Financial Question

[UAMShopeful]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Ok, so I'm going to pharmacy school this fall and have a wife and 2 kids. I had a full time job last year and made a decent amount of money, so I'm not gonna get near enough in the way of student loans/grants. Obviously my wife is going to be working but she doesn't have a degree or anything and thus will be stuck making little more than minumim wage.

My question is this : I know I will have to resort to some sort of private loans but there are so many. And yes, I've read and studied them ad nauseum and was just needing someone with some kind of experience with them to maybe guide me towards the best ones (one's that workied for them). I.E. lowest interest rate, highest limit, best grace/repayment terms...etc. Also, my credit score is high enough to where that is a non-issue.

It would be no problem if all I had to worry about was myself but...that's not the case. Thanks for any and all input.

 

[charfdorn]

Ok, so I'm going to pharmacy school this fall and have a wife and 2 kids. I had a full time job last year and made a decent amount of money, so I'm not gonna get near enough in the way of student loans/grants. Obviously my wife is going to be working but she doesn't have a degree or anything and thus will be stuck making little more than minumim wage.

My question is this : I know I will have to resort to some sort of private loans but there are so many. And yes, I've read and studied them ad nauseum and was just needing someone with some kind of experience with them to maybe guide me towards the best ones (one's that workied for them). I.E. lowest interest rate, highest limit, best grace/repayment terms...etc. Also, my credit score is high enough to where that is a non-issue.

It would be no problem if all I had to worry about was myself but...that's not the case. Thanks for any and all input.

You have one more kid than me but other than that we are in the same boat. I'm scrambling for ideas, too. Help us!

 

[pharmacyanalyst]

Post over on the Financial Aid board. The people who frequent there are really smart about this stuff. I'm in a similar boat- good luck. 🙂

 

[thephoenician88]

we have a financial aid board :O lol, i need to get out of the pre-pharmacy forum.

 

[Farmercyst]

Moved to FA. As for loans, I'm currently surviving on Stafford and GradPlus. I came in with about 70K in savings though and am working 12hrs/wk + summers. Currently a P2 with wife + 2 kids & one due in about 3 wks. I'm hoping to make it the last 2 years without a private loan. The problem I had Financial Aid wise is that my income before P1 was ~75K. So that's what my initial FA was based on. The year I entered P1 was about 45K since I worked 3/4 of that year, so that's what my P2 FA was based on. Finally, last year I got my income down 🙂confused🙂 to 17K, so finally, I might qualify for low income loan programs. The problem is they include parent's tax forms for that, and despite the fact they have 8 kids, only 2 are in school, and it's not like they can actually contribute to my education regardless of their income.

 

[UAMShopeful]

Moved to FA. As for loans, I'm currently surviving on Stafford and GradPlus. I came in with about 70K in savings though and am working 12hrs/wk + summers. Currently a P2 with wife + 2 kids & one due in about 3 wks. I'm hoping to make it the last 2 years without a private loan. The problem I had Financial Aid wise is that my income before P1 was ~75K. So that's what my initial FA was based on. The year I entered P1 was about 45K since I worked 3/4 of that year, so that's what my P2 FA was based on. Finally, last year I got my income down 🙂confused🙂 to 17K, so finally, I might qualify for low income loan programs. The problem is they include parent's tax forms for that, and despite the fact they have 8 kids, only 2 are in school, and it's not like they can actually contribute to my education regardless of their income.

Yeah, ideally I would have liked to have saved up $40k-$50k but I only made about 35k/year and have had two kids so that was sort of over-reaching. I do have some money saved up but it's definitely not enough to live on. At least with how much I wil have made this year (about 20k) maybe I will be eligible for some of those low income loans in my 2nd year. thanks for the input

 

[TMP-SMX]

Stop worrying. 😉

No matter how much money you make you will get your full $20,500 in stafford loans at 6.8% a year and no limit to your grad plus loans at 8.5% (up to your cost of attendance). Where your EFC from your FAFSA does play a role is how much of that $20,500 in Staffords up to $8500 is subsidized (meaning your interest is paid during school by the federal government). So as long as your cost of attendance (budget) minus your EFC is higher than or equal to 8500 you will get the full amount of subsidized loans. Even if you don't get any subsidized loans you still get the full amount of unsubsidized loans replacing the portion of the $20,500 that would have been subsidized. So COA-EFC>8500.

In order to be eligible for any need-based aid, your personal, spousal, and parental EFC (from the FAFSA plus parental info calculated by your school) should be under about 25k. The schools may have some kind of tiered system and give some scholarships for people with a higher EFC (under the limit) and both Perkins and scholarships for the people with a lower EFC.

 

[Pharmgrlnxdor]

Don't want to hijack the thread but the respnse from TMP-SMX has me a bit worried. I am a non trad single with one child. The above post is what I figured I would do as well.....fill out FAFSA and get as much subsidized Stafford and the rest unsubsidized Stafford - figure my requirements will be about $52,000 a year. This means that I will be taking out a GradPlus loan for the rest. Here is the kicker. I keep hearing that parental financial information is required....even though I am about to turn 39 with a child of my own. Let me put it to you this way....the reason I am just now getting around to school is that nearly 20 years ago my mother refused to give me her financial info and so I was unable to get the pell grant or other financial aid. No amount of begging would get her to change her mind. There is no way I am going to be able to get that information....how badly am I going to be ***** because of this...if anyone knows that is. Again, my apologies for hijacking the thread.

 

[TMP-SMX]

Relax. Parental information is only required for need-based Perkins 5% loans (up to 5000 usually), need-based scholarships/grants (usually less than 10k). Very very few people get this aid. The amounts may be different for pharmacy school so you may have to check the financial aid departments. So you don't even have to bother with including parental information. It can only help you if their income would be low enough for you to be eligible for need-based aid. Otherwise, you don't have to bother.

You will still get your normal $33,000 in 6.8% staffords and the rest in grad plus at 8.5% if you are going to pharmacy school. As long as your personal COA-EFC is above 8500 you will get the full $8500 in subsidized stafford loans out of that $33,000 in unsub staffords.

 

[smellyfeetman]

I've got a wife and two kids, pretty much no savings, and my wife won't be working while I'm in school. My school's tuition is over $40,000. Insurance premiums and living expenses will be a lot more for me than for a typical med student. Schools usually have their set Cost of Attendance worked out based on past averages. Will they usually adjust the COA for people like me, so the Grad Plus will cover everything I need?

 

[nogolfinsnow]

I've got a wife and two kids, pretty much no savings, and my wife won't be working while I'm in school. My school's tuition is over $40,000. Insurance premiums and living expenses will be a lot more for me than for a typical med student. Schools usually have their set Cost of Attendance worked out based on past averages. Will they usually adjust the COA for people like me, so the Grad Plus will cover everything I need?

They might. As far as insurance, at my school they will increase the loan amount in order to cover insurance premiums if you use the plan through school. So for me my COA goes up ~2500 to cover my yearly insurance premium. My wife is insured through her work, but if I wanted to put her on the school plan they would increase my COA another 2500 to cover her. Hopefully your school will do the same to cover your wife and kids. I know there are other med students on SDN with kids, so hopefully some of them will see this thread and have a more thorough response.