Unable to get federal loan for a semester as non-degree seeking?

[ddmbmom]

Am I understanding this correctly: Since I already have a Bachelors Degree I cannot qualify for a federally subsidized loan to take a semester of additional sciences to increase my GPA? I might be able to obtain a private loan using collateral like my home from one of the private banks?

I have been working in a full time and a part time job while taking one class at a time in addition to driving kids to their sports activities every night and usually 400 miles across our big state every weekend for their competitions, and I have not been able to get the A that I need in the classes I have taken thus far ( Cs in Physics I and II, and OChem I, UGH) If I could quit the full time job and get a loan to pay the tuition I think I could kill those classes which is what is absolutely essential. I am 46 so time is ticking. I have O CHem II, Biochem and Microbio left.

Thanks for any input!

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[DrMidlife]

If you get a private loan, you have to be able to defer payments during school (which isn't a given), and then you have a completely separate repayment structure after med school during residency when you're making about $50k salary after making no money for 4+ years. There's no federal repayment consideration for private loans, and you'll have another $250k in federal loans to deal with. If you have any consumer debt after med school, on top of 2 separate student loan payments, the math might be impossible. One semester, $10k or so, that might be ok.

Meanwhile, during the year you apply to med school you'll presumably need a job. So quitting both your jobs may not be the best strategy.

I started med school at 46. I know you're not going to listen to this, but good god I wish you'd change your mind about med school.

Best of luck to you.

 

[bbbaaa]

I quit my job in order to go back to school and get my med school pre-reqs. Since I was non-degree seeking, I was limited to 8 hours per semester, so two lectures and two labs. I made this my full time job in order to get good grades. Normally, financial aid is not available to non-degree seeking students, but I was able to take advantage of a loophole to get it. The loophole was that in some cases financial aid is available for classes if they are specifically pre-requisites for a graduate program at that university. Since I was doing those classes at a university with a medical school, I just had to fill out a form with my proposed class list, take it over to the med school and have them sign off saying "yes these are pre-requisites for admission", and I was eligible for aid. Only catch is it is only available for one calendar year. So I got aid for Fall, Spring, and two summer sessions. I'm not sure how widespread this practice is. Hope this helps.

 

[Deranged Medic]

During my post-bac classes, I was enrolled as "seeking a second bachelor degree," which allowed me to obtain federal financial aid. I'm not sure how this works, but this was how my advisors set it up when I transferred to the new school.

 

[Aloft085]

I filled out a FAFSA yesterday as someone with a previous bachelor's degree, and received an offer for $12,500 in direct Stafford loans. I haven't spoken to the campus financial aid department yet, however.