Anybody else in this boat?

[teknos1s]

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My family is pretty dang poor and we get gov aid and both parents dont work. what type of financial aid could i be looking at? im guesing med school would be about 60K or 70K a year or so. would the FEDS grant me that aid in total? half? a quater? a fraction!? lol.

also, if i do have to take out say a 50K loan a year how would i go about that? nobody wants to give away money esp 50K a year for four years! i mean its all really new and complicated and iffy to me.

Last thing on earth i want is to be granted a loan for one full year and then the next year to hear that "woops sorry we're not giving u a loan u gota drop out of med school with 70K in debt"

PLEASE! if u have any suggestions, input, or past experience. let me know. please. =(

 

[AgieMD08]

The first step in getting financial aid is applying for federal aid using the FAFSA. You can access it online. It determines your estimated family contribution based on your financial info and your parent's financial info. Bast of the EFC your aid is determined.

Most aid for med school comes in the form of loans usually Stafford loans subsidized (interest doesn't accrue during school and the rate is fixed) or unsubsidized loans (interst accrues from the date you get the loan and the rate is variable). Other aid could include the Perkins loan (5% interest rate, doesn't accrue till after school), Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students and Loans for Disadvantaged Students.

If you are interested in primary care look into the National Health Service Corps which pays your tuition and gives you a monthly stipend.

Many organizations such as AMSA, AMA, AMWA and others offer scholarships but you have to search dilligently for them.

Hope this helps.

 

[teknos1s]

when i do apply for FAFSA what type of coverage will i be looking at considering my family financial situation. full coverage? (around 60K a year for 4 years) or would i have to go to private loans

 

[emeddo]

Hate to break it to you, but you are going for Grad school now and that means that other than qualifying for Federal Perkins loans ($5,000 a year max) what your parents make means nothing to your financial aid situation, except for maybe a few financial need token scholarships. You will be able to qualify for federal loans (stafford and grad plus) that are up to the cost of your schools budget set for you, so talk to them. This is providing you yourself are poor enough to qualify, which isn't hard if you are coming straight from undergrad.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

when i do apply for FAFSA what type of coverage will i be looking at considering my family financial situation. full coverage? (around 60K a year for 4 years) or would i have to go to private loans

It really depends on your school's resources. You should be able to borrow a good chunk of money in federal loans (staffords, perkins and health professional loans). After that, if your credit doesn't have any major problems, you can get whatever else you need through GradPlus loans.

Also, schools with lots of money might have pretty generous grants and scholarships.

Here are some financial aid options for UCONN.

http://sdm.uchc.edu/predoctoral/financialaid/scholar_loan.shtml

Editing to add that in general, the federal government focuses on offering loans instead of grants for graduate students, regardless of parental income/assets. As you can see from the link above, there are no federal grants for graduate students. Any type of non-loan aid has to come from either your school, or you have to sign up for some sort of service obligation (military, etc.).

 

[teknos1s]

Thanks alot everyone all this seems very confusing and scary to me! lol

 

[ged0001]

How does FASFA take into account special situations. For example, my father makes quite a bit of money, but they do not give me any money for living costs. They do, however, pay for my schooling which is greatly appreciated. Rent/Food/insurance etc is all paid by me, which is really adding up. Because my father is successful, will i not see a lot of financial aid come my way?

 

[Doctor Bagel]

How does FASFA take into account special situations. For example, my father makes quite a bit of money, but they do not give me any money for living costs. They do, however, pay for my schooling which is greatly appreciated. Rent/Food/insurance etc is all paid by me, which is really adding up. Because my father is successful, will i not see a lot of financial aid come my way?

FAFSA really doesn't take special situations into consideration. You have to work with your school on that and how they deal with it is probably school specific.

As for your father's income affecting your aid, what level of schooling are you at? If you're in undergrad, yes, it will affect your aid unless you're old enough to be considered independent, married or have been in the armed forces. For graduate school, your parental income has no effect on federal financial aid. Schools will likely consider it, though, when determining whether or not you qualify for school-based grants or scholarships.