Fin Aid Issues?

[physiologyguy]

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Is anyone else in the same boat as me?

Late 20's
Parents make over 100k per year
Parents contribute 0 money to your life and plan on contributing 0 dollars to your medical education.
Schools estimate parents contribute 15-20k a year.
You now have an extra 80k in unsubsidized debt.

Is it just me or is this the big screw - parents that have a lot of money and dont give you any help?

What is there to do?

 

[Doc Andy]

That's me...... haha.

Options are 1) get a scholarship 2) try writing a letter explaining the financial situation. I was allowed to do that for one school. Haven't tried others though.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

You're nowhere close to alone in that boat. Just suck it up and take on the debt. Schools generally have limited amounts of need-based grants, and they're going to want it go to the most-needy people. Unsupported kids of upper middle class parents aren't exactly a priority.

 

[TMP-SMX]

You might get lucky you never know. If your parents have as little as possible between paychecks in their bank accounts when you file fafsa and you have very little in savings you might get under the limit for some kind of need based aid. I think I might this year since at Wayne the cutoff is 18k calculated EFC including parental info. Last year I was only a few hundred over apparently looking back at last year's FAFSA.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

You're nowhere close to alone in that boat. Just suck it up and take on the debt. Schools generally have limited amounts of need-based grants, and they're going to want it go to the most-needy people. Unsupported kids of upper middle class parents aren't exactly a priority.

Adding that I apologize for the harsh tone in the above message, but I'll leave it up because it's still true. The majority of medical students are from similar financial backgrounds, and lots don't get money from their parents. Schools just don't have enough funds to meet the financial needs of all their students, so they have to draw lines somewhere.

Lots of us are taking out lots of unsubsidized debt with no help from our parents. It's not the end of the world.

 

[physiologyguy]

no worries with the harsh tone...I agree - in fact, it makes it difficult becasue i think the "system" is actually the correct way to do it - schools have to draw the line somewhere, and someone from a less affluent background should have first dibs...otherwise there could be lots of double dipping...just seeing how to work it all out...i think i m looking at ~250k in debt upon leaving...seem about right?

 

[Doctor Bagel]

no worries with the harsh tone...I agree - in fact, it makes it difficult becasue i think the "system" is actually the correct way to do it - schools have to draw the line somewhere, and someone from a less affluent background should have first dibs...otherwise there could be lots of double dipping...just seeing how to work it all out...i think i m looking at ~250k in debt upon leaving...seem about right?

Unfortunately it could be if you're borrowing the max amount. It's always possible you'll get an academic scholarship somewhere.