Financing a Dental Education...

[dudewhensmydat]

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So I haven't been accepted to Dental School yet, but was wondering...

1) How does one apply/get loans to pay for Dental School tuition?
2) Are there any scholarships and how does one find them?
3) When is it appropriate to begin applying for scholarships and loans?
4) How does one pay for living expenses during Dental School if one cannot have a part-time job during those 4 years?

I just finished college and luckily paid off all my undergrad tuition, but only have a couple hundred bucks in my account right now. So even if I worked for the next 9 months, I would only save about 12K dollars, max. And I know that 12K dollars will only last me about 6 months of the first year of dental school (given food, utilities, rent, etc...costs per month).

Thanks for the advice and for giving me a heads up.

- Dude

 

[dudewhensmydat]

Wow - either no one knows or no one wants to share...it's all good.

- dude

 

[johntara04]

Once you get into school you will find out. While you are in dental school, the last thing you will have to worry about is money. When you get out of dental school, you will be in the top 5% of income in America, so you will be able to pay it off (even if it requires you living cheaply a couple of years). There is no other way around it. You take out loans, get out of school, work your butt off, live with less money then you had in school, and then 5-10 years later, you live very well for the rest of your life.

 

[S Files]

Wow - either no one knows or no one wants to share...it's all good.

- dude

dude - have some patience you'll get some responses.
i'm a little out of the game, but some options:
- upon graduating you can: work for a federally underserved health area, can work for indian health service, these qualify for loan forgiveness - i believe 25K/yr.
- if you're into research you can also get loan forgiveness of 25K/yr. also if you wanna do research over the summers in dent school, or take a year to do research in MD/DC, there are robert wood johnson, national institute of health, and other programs - but some of these require a commitment to do research for several years after graduation, so only if you're genuinely interested.
- there are need based and merit-based scholarships for dental school. i think your pre-health advisor at your school could provide you with up-to-date information.
- contact your local dental society - sometimes they have scholarships
- when is it appropriate?? - start looking now. google, search high and low. fyi i came across a scholarship offered by a large financial institution offered to students in my part of town for some reason, i nabbed 5K/yr for college and dent school, so there is stuff out there.
- i don't suggest working during dent school at all.

even if you get get a scholarship, you will also need to take out loans. loans are easy to get once you have your dent school acceptance letter. banks and loan companies will be competing for your business. important thing here is to take out as little as you need. live modestly. because that compounded interest is a killer!!!!

do a search here on SDN for more info.

it is wise to think about these things at this early stage.

 

[dudewhensmydat]

bump

 

[1992Corolla]

Check out this information:

HERE.

It is very easy to finance your education. 1,000's and 1,000's of students do it each year. You can pay it off too. Bank of America's practice managment division sees maybe less than 1% of the dentists they finance NOT pay off their debts.

 

[dudewhensmydat]

Check out this information:

HERE.

It is very easy to finance your education. 1,000's and 1,000's of students do it each year. You can pay it off too. Bank of America's practice managment division sees maybe less than 1% of the dentists they finance NOT pay off their debts.

Thanks bud...very insightful. And you were right about what happens "after the euphoria of being accepted dissipates..."...haha.

- Dude