Do schools drastically change financial aid offers year-to-year

[deleted987519]

Not sure if all schools have the same rule, but from the only school I have received financial aid offer from so far, they state the amount is only applicable for one year and will be reevaluated each year.

Assuming no major changes in parental income/assets, is it common for schools to drastically decrease financial aid offered to the same student from one year to the next? i.e. offer X for MS1, but then 1/2X for MS2?

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[deleted480308]

Your parents are irrelevant in medical school

 

[deleted688779]

I assume it is all 4 years? It’d seem a bit unethical for a school to offer you a full ride your first year to reel you in and then not even give you a dime for the remaining. Usually the reassessment is to see if you or your parents got a big raise and to make sure you’re in good standing. Best to ask each school.

Also, I believe parental income does matter. That’s why many schools ask for it. The whole “you’re all poor and jobless on paper, so we need to know your parents’ income to pass our divine judgement on whether you really are poor or not, regardless of whether your parents even support you” blah blah blah

 

[rdyotz]

Your parents are irrelevant in medical school

Parents income does not matter for federal loans. School specific scholarships may require parental information. Many schools made me list parental info despite being in my mid 30s. That being said, most of them only ask for parental info the first year.

 

[deleted987519]

Your parents are irrelevant in medical school

Well for this financial aid office we have to resubmit FAFSA every year so....

 

[deleted987519]

I assume it is all 4 years? It’d seem a bit unethical for a school to offer you a full ride your first year to reel you in and then not even give you a dime for the remaining. Usually the reassessment is to see if you or your parents got a big raise and to make sure you’re in good standing. Best to ask each school.

Also, I believe parental income does matter. That’s why many schools ask for it. The whole “you’re all poor and jobless on paper, so we need to know your parents’ income to pass our divine judgement on whether you really are poor or not, regardless of whether your parents even support you” blah blah blah

Yeah it states the financial aid listed is only for the next school year and will need to be re-evaluated each year.

Was just curious if anyone has heard of what you described where their financial aid was slashed once they were actually a student at the school

 

[deleted987519]

To clarify a few things
1) each year at medical school you receive a new and separate loan(s). Typically At graduation, these loans and associated simple accrued interest are recapitalized into a single new loan
2) for purposes of Federal loans all medical students are considered independent. If you need a cosigner for credit issues, then your cosigner’s income will be counted towards credit worthiness
3) individual may require parental income info for consideration of institutional aid. These rules are school specific and are followed regardless of your income tax status
4) while most schools will generally follow similar FA year to year, they are not required to. I mean, if there were the far fetched idea of a novel virus causing a world wide pandemic, severe disruption to the economic supply chain, and causing the stock market to drop 12% in a week with slides continuing for months or years, thus causing endowments at medical schools to shrink drastically, FA packages could be impacted drastically. But what are the chances of that happening?

Thank you

 

[deleted480308]

I’m talking federal crap. If you have some institutional thing, all bets are off

 

[Goro]

To clarify a few things
1) each year at medical school you receive a new and separate loan(s). Typically At graduation, these loans and associated simple accrued interest are recapitalized into a single new loan
2) for purposes of Federal loans all medical students are considered independent. If you need a cosigner for credit issues, then your cosigner’s income will be counted towards credit worthiness
3) individual may require parental income info for consideration of institutional aid. These rules are school specific and are followed regardless of your income tax status
4) while most schools will generally follow similar FA year to year, they are not required to. I mean, if there were the far fetched idea of a novel virus causing a world wide pandemic, severe disruption to the economic supply chain, and causing the stock market to drop 12% in a week with slides continuing for months or years, thus causing endowments at medical schools to shrink drastically, FA packages could be impacted drastically. But what are the chances of that happening?

Yeah, Stanford's endowment would shrink to a paltry 800 million, instead of a billion dollars.

 

[efle]

I remember this being an issue when I was choosing schools - one place locked your aid package in for all 4 years, while another wanted to recalculate it yearly. It can make some very significant changes to the overall COA if you have a sibling in college that will graduate, parent up for promotion, etc that might make your aid get much worse in later years.

 

[hellanutella]

Not sure if all schools have the same rule, but from the only school I have received financial aid offer from so far, they state the amount is only applicable for one year and will be reevaluated each year.

Assuming no major changes in parental income/assets, is it common for schools to drastically decrease financial aid offered to the same student from one year to the next? i.e. offer X for MS1, but then 1/2X for MS2?

I think the main answer will be: it depends. Speak with a variety of current students at the school – some may even be more forthcoming on SDN.

Mine recalculated each year, before switching to an "assured package" model in which you could be guaranteed at least your MS1 package each year thereafter.

My aid actually went up during the recalculations (not having a gap year job, sibling in school), but some of my classmates' packages went down due to reasons @efle discussed. By and large, barring dramatic financial shifts, most people saw their packages go up even with recalculation so they really weren't trying to tempt us to matriculate with a teaser of an aid package! My school was also open to recalculating after their shift to a guaranteed package model, if a parent was demoted/lost a job or siblings entered college. (Disclaimer: this is just my experience at one institution).