Living expenses as a medical school student

[Looknforhelp]

Hello everyone,

My wife and I plan to attend medical school together and are planning to have a kid soon. We have a house and are currently working with decent wages to pay off the mortgage. Since we will both be attending, there will be no income from both sides of the relationship. Are there loans that I can use to pay for the mortgage and for other living expenses? I have read through a few forums and have only seen where one side of the relationship works while the other goes to school. If there are any others out there in the same situation, how did you do it?

Mortgage is around 25k a year. No other debts.

Thank you in advance!

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[GreenDuck12]

Hello everyone,

My wife and I plan to attend medical school together and are planning to have a kid soon. We have a house and are currently working to with decent wages to pay off the mortgage. Since we will both be attending, there will be no income from both sides of the relationship. Are there loans that I can use to pay for the mortgage and for other living expenses? I have read through a few forums and have only seen where one side of the relationship works while the other goes to school. If there are any other out there in the same situation, how did you do it?

Mortgage is around 25k a year. No other debts.

Thank you in advance!

Assuming you and your wife are US citizens you will be able to access federal loans through your school to cover the estimated cost of attendance as calculated by your program. This will cover tuition, materials, fees, and an estimate for cost of living in the area you are in. Some programs are more generous than others in how they calculate living expenses. In my area, they estimate that students will need up to $2200 per month for living expenses. A 25k a year mortgage is roughly equivalent to 1k a month in rent each for you and your wife which should easily be able to be covered by your loans for living expenses.

 

[deleted367183]

A girlfriend of mine was in med school while her husband was doing a B.S. in engineering. It was difficult, but they made it work. I know she got the financial aid office to increase her budget to allow her to borrow more in loans to cover childcare. This was, however, in Cincinnati, OH, with obscenely cheap housing costs as cities go.

 

[Crayola227]

It's tough to say until you get a financial aid package if the amount they give you will cover all your expenses and your mortgage.

Some may find they need to sell the house, refinance for a lower mortgage, rent out whatever they can of the house while living in it, or move out into something cheaper and rent the house itself out to cover its mortgage. I don't know much about private loans to help you there.

The school doesn't care that you have a mortgage fwiw. They give you some predetermined amount and it's up to you to make that budget work.

One private school that offered me a package, gave an amount that assumed a single person would have to live with a roommate, meaning the amount was not enough for a single person to live in a one bedroom apt there.

I don't know how the EFC (estimated family contribution) will be affected by being married or your prior earnings.

A single person with an EFC of 0 (no assets or income to contribute) often is loaned about 25,000 a year to live on. In my experience this has to cover books and materials and such iirc.

I don't know if $50,000 a year to live on between the two of you with your mortgage and other expenses will be enough, and with a baby, assuming that's what they loan you. I don't know. Good luck.

Best thing to do can be to talk to the Financial Aid Office about their policies and estimates.

 

[Crayola227]

Keep in mind that besides books there are other expenses not covered by Financial Aid that will come up - the Step licensing exams and qbanks and prep, any necessary away elective expenses, residency interview travel expenses, and if you have to relocate.

Two people together not working going to medical school need to figure they need to live like broke college students for the most part.

 

[Doc_Ock]

Please save yourselves a mountain of money and stress; do not have a child right now.

 

[Looknforhelp]

Assuming you and your wife are US citizens you will be able to access federal loans through your school to cover the estimated cost of attendance as calculated by your program. This will cover tuition, materials, fees, and an estimate for cost of living in the area you are in. Some programs are more generous than others in how they calculate living expenses. In my area, they estimate that students will need up to $2200 per month for living expenses. A 25k a year mortgage is roughly equivalent to 1k a month in rent each for you and your wife which should easily be able to be covered by your loans for living expenses.

This is extremely helpful, thank you!

 

[Looknforhelp]

A girlfriend of mine was in med school while her husband was doing a B.S. in engineering. It was difficult, but they made it work. I know she got the financial aid office to increase her budget to allow her to borrow more in loans to cover childcare. This was, however, in Cincinnati, OH, with obscenely cheap housing costs as cities go.

I have been listening to a podcast called "the short coat" and it is also based from a medical school in OH. It has stated how supportive the school is for families who have kids. Thank you for the information about the low cost and about how I could increase my budget for childcare. I will be focused on this topic when applying for schools.

 

[Looknforhelp]

It's tough to say until you get a financial aid package if the amount they give you will cover all your expenses and your mortgage.

Some may find they need to sell the house, refinance for a lower mortgage, rent out whatever they can of the house while living in it, or move out into something cheaper and rent the house itself out to cover its mortgage. I don't know much about private loans to help you there.

The school doesn't care that you have a mortgage fwiw. They give you some predetermined amount and it's up to you to make that budget work.

One private school that offered me a package, gave an amount that assumed a single person would have to live with a roommate, meaning the amount was not enough for a single person to live in a one bedroom apt there.

I don't know how the EFC (estimated family contribution) will be affected by being married or your prior earnings.

A single person with an EFC of 0 (no assets or income to contribute) often is loaned about 25,000 a year to live on. In my experience this has to cover books and materials and such iirc.

I don't know if $50,000 a year to live on between the two of you with your mortgage and other expenses will be enough, and with a baby, assuming that's what they loan you. I don't know. Good luck.

Best thing to do can be to talk to the Financial Aid Office about their policies and estimates.

50k a year sounds like a good estimate on how much we will have to work with and I thank you for that. When searching for schools, I will definitely look into that. Thank you.

 

[Looknforhelp]

Please save yourselves a mountain of money and stress; do not have a child right now.

I appreciate the concern however, I would be applying to medical schools in the next 2-3 years. Then adding the 4 years of medical school and however many years it takes to complete my residency, it puts my wife and I at 11 years of wanting and waiting for a kid. Our thought process is that if we had a kid now, the child would be older in the time of medical school and in the time of residency especially. Our families have also offered their help.

 

[xffan624]

Hello everyone,

My wife and I plan to attend medical school together and are planning to have a kid soon. We have a house and are currently working with decent wages to pay off the mortgage. Since we will both be attending, there will be no income from both sides of the relationship. Are there loans that I can use to pay for the mortgage and for other living expenses? I have read through a few forums and have only seen where one side of the relationship works while the other goes to school. If there are any others out there in the same situation, how did you do it?

Mortgage is around 25k a year. No other debts.

Thank you in advance!

This question is putting the cart before the horse. Medical school does not have couples matching (officially, but sometimes there are accommodations made) so you both may not get in or may get accepted to different schools. Also people frequently have to move to attend medical school so anticipating that you will be staying where you can live in your current house is overly optimistic.

More pressing concerns,

- What happens if you're accepted to different (not closeby) medical schools?
- What happens if only one of you has to move? (worst case scenario probably)
- What happens if both have to move and you lose your family support?
- What happens if you're not both accepted to medical school in the same year?

 

[deleted367183]

I have been listening to a podcast called "the short coat" and it is also based from a medical school in OH. It has stated how supportive the school is for families who have kids. Thank you for the information about the low cost and about how I could increase my budget for childcare. I will be focused on this topic when applying for schools.

As an aside, while I would definitely suggest applying to Cincinnati because of the low cost of living (and quality program, of course), I don't know that my friend would call them exceptionally supportive of families with kids. Tolerant might be the better word, though I can't speak for her. Our collective impression was that GUYS with kids were more celebrated. A differential you two may well encounter!!!

 

[Looknforhelp]

This question is putting the cart before the horse. Medical school does not have couples matching (officially, but sometimes there are accommodations made) so you both may not get in or may get accepted to different schools. Also people frequently have to move to attend medical school so anticipating that you will be staying where you can live in your current house is overly optimistic.

More pressing concerns,

- What happens if you're accepted to different (not closeby) medical schools?
- What happens if only one of you has to move? (worst case scenario probably)
- What happens if both have to move and you lose your family support?
- What happens if you're not both accepted to medical school in the same year?

We have plans for the worst case scenario which will definitely lead to the selling of our house, the possibility of going to separate schools, and in each scenario we are attempting to plan without our family support in mind. My wife will finish her bachelors a year after I finish mine so we plan to have a staggered M years. It is all a very real concern and I appreciate you shedding light on it. The only thing that I could not find an answer on was whether we could afford to pay the house through loans within the school if the best case scenario were to occur. If we are to move elsewhere, we will move somewhere cheaper.

 

[NontradICUdoc]

Remember, everything you borrow today, you have to pay back with interest tomorrow. Develop a budget. Look for public assistance programs: If you do have a child when your wife becomes pregnant you will be elligible for WIC and then continue until the child is 5 years old. It pays for some staples. Look into assistance with paying your utilities. When I was in medical school, we would apply for help with our electric and gas and paid $25/month for almost 4 years. Apply for welfare (you are going to pay this back in spades with Attending money). Shop at places like Aldi's. Rent is paid through with loans, and I paid my mortgage with loans (but remember here you are borrowing from Peter to pay Paul). Look at refinancing now, since interest rates are going to go up and then pay down that mortgage as much as you can. Since you are a few years away from potentially attending medical school, use this time to dispatch any and all consumer debt (credit cards, car loans, etc) and put money away. And you may need to look into work study.

The whole goal is to borrow the least amount possible.

 

[TragicalDrFaust]

To give you an idea of the numbers, my school allows us to take out maybe $35k per year for living expenses. If you both have that going on, you can pull $70k per year which should be plenty to live off of. Obviously try to minimize. I think I have myself living on about $23k per year, renting a small apartment with my wife. COL is low-average here. It feels a little tight, no vacations, minimal new clothes, a cheap date every month (something like hiking, go to the movies, restaurant dinner, museum etc). I think to squeeze a baby in there you'd have to max out your loans but it's possible especially if you can save up a lot now.

Edit: I estimated the max award amount but perhaps check in with a few schools you're looking at to see what they allot for living expenses. And consider that your expected family contribution will come from whatever was on your tax return from the year before, so that may cut into the amount you're allowed to borrow since it sounds like you both have regular jobs now.

 

[Looknforhelp]

Remember, everything you borrow today, you have to pay back with interest tomorrow. Develop a budget. Look for public assistance programs: If you do have a child when your wife becomes pregnant you will be elligible for WIC and then continue until the child is 5 years old. It pays for some staples. Look into assistance with paying your utilities. When I was in medical school, we would apply for help with our electric and gas and paid $25/month for almost 4 years. Apply for welfare (you are going to pay this back in spades with Attending money). Shop at places like Aldi's. Rent is paid through with loans, and I paid my mortgage with loans (but remember here you are borrowing from Peter to pay Paul). Look at refinancing now, since interest rates are going to go up and then pay down that mortgage as much as you can. Since you are a few years away from potentially attending medical school, use this time to dispatch any and all consumer debt (credit cards, car loans, etc) and put money away. And you may need to look into work study.

The whole goal is to borrow the least amount possible.

Your comment has been one of the most supportive and optimistic response I have read. Thank you. The entire goal of my question was to find paths to make things work if and when the stars align. I have plans for every negative outcome however, that is not the main plan and I see most people just go where it takes you. This works in some cases but in rare ones, things may work out. Thank you again.