 schools I've applied to.
While this is true for the vast majority of medical schools, it's not necessarily true for every single one of them. Case in point: WashU doesn't require parental information for people 30+ years old to be considered for institutional need-based grants (and I mean grants, as in free money, not loans).
But I agree that the most likely scenario is for parental financial information to be required for need-based consideration.
 
Unsubsidized Stafford loans and Grad PLUS loans are non-need based. The amount you will receive will be based on your total cost of attendance (as determined by your school), lifetime borrowings limits (for Stafford loans), and any other aid (grants, scholarships, etc) that you receive. While your "need," or eligibility for grants and other need-based assistance depends on your expected contribution (I.e., salary, investments, and savings) this is not taken into account for non-need based aid.

Check out the official federal student aid website for more information.

As far as school-based aid, this is often based on need, so your contributions (and potentially your parents') will likely be taken into consideration for determining eligibility purposes.
 
Ok so I have a kind of different situation here. I am planning on applying this cycle but am confused about how financial aid will work. If I apply this year and have to use last years tax/income data I doubt I will get much financial aid (made good money due to signing bonus). But if I wait until next year I will be able to use this year's tax data which is considerably less (8k for the year). Will I be eligible for better financial aid from schools if I wait or will it just help concerning the AAMC with regards to application fees etc.?
If you wait a year, you are going to lose a year of attending salary valued at approximately $250,000. How much scholarship is the hypothetical school going to hypothetically offer you again?
 
If you wait a year, you are going to lose a year of attending salary valued at approximately $250,000. How much scholarship is the hypothetical school going to hypothetically offer you again?
I'm not saying they will or they won't lol I would just be happy to get in somewhere first. I just wanted some insight into how the process worked so I can plan my applications in the best way possible. From what I've heard on here it sounds like how you apply doesn't matter too much. I just know from looking at MSAR that some places have to be offering some type of aid because COA is 200-300k and average debt is sometimes around 100k. Or everyone that goes to med school must be sitting on tons of cash or have rich parents which I suspect is not the case. But thanks to everyone for the advice!
 
I just know from looking at MSAR that some places have to be offering some type of aid because COA is 200-300k and average debt is sometimes around 100k. Or everyone that goes to med school must be sitting on tons of cash or have rich parents which I suspect is not the case. But thanks to everyone for the advice!
I used to think the same way. But when I got to med school, I found out that a lot of med students either sit on a ton of cash or have really rich parents (doctors or executives mostly). It's an odd demographic, them students.

Best of luck on reaching your dreams!
 
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