Non-Trad financial aid resources

[gmbz]

I have been accepted to a US-MD school for the 2016 year. I am currently working and will be up until ~1.5 months before matriculation.

I am curious if there are any resources that fellow non-trads might suggest about getting the best financial aid package ect. I have read that loans are based off of your last year's income? or even current years? If this is the case I will have made some money already in 2016, and definitely in 2015.

Any thoughts or direction would be greatly appreciated.

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[Eccesignum]

Would love insight on this too, now that the potential of crushing lifetime debt is for real staring me in the face.

I do know that loans are based on the FAFSA, so last year's income.

But I've been told at most schools that I absolutely have to include parent financial info in order to qualify for school-based aid and any grants, even though I'm in my mid-thirties and independent. I only have one working parent and he's barely middle class, but I'm afraid they'll see my income plus his and assume it's together (where in reality we don't have anything at all do with each other financially and he isn't going to be contributing anything). Argh.

So yeah, if anyone's been through this and has any nuggets of wisdom, appreciated here too!

 

[gmbz]

@Eccesignum I have read that you can apply based on "expected income". Which would absolutely amazing because that will be a big fat zero!

 

[penicillinman]

Dang! I logged in today to put up the same question OP asked. Looking for the same information as well.

 

[-----MD]

My biggest concern is parental income. My parents are high earners, but will absolutely not contribute, they are not happy about my career decisions. I have been paying my own way through college, holding multiple jobs while taking a full course load, and my undergrad fafsa was based purely on my income.

With medical school I know that they require parental income. Has anyone successfully navigated such a situation?

 

[Meridian32]

Sorry, there is no way around listing parental income on the FAFSA that I am aware of. I had to do this throughout medical school as did all of my classmates. I would try not to worry too much about this as whether parental income needs to be reported is outside of your control. Everyone ends up making med school finances work, there are a variety of loan forgiveness and income based repayment programs, and as a nontrad your advantage is coming in with money already saved up. I paid for med school with a combination of loans and savings - I was initially disappointed that I did not receive any grant or scholarship aid, but it has worked out fine in the end.

 

[gmbz]

Yeah I think we really will have to get in touch with our FA dept. at respective institutions that we will attend.

However I just purchased the "White Coat Investor" book off of amazon. Now I can finally read this stuff and it will have relevance!

 

[Belladona]

Sorry, there is no way around listing parental income on the FAFSA that I am aware of. I had to do this throughout medical school as did all of my classmates. I would try not to worry too much about this as whether parental income needs to be reported is outside of your control. Everyone ends up making med school finances work, there are a variety of loan forgiveness and income based repayment programs, and as a nontrad your advantage is coming in with money already saved up. I paid for med school with a combination of loans and savings - I was initially disappointed that I did not receive any grant or scholarship aid, but it has worked out fine in the end.

I'm also confused about the parental income. My parents are from another country, they have never lived in the US and I have absolutely no idea how much money they make or made in the past. They are poor, however. Can I just make it up?

 

[AlphaKeto]

After a lengthy process with my school, I found that fasfa is only one piece of the financial aid puzzle. Basically if fasfa screws you over for some reasons (say, because your parents are stingy millionaires), the other piece is the FA department at your school, and they can sort of override fasfa if you show them that you need it....i think.

 

[Eccesignum]

After a lengthy process with my school, I found that fasfa is only one piece of the financial aid puzzle. Basically if fasfa screws you over for some reasons (say, because your parents are stingy millionaires), the other piece is the FA department at your school, and they can sort of override fasfa if you show them that you need it....i think.

Do schools ever offer any sort of grant/scholarship/other non-loan aid at time of financial aid package? Or if you don't receive an offer with your acceptance should you assume you're pretty much screwed on that front?

 

[gmbz]

Do schools ever offer any sort of grant/scholarship/other non-loan aid at time of financial aid package? Or if you don't receive an offer with your acceptance should you assume you're pretty much screwed on that front?

I believe it varies from school to school. Some wait until around April to state the packages they will offer to students, others are more upfront about it.

 

[AlphaKeto]

scholarships yes. Everything else...it really depends, but mostly no. I receive a scholarship which decreases my loan amount, but that's it. It doesn't affect the money given for my living expenses. It didn't come with my financial aid package. I had to ask about it and apply for it (and reapply every year). As far as grants and other aid. There are the MD/PhD programs, Army, and Rural/Urban medicine programs. Lots of school have grants for these programs. Outside of that it's probably a no. My financial aid was almost two months late this year because of a clerical error on the schools part and I just had to be extremely poor during that time. There was no money available for me outside of a small emergency loan.

 

[Eccesignum]

scholarships yes. Everything else...it really depends, but mostly no. I receive a scholarship which decreases my loan amount, but that's it. It doesn't affect the money given for my living expenses. It didn't come with my financial aid package. I had to ask about it and apply for it (and reapply every year). As far as grants and other aid. There are the MD/PhD programs, Army, and Rural/Urban medicine programs. Lots of school have grants for these programs. Outside of that it's probably a no. My financial aid was almost two months late this year because of a clerical error on the schools part and I just had to be extremely poor during that time. There was no money available for me outside of a small emergency loan.

Gotcha, thanks!

 

[PassThePropofol]

Some schools do not require you to include your parents info in the Fasfa. Check with your school. But if you are not yet settled on the school you will attend by the time you have to fill out the fafsa then include the parental info. Even if you are not in financial need, you should fill out a fafsa so that you have options to take out loans or be put in the pool for scholarship packages at the school at which you will matriculate.