Am I screwed??

[psipsina]

Am I screwed??

I'm applying to med school right now and just had the stunning realization that I may be scewed as far as financial aid for my first year. I have no outside support and enough minor credit issues (largely due to the lack of outside support) that would make private loans impossible. For undgrad, because we were living on my husbands income combined with my summer income, I recieved full scholarship for tuition and full loan amount available thru FASFA for living costs. (I was considered an Independent student, mother with psych issues often refuses to file her taxes so this was the only way). Well I was expecting to finance my med school entirely with fed loans, and live of husband's income . . . but I'm affraid they won't give me the full loan ammount, as the taxes I'll be submitting for FASFA are going to show my income for this year, which I have taken off. Do they take into account that I won't be working one full time job and a part time job when I'm in med school, or are they going to calculate my financial need based on what I am earning now?? Anyone know??

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[TucsonDDS]

Am I screwed??

I'm applying to med school right now and just had the stunning realization that I may be scewed as far as financial aid for my first year. I have no outside support and enough minor credit issues (largely due to the lack of outside support) that would make private loans impossible. For undgrad, because we were living on my husbands income combined with my summer income, I recieved full scholarship for tuition and full loan amount available thru FASFA for living costs. (I was considered an Independent student, mother with psych issues often refuses to file her taxes so this was the only way). Well I was expecting to finance my med school entirely with fed loans, and live of husband's income . . . but I'm affraid they won't give me the full loan ammount, as the taxes I'll be submitting for FASFA are going to show my income for this year, which I have taken off. Do they take into account that I won't be working one full time job and a part time job when I'm in med school, or are they going to calculate my financial need based on what I am earning now?? Anyone know??

I just recieved the max from federal (a little over 40K) for school starting in August. I made a substancial income last year and my wife works. I even recieved a small perkins loan which really shocked me. They must take into account that you won't be working because my EFC was 38K when I filed my FAFSA. Have you filed for aid yet, if not you had better get on it yesterday.

 

[xanthines]

You should be fine. I'm 75%-90% certain that FAFSA assumes you won't work as a full-time student unless you actually check that box on the form. One of the questions is something about working and I put "no." Unless you have a bunch of money in the bank (and I mean a lot), you should qualify for student loans.

I just found out yesterday that I'm getting some student loans even though I'm MD/PhD (that means tuition waiver plus stipend). I'm poor and older so I can't live on a student stipend. My financial aid office wasn't going to do anything to help me automatically since they assumed I'd be OK. I didn't even explain anything to them. I simply asked them to get me some student loans and they did (eventually).

To sum up, you're not screwed. Your financial aid office will help you out.

-X

Am I screwed??

I'm applying to med school right now and just had the stunning realization that I may be scewed as far as financial aid for my first year. I have no outside support and enough minor credit issues (largely due to the lack of outside support) that would make private loans impossible. For undgrad, because we were living on my husbands income combined with my summer income, I recieved full scholarship for tuition and full loan amount available thru FASFA for living costs. (I was considered an Independent student, mother with psych issues often refuses to file her taxes so this was the only way). Well I was expecting to finance my med school entirely with fed loans, and live of husband's income . . . but I'm affraid they won't give me the full loan ammount, as the taxes I'll be submitting for FASFA are going to show my income for this year, which I have taken off. Do they take into account that I won't be working one full time job and a part time job when I'm in med school, or are they going to calculate my financial need based on what I am earning now?? Anyone know??

 

[psipsina]

Thanks for the reassurance, I knew I seriously qualified for aid with just my husband's income, but as many students go straight from undergrad to med I wasn't sure if they took us untraditional students into account. Oh, and to clarify, I'm applying for fall 2006, for which the FASFA isn't even available yet, which is why I haven't filled it out yet.

 

[Emergency!]

According to the different financial aid people I've talked to, you should be able to get the max amount in federal loans (sub and unsub) no matter what. That amount is currently $38,500.