My girlfriend and I are hoping (if we get into the same med school) that we can get married in school. The timing is an issue, but another is affording the marriage. She hopes to do the national program to pay for her school by doing primary care work after to reduce loans. I will have minimal loans to afford school fortunately. Obvioulsy we can't live off of our parents after marriage, what do we do??
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affording a marriage
Started by deacondan16
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My FH did med school without loans so I have no first hand experience with this, but I was under the impression that med students can get like $38.5 or something like that in loans. Basically you live off that (since there are 2 of you that a lot of loan money), plus any other work you can scrounge up (and have the time for). It's not impossible, just not the easiest thing to do either.
You will know if the timing is right- I know that is very cliche, but you never know what will happen.
A lot of med students take out loans to live off of, not just for tuition. Also, if your parents were planning to support you through med school if you were single, you may consider asking them for the same support considering you will be a student, married or not, and if they won't agree, ask them to loan you the money and see if you can pay them back without interest.
You will both be students, so you both get full financial aid (which covers living expenses, including transportation, food, etc) based on your EFC and cost of attendance. Since you will both be students, your family income will be 0$, so your EFC should be 0 too, barring any huge savings. My husband, myself and our THREE children all live on his federally provided financial aid (no private loans). If you were at our school, you could compare by noting that we pay $900.00+ for our three bedroom apartment with my husband's financial aid,while you and your spouse could be in a $500.00 one bedroom place, but still get TWICE the money. Make sense? Also, keep your debt in perspective.....I obviously don't advise going $100,000 in debt to become a preschool teacher, but you will both be making REALLY good money when you are in practice (even during RESIDENCY your household income with two interns will be well above the national average!!!!), and paying off the loans will be easy, especially if your spouse uses a primary-care pay off solution. Federal financial aid is essentially the safest and least expensive money you will ever have access to, so don't be scared to use it (wisely, that is!)
