Does taking a Waitlist offer compromise one financially?

[Stolenspatulas]

Purely Hypothetical:

If someone is offered a spot off the waitlist, how long do they generally have to give a Yes/No. I'm guessing maybe a few days max? I have truly no idea. It probably varies among all the schools.

Do schools generally let one assess their financial situation at this school? Or do you have to give a 'Yes' to their offer and take whatever grant/loan package they want to give you (at least for the MS1 year)? Can one still bargain?

Anyone know?

Again, this is purely hypothetical, I realize that waitlist movement probably won't begin until 5 minutes post-May 15th.

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[dutchman]

Yeah I am curious. How schools hand out aid is still a mystery to me.

 

[AnEyeLikeMars]

Purely Hypothetical:

If someone is offered a spot off the waitlist, how long do they generally have to give a Yes/No. I'm guessing maybe a few days max? I have truly no idea. It probably varies among all the schools.

Do schools generally let one assess their financial situation at this school? Or do you have to give a 'Yes' to their offer and take whatever grant/loan package they want to give you (at least for the MS1 year)? Can one still bargain?
Anyone know?

Again, this is purely hypothetical, I realize that waitlist movement probably won't begin until 5 minutes post-May 15th.

I don't think someone who's taken off the waitlist is in a good position to bargain.
Also, I think most places are okay with having people fill out all of the financial aid paperwork before an application decision is made. So, when you get off the waitlist the fin aid turnaround time should not be long.
It probably depends when you get taken from the waitlist how much time you have to respond (May 16th vs. the week before orientation).

 

[O Face]

I just graduated from medical school and I would recommend going ahead and immediately accepting any acceptance offer you're given, especially if you're worried about getting in anywhere. I'm not 100% sure but I do believe you're allowed to hold on to a couple of acceptances at the same time, although you really should let the surplus programs know with plenty of reasonable advance that you are turning them down.

As for financial aid, I'm pretty sure that just about every med school is really good with handling financial aid. Banks LOVE medical students because they know it's a guaranteed return on their investment. So don't worry about the school in terms of financial aid, just perhaps consider the cost of living in the city.

 

[O Face]

Yeah I am curious. How schools hand out aid is still a mystery to me.

The school itself doesn't hand out aid from what I know. They work with banks that do all the actual lending.

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

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[inside_edition]

I'm sorry that I have nothing to contribute to this thread, but I wanted to say that you have the greatest screen name, avatar, and tagline beneath your screen name, O Face.

you know what i'm talking about!

 

[Stolenspatulas]

bump

im interested in knowing if getting any need-based finaid is somehow compromised by getting in off the waitlist.

 

[QuakerPreMed]

Would it depend on what the student who left the entering class had for aid? One would think aid would shift throughout the summer...But, in a class of ~100-200, I'd also think financial aid would have enough slush funds to pick up need aid to a single student. And like others have said -- Stafford loans, etc, are not really school-dependent. It'd mostly be scholarship money and any school loans, which are generally a small portion compared to unsub Stafford, PLUS, etc...

 

[AnEyeLikeMars]

Would it depend on what the student who left the entering class had for aid? One would think aid would shift throughout the summer...But, in a class of ~100-200, I'd also think financial aid would have enough slush funds to pick up need aid to a single student. And like others have said -- Stafford loans, etc, are not really school-dependent. It'd mostly be scholarship money and any school loans, which are generally a small portion compared to unsub Stafford, PLUS, etc...

I would think that a school would anticipate covering the need for a class of X (whatever their normal class size is). Beyond that, it shouldn't matter how those students get there (initial acceptance vs. waitlist then acceptance). For every waitlist acceptance, someone else is withdrawing their app.

 

[Critical Mass]

I don't think someone who's taken off the waitlist is in a good position to bargain.

Trudat.

 

[Stolenspatulas]

well, i guess no one really knows.

i figure some people have to be in situations where they are choosing to go to a school that is giving them a decent financial package, and then they get into a waitlisted over the summer...

ah. i guess i should have posted this thread in the allo forum

 

[gary5]

The previous poster was correct. If you're coming of the waitlist, you have nothing to bargain with. However, you COULD receive the honors of becoming the first person on SDN to try to bargain after a waitlist and then lose their acceptance. That would be cool. Smart enough to get an acceptance and dumb enough to lose it.

 

[njbmd]

Purely Hypothetical:

If someone is offered a spot off the waitlist, how long do they generally have to give a Yes/No. I'm guessing maybe a few days max? I have truly no idea. It probably varies among all the schools.

Do schools generally let one assess their financial situation at this school? Or do you have to give a 'Yes' to their offer and take whatever grant/loan package they want to give you (at least for the MS1 year)? Can one still bargain?

Anyone know?

Again, this is purely hypothetical, I realize that waitlist movement probably won't begin until 5 minutes post-May 15th.

Time to answer does vary from school to school. If you are accepted off an waitlist, the school will let you know how long you can hold your acceptance. After May 15th, you may not hold more than one acceptance (acceptance and multiple waitlist is OK but not multiple acceptances).

It is a good idea to fill out financial aid information for every school that invites you for interview. The earlier you get your financial aid info/forms done, the less likely your money is delayed.

Medical school financial aid offices do handle federal aid. Private loans are administrated by the individual lenders. Scholarships are handled by the individual foundation/sponsor. If you have your financial aid forms done, you are more likely to be matched earlier with your package.

A late acceptance can cause financial problems in the sense that your aid is not available at the time school starts. Again, fill out those forms on interview day so that as soon as you are accepted, the aid process can begin. Financial Aid offices will start to work on aid packages as soon as the student has accepted the acceptance and paid any seat-holding fees. If you have completed your forms/applications, then that process can proceed faster.

 

[dj dizzle]

as far as i know you can fill out the fafsa for all potential schools that you are on the waitlist for. So recieving federal aid and loans shouldn't be a problem. (banks are always willing to give away money). However, in my experience you can't fill out individual school financial aid/scholarship application until you are actually accepted. So if you are on a waiting list, scholarships are problably out of the the question. However campus-based aid that is distributed based on financial need may have more leeway. Please correct me if I got the wrong impression.

 

[Stolenspatulas]

The previous poster was correct. If you're coming of the waitlist, you have nothing to bargain with. However, you COULD receive the honors of becoming the first person on SDN to try to bargain after a waitlist and then lose their acceptance. That would be cool. Smart enough to get an acceptance and dumb enough to lose it.

Well... by bargain I meant to maybe hold off accepting the waitlist offer until they give you the financial package...

But cool, you seem like a very nice person. I realize I would not get any sort of merit-based aid coming off the waitlist... however, schools may differ on the amount of need-based aid they give (which is school specific).