FAFSA confusion - 56k EFC - "Rich" nontrad MS1 - High EFC = no loans?

[Burntout Pharmacy Manager]

I've been having difficulty getting solid answers to how much loans I will be able to take out and I was hoping someone could share their recent experiences if they've been in a similar situation as a medical student, or point out some misconceptions I have with a creditable source.

Just did my FAFSA for next year and got an EFC of 56k for my MS2 year... yikes. (Cost of attendance = 41k tuition + 25 all else = 66K per year)

Last year my (MS1) EFC was about 8.5k but I was still offered the max of 40.5k direct federal loans and ~24K Direct plus loans. Nothing else.
Right now I will start MS2 with about 181K total student debt, all federal with an avg interest rate of ~5.5%, 20k subsidized (lol go to school for 13 years)

Long story short, I went to pharmacy school, figured out that was a BIG mistake, but it was already towards the end of the program. Finished, worked as much as humanly possible for ~2yrs as a rural pharm manager, and got into an instate public MD program this year (2021).
Had a total of 185k loans @ pharm graduation, aggressively paid that down to 140k (all excess on highest APR), then Trump froze the interest so I started piling the money into a variety of places.

Right now I got...
18k cash in savings
75k in a regular brokerage
40k in an IRA
15k in a Roth IRA
(so total about 148k... not really that bad IMO)

Ive been paying for all my living expenses and just taking out the cheaper Direct loans to pay for 99% of my tuition.
Its my understanding that after next year if I get offered the max of 40.5k, I will no longer be eligible for these cheaper direct loans (1% fee, ~5.5% interest)

Im worried coz when I did my fafsa which I kinda messed up on and will have to update it, it said I am only eligible for a direct loan of 20.5k
Right now Im working on maxing my roth IRA w/ 12k before the Jan 31 deadline to reduce my EFC by about $2400
I was also going to reupdate my stock value at the next market dip before that date also
Im looking into gifting a parent ~10k for them to maybe open a 529 plan with me as the beneficiary which should lower my EFC another 2k
And I might contribute to my regular IRA some... whatever amount would increase my tax return, probably around 10k which should lower my EFC 2k

Ive heard rich people do these sketchy life insurance plans with surrender clause riders to hide massive amounts of money from the FAFSA but I am neither smart enough or rich enough for dat.
Im trying to keep my options open for residency if I end up going down a long path, say cardiologist is about 7 yrs, which might also be somewhere eligible for the Public Student Loan Forgiveness program, in which case I could make minimum "income based payments" of like 550$/mo from my pile o' cash for 7-8 years, and then do 2 years of $4500/mo payments as a cardiologist for example. (thats paying resident&fellow:52k + cardiologist:108k = only paying 152k of the ~400k I will owe at the end of residency)

So thats the scheme I am trying to keep the door open for while also sort of hedging for the option of paying off my loans in full really quickly if the public student loan forgiv. program doesnt work out. Im only gunna try and go for it if I can get my residency and fellowship years to count.

Anyways Its really hard to look up reliable information on this sort of stuff.
I am planning on cashing out my pretax IRA during the next few years as I will be in the 0$ tax bracket in school and I think I can get the early withdrawal penalty waived since Im using it for qualified educ. expenses.
Also my brokerage is up a bit and everything is held for +1yr so long term cap gains. Im just waiting until jan when I can sell those stonks on next years income tax free.

I am also just using the roth IRA as more of an asset "reclassification" for the FAFSA and will prolly take my principle out next year after the FAFSA goes thru...
My IRS reported income was like....
2019-20 = 68k
2020-21= 150k
2021-22 = 62k?

im just kind of surprised coz the damn FAFSA is based on a 2 year lag...
Ill prolly pay almost entirely out of pocket for the last 2 years (MS3+MS4) and Ive started to convert everything I could into cash equivalents since I do not trust the market right now.... lookin at you china....

Sorry to go all Dave Ramsey on you guys...
Just a clarification, tax evasion is illegal, tax avoidance is common sense.

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[DrStephenStrange]

As far as I know high EFC usually only affects grants not loans. Grants are free (and usually given in undergraduate level), and therefore they have to give those to the most deserving. Loans are given at an interest and you have to repay it, so they'll give you as much loans as you want up to the COA set by the school. But you don't have to worry about that anyway since at Medical school (aka graduate) level, you won't get grants, only loans.

 

[Wolvvs]

In addition, as a graduate student you are only eligible for $20.5K in Direct unsubsidized loans per year, with $138.5K lifetime limit on Direct subsidized/unsubsidized loans including whatever you may have taken as an undergraduate. The rest will need to be Direct PLUS loans.

You can basically ignore the EFC on the FAFSA since it's not relevant anymore. Some schools will offer merit or need based aid but that's usually negotiated before you accept an offer.

If you are able to pay some portion out of pocket, the best strategy may be to take out $20.5K in Direct unsubsidized loans each year and pay for the rest, which helps you avoid the higher interest PLUS loans. But I don't think it's worth taking money out of IRAs to do so--that's limited tax-advantaged space that you can't get back.