If I were you, I'd string it along (with balance xfers to 0% offers, etc.) and then just borrow the max that you can in med school, live simply, and pay it off. When you get to be a 4th year, if you still haven't paid it off, you can get "moving loans" and "interview cost loans" and crap for 4th year expenses that exceed your school's budget.
If you don't think this will work for you, I'm sure you'd be eligible for a semi-educational loan, which they give to people who are in school or who were recently in school, etc. They're semi-educational in that they don't need income (though you'd need a co-signer) and the interest may be tax-deductable, but the check goes to you, not your school's financial aid office, and you can borrow more than your schhol's budget (or even if you've already graduated). The rates are not much better than the signature loans or personal loans, though. And watch out for origination fees, with any of these...they average out in the long run if you get a decently low fixed APR, but they are definitely an added cost. One company that does them is
www.educationone.com -- it's an "education" loan from BankOne. I have crappy credit and got $5K from them for my med school applications and I opted to defer payments while I'm in school. However, they hit me with their crappiest rates: 10% origination fee and 7% APR -- you might get a better quote from them if you borrow more, have better credit, and opt to start making payments right away. In retrospect, I should have gotten my parents to take out a home equity line of credit (4% APR, no fees) but they weren't being entirely helpful about that. Good luck!
FYI, here's an example of their effective rates from their website:
Repayment Example: $10,000 for 20 Years for Undergraduate/Career Education and Graduate/Professional Education Loans Annual Percentage Rate (APR) Example - If a student borrows $10,000 and chooses Repayment Option 3 (deferred principal and interest), and has a 4-year deferment period (48 months), and the variable interest rate remains constant at 5.76% over both the 4-year deferment period and the 20-year repayment period, and the origination fee is 6.5%, the monthly payment would be $94.47, the APR would be 7.45% during deferment and 5.75% during repayment, and the total finance charge would be $12,672.80.
Note: Example is based on a three-month average of the one-month LIBOR of 1.11% as of 04/01/04. Origination fee may vary based on loan type, repayment option, credit and whether a cosigner is included. Interest rate and fees may vary slightly for Continuing Education and K-12 loans.
Being nice really pays off.
