Financial Status for Nontraditionals

[QofQuimica]

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For those of you non-trads who are already in med school, did the schools consider you to be dependent or independent when considering you for financial aid? Some schools seem to have an age cut-off, say 30 yo, for designating the student as independent, which seems reasonable to me. (Not many 30-year-olds that I know, including myself, still get supported by Mom and Dad!!!) But others say they don't care how old you are, or whether your parents will give you one red cent, if your parents are alive, you MUST submit their financial info. My concern is that schools are going to look at my going-on-70-year-old dad, who is currently still working, as a source of income for my four years of medical school, and I PROMISE that it ain't gonna happen! Come on, the man has been receiving SS for several years now! He is wanting to retire! That is just not realistic. Anyone have any thoughts or experiences to share about funding med school for non-trads?

 

[efex101]

Yup, some schools regardless of age *do* consider your parents as a source of income although I think that it does not make much of a difference (but someone may want to add to this comment). Thankfully Mayo does not use parental information...

 

[k's mom]

If they insist on parental info, you give parental info. It's a weird thing with health sciences.My husband is 34 and hasn't lived at home for 16 years...his mom still faithfully fills out the form every year. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Federal formulas take parental (and student!) age into consideration...the older he is, the less of his assets/income can be considered. Someone else correct me if I'm wrong, but have any of you had a parent over the age of 65 whose income changes EFC? Doesn't make sense to me! Besides, no matter what the outcome, always have a face-to-face with a fin. aid counselor at your med. school if you want to dispute anything. They have the final say on fin. aid, not the FEDS.

 

[njbmd]

Hi there,
I was well over the age of 40 when I was accepted to medical school. I still had to have my Mum's and Pop's financial information for school-awarded scholarships that were need-based. The FAFSA considers you independent after age 24 but again, if you are applying for any school-awarded need-based scholarships, you are going to have to get your parent's financial information.
njbmd 😀

 

[QofQuimica]

Thanks to everyone who replied. Efex, you do not need to do any more work to convince me on the merits of Mayo. 😀

To all: you have to apply every year from scratch for financial aid, right? So even if my dad is still working my first year and I get socked for that, if he retires the following year then my "need" will increase (or at least their perception of my need will increase shaking head.) I hadn't thought about them taking his age into consideration; hope k's mom is right on that.

 

[Khenon]

Hi there,
I was well over the age of 40 when I was accepted to medical school. I still had to have my Mum's and Pop's financial information for school-awarded scholarships that were need-based. The FAFSA considers you independent after age 24 but again, if you are applying for any school-awarded need-based scholarships, you are going to have to get your parent's financial information.
njbmd 😀

Do you need to submit your parents' info to FAFSA, or just wait until you get accepted into a school and said school will request the info directly from you?

 

[Emergency!]

Do you need to submit your parents' info to FAFSA, or just wait until you get accepted into a school and said school will request the info directly from you?

You can always add your parents info later, but it is probably easiest to do it all at the same time. All of the schools I have interviewed at said that if you want to be considered for need based aid, you have to fill out the parental info on the FAFSA. Like Nat said, if you are over 24 the Government does not take your parental income into consideration for federal subsidized and unsubsidized loans. If you are interested in any kind of need based aid (federal or school grants/scholarships), you will probably need to submit parental info.

Another note (and I need to verify this info) - at one financial aid session, the issue of divorced parents was brought up. The FA person said "Pick whichever parent has the lowest income, no matter what state they live in". According to her, since the parental info is only used for need based aid, it doesn't matter if the parent lives out of state - they use the STUDENT's residency to determine in or out of state tuition. (This is great for me, because my dad has a substantially lower income than my mom, but he lives out of state).

Amy

PS: If you haven't done your FAFSA online, I highly recommend it. Much faster and easier - especially if you need to make corrections, changes, or send it to another school.

 

[DianaLynne]

I'm worried about having to do my parent's info, cuz my mom is so freakin' slow with her taxes. But, my 'rents are divorced and my dad is basically living off disability. Maybe I should use his info. Did a FA really say to use the one with the lower income?

I hate this part.

 

[Emergency!]

I'm worried about having to do my parent's info, cuz my mom is so freakin' slow with her taxes. But, my 'rents are divorced and my dad is basically living off disability. Maybe I should use his info. Did a FA really say to use the one with the lower income?

Yes, a FA really said to use the parent with the lower income if your parents are divorced. I asked her a little bit about it, because my dad lives out of state but has a substantially lower income. She said that all med students are considered independent for FA purposes anyways, but since they use parental info for need based aid, use whichever parent has a lower income.

I plan on asking a couple more FA people before I actually fill out my FAFSA with my dad's info, but as long as they don't classify me as out of state for tuition based on his residency, I don't really see why there should be a problem. For my undergrad (before my dad moved out of state), I actually switched to using my dad for the FAFSA because my mom was getting remarried and I would have had to use my stepdad's income as well.

If you get a different answer from FA people you talk to, please post.

Amy

 

[clkimmey]

My concern is that schools are going to look at my going-on-70-year-old dad, who is currently still working, as a source of income for my four years of medical school, and I PROMISE that it ain't gonna happen!

from a 31 y.o. 1st year:

i don't submit my parents' info. it's only for scholarships and such. if you're just going to get medloans, you don't need to submit their income.

 

[DianaLynne]

Yes, a FA really said to use the parent with the lower income if your parents are divorced. I asked her a little bit about it, because my dad lives out of state but has a substantially lower income. She said that all med students are considered independent for FA purposes anyways, but since they use parental info for need based aid, use whichever parent has a lower income.

I plan on asking a couple more FA people before I actually fill out my FAFSA with my dad's info, but as long as they don't classify me as out of state for tuition based on his residency, I don't really see why there should be a problem. For my undergrad (before my dad moved out of state), I actually switched to using my dad for the FAFSA because my mom was getting remarried and I would have had to use my stepdad's income as well.

If you get a different answer from FA people you talk to, please post.

Amy

You bet I'll let you know. Thanks for the reassurance. I'm currently waiting for my W2s to come in so I can do my taxes. At that point, I'll start asking the FA people.

 

[prana_md]

So to clarify ...

(I'm thirty, and getting no $$ from the 'rents)

Including parental information on the FAFSA will not affect our EFC or our eligibility for federal loans? Do the Feds just ignore the parental information if you're independent? I'd like to include it to give school-based aid a shot, but I don't want to get screwed when it comes to Stafford loans, which are a much more sure thing for me.

 

[tigress]

So to clarify ...

(I'm thirty, and getting no $$ from the 'rents)

Including parental information on the FAFSA will not affect our EFC or our eligibility for federal loans? Do the Feds just ignore the parental information if you're independent? I'd like to include it to give school-based aid a shot, but I don't want to get screwed when it comes to Stafford loans, which are a much more sure thing for me.

Right. Parental info will not affect your federal loans. Thank God 😛

 

[prana_md]

Thanks! I'm so glad I found this thread ... time to go make some corrections on the FAFSA.

BTW, you can make corrections after you submit it -- good news for anyone who was confused about the parent part or just a little lacking in the attention-to-detail department. (me, on both counts!)

 

[medworm]

My parents have paid off their mortgage on a house that is now (over)valued at $600K.

Does anyone know whether that would lower my "need" and increase my EFC? Thanks.

 

[QofQuimica]

Wow, this is my thread from over a year ago. For those of you getting ready to apply, I just wanted to update you to let you know that some schools DO consider you independent for institutional need-based aid (grants and loans) if you are over age 30. These include Stanford, U Miami, U Pitt, UAB, Yale, U Chicago (Pritzker) and Baylor. There are probably some others that I don't know about, but if you are going to attend one of those seven schools and you are over age 30, parental info is NOT required from you for you to get institutional aid consideration. Unfortunately, many schools don't care how old you are; you still have to provide parental info if you want to be considered for institutional aid. Those include UF, USF, Wash U, U Mich, Vanderbilt, AECOM, Harvard, Case Western, Cleveland Clinic, Duke, and U Penn. Hope that this info is helpful to some of you.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

My parents have paid off their mortgage on a house that is now (over)valued at $600K.

Does anyone know whether that would lower my "need" and increase my EFC? Thanks.

That's probably good because you don't have to report the value of your home. If it decreased their savings or other assets, it would actually make them look poorer. 🙂

 

[anniemal]

filling out the fafsa, does that make you eligible for government grants or the school's grants? what's the difference between the fafsa you get in your undergrad vs. med school?

 

[tigress]

filling out the fafsa, does that make you eligible for government grants or the school's grants? what's the difference between the fafsa you get in your undergrad vs. med school?

Well, to begin with, there are no federal grants, just loans. 😎 The FAFSA is technically to determine eligibility for federal loans. Schools also use it, including the parental information you provide on it (which isn't calculated into your EFC) to determine whether they will give you institutional aid, which may be grants or loans. The FAFSA is the same for undergrad and med school -- same exact for and everything.

Hope that helps 🙂