Federal AND private personal loans to support family?

[MasterOfTheSelfie]

Hi everyone, I have recently been accepted to the school of my choice, but now I’m trying to figure out how to pay for my tuition and expenses.

Briefly, my situation is that my wife is expecting a baby soon, and I would like to secure enough loan money to support them throughout school without her having to work. I filled out fafsa, but my concern is that the total loan money I expect to be allotted will not be enough to cover all of our expenses (food, rent, diapers, etc.). I looked into private student loans, but the problem is that they have to be approved by my school, and they won’t approve anything over the amount that they would usually disperse.

My next option would seem to be to take out a private personal loan on top of my federal loans. Has anyone with a family in medical school done this before? My worries are finding a loan that wouldn’t need repayment until after graduation. Does anyone have any experience or any advice for my situation? Thank you in advance.

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[MasterOfTheSelfie]

Call the school financial aid office and let them know of your situation.

I did, they recommended a private personal loan for me. It would just comfort me to hear some testimonials of people in similar situations as me and what their experience is/ was like.

 

[LikeDaniel]

Call the school financial aid office and let them know of your situation.

Legitimate question: Do schools sometimes work with you on this? I'm in a similar situation and have been assuming that COA is a hard number, unchangeably set by the school. Am I incorrect?

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[LikeDaniel]

I did, they recommended a private personal loan for me. It would just comfort me to hear some testimonials of people in similar situations as me and what their experience is/ was like.

Sorry to necropost, but like you, I've now been accepted to my #1 choice school and will be starting this July. By our current budget, the school's atypically spartan Living Expenses section of the COA is about $6-10K short of what my soon-to-be four person family requires.

How is it working out for you? Are you having to make payments on the private loan while in school? Was it difficult to get FinAid to see that you did indeed needed more?

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[MasterOfTheSelfie]

Sorry to necropost, but like you, I've now been accepted to my #1 choice school and will be starting this July. By our current budget, the school's atypically spartan Living Expenses section of the COA is about $6-10K short of what my soon-to-be four person family requires.

How is it working out for you? Are you having to make payments on the private loan while in school? Was it difficult to get FinAid to see that you did indeed needed more?

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Hi Daniel, thanks for reaching out,

I ended up contacting my school and found out that they offer an additional $3,000 a year/ per child increase on my loans given I provided a birth certificate. I have no clue how common this is at other schools, but it saves me from having to take out private loans.

Hope you found this useful. Good luck to you.

 

[LikeDaniel]

Wonderful! Hopefully my school will do the same.

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[highway31]

I am in the same boat as you guys. My school affords 24k after tuition to live off of per year, and I've got a wife and 3 children. They make a stipulation to increase the CoA by up to $300/week per child under 5 if they are in a licensed dependent care, and they make alterations to the travel budget if you commute a farther distance to school. I've only had one meeting with financial aid but this appears to be the only changes. I'm not sure how schools expect students with families to survive since "funds are supposed to be used for students only"

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[Angus Avagadro]

It definitely is a tough road. Wife and I were married as students with no kids and lived a very spartan life. . Lived off federal and private loans. It took 10 yrs as overpriced specialists to get out from under them. It is doable. Looking bacK, I might have given NPHS or National Guard scholarship a closer look.