Financial Aid/Funding - How do you do this?

[Great Satchmo]

I'm graduating in May with my BA in psychology, very little pre-med course work, and am dead-set on going to medical school.

I am going to try to get re-admitted to my current school for a 2nd bachelors, although not pursue it and just fulfill pre-medical requirements over the next 2 years. If it works I'll be eligible for federal aid, however the school, as of right now, doesn't seem to be admitting graduated students.

I'll have 2 years of course work, as far as I can tell.


What are some career-changer programs that offer enough financial aid (either through eligibility for enough federal aid, and/or with institutional aid) to pay tuition and live off of?


If its not possible, I will need to move back with the rents and go to California State University San Marcos (no idea what the quality of their classes, or if they even offer legitimate pre-medical advising).

I need the money to go to school and live. What options/programs are there?

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[nontrdgsbuiucmd]

Hi, I'm a nontraditional applicant, and have experience with financial aid things through my undergrad and graduate degrees. I'm re-applying to med school for 2009 entry after gaining clinical experience and redoing the MCAT this summer.

Unfortunately, I've not found a program that would pay your living expenses + school as a grant, as a future medical school applicant. There are some tax breaks for continuing education at the college level if you itemize your returns, up to $2,500 per year tuition would not be counted as income which would reduce your tax bill a bit.

There are some competitive federal programs that would assist with medical school itself, but the ones I've seen also require that you accept being relocated anywhere in the country (i.e. rural locations where there is a shortage of physicians) for a number of years after med school. Or you could go military and have that obligation (of several years active duty required) after med school, there's info on the Aamc web site on those programs.

MdPhd programs I believe generally will pay for your tuition + stipend (25K or so per year), my understanding is that competitive applicants have significant medical research experience.

The most realistic path I've found is to take out federal student loans, in many states if you're in school half time or more (I did science courses for 1 yr), you can apply for federal subsidized or unsubsidized loans, your school would have information on these.

Alternate path is to work for a company that would pay for some portion of tuition, corporations typically/often do this provided the coursework is related to your job in some way. You may want to call local hospitals' HR departments to see what they offer to their employees and the requirement (i.e. part or full-time employment there) to qualify for tuition benefits. Good luck!

 

[SgtDoc]

If its not possible, I will need to move back with the rents and go to California State University San Marcos (no idea what the quality of their classes, or if they even offer legitimate pre-medical advising).

Do whatever will cost the least and allow you to focus on school. CSUSM is fine. All of the SD schools seem to share professors. I went to Miracosta and Palomar and all of my teachers also taught at CSUSM, UCSD, USD, etc. As for pre-med advising, you can find everything you need elsewhere.

 

[Premed Mom]

I completed most of my premed coursework after receiving a Bachelor's, too. Because of the previous bachelor's, I was informed that I was no longer eligible for a Pell grant or undergraduate scholarships. So, I registered at my state school as a "Special Student" (taking undergrad classes for credit, but not as a degree seeking student). Once I proved to the financial aid office that I was taking coursework specifically required for admission to a graduate program (by having the dean of admissions for the state med school send a list of pre-requisites to my financial aid officer), I was eligible for 12 months of subsidized federal loans. Subsidized federal loans are good because you don't accrue interest while in school, the interest rates are low and you get a 6-month grace period after finishing school before payments are due.

I was told that the 12 months need to be continuous, I needed to maintain half-time student status and I could only take pre-reqs. I think these are federal requirements, not school-specific. So, I squeezed all but one course into those 12 months (Summer, Fall and Spring semesters) and also worked half-time to pay the home bills and maintain health insurance.

Another tidbit: the dean of admissions at the med school here also arranges for earlier registration times for non-traditional students doing pre-med courses. Otherwise, we don't get to register until the week before classes start.

I hope some of these strategies apply at your school as well.

 

[Great Satchmo]

Well, my understanding was that you have to be in a certificate or certain post-bacc program to qualify for federal aid. Some of the post-bacc programs say they qualify for federal aid and some don't. Even then, it looks like I could only get $10,500 which is not enough to pay tuition and living expenses without being forced to work. I want to have some RA position and clinical volunteering on the side, but that will be time allowing and I won't be forced to work the hours to just get by.


So it looks like I may be able to be re-admitted where I am for a second bachelors. I'll just take out the max amount in loans the first year, and ensure that I can not be forced to work more than I want.

I will continue doing research and publishing over the summer, so that should at least set my application apart.

My back-up is to move back to San Diego, live at home, work full time as research assistant, volunteer/shadow some, and applying to post-bacc programs for next year.

*shrug*

 

[Great Satchmo]

Do whatever will cost the least and allow you to focus on school. CSUSM is fine. All of the SD schools seem to share professors. I went to Miracosta and Palomar and all of my teachers also taught at CSUSM, UCSD, USD, etc. As for pre-med advising, you can find everything you need elsewhere.

I went to CSUSM for 1 semester and had good faculty, but again I don't know how much support for the non-class stuff (EC's, research, mentoring, etc) there would be.

And despite the faculty being good, the med school will see CSUSM for the classes, not that the faculty were also working at UCSD and SDSU. Should I even care about that?

I don't think I'd be able to get admitted to CSUSM this last for a 2nd bachelors, and I would want to ensure I was an enrolled student, otherwise I'd never be able to get all the classes I need on time (open university students are last priority).