Financing Options- Need Advice

[smiletiger98]

Hey everyone,

I'm enrolling as a D1 in the fall and I have a question regarding financial aid and what would be best for me long-term. The IS COA for my school is ~$95k for D1 year., but they wont send out this upcoming year's tuition until late May. I applied for FAFSA and recieved $31k (a mix of sub/unsub loans), but I am not sure how to manage the rest of the ~$64k. I am caught between whether I should apply for external scholarships (most of which would not be awarded until midway through the fall semester) and try to cut down tuition costs, wait to see if I get any sort of merit/need-based scholarships from my school, or if I should just cover the rest with the Federal Plus loans when I apply for that in June. I have done some research on grace periods after school and each type of loans' interest rates, but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot in the long-run buy taking out unneccesary loans if there is an easier way to manage the debt. Does anyone have advice on how to mitigate loan debt? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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[Mr.Smile12]

Hey everyone,

I'm enrolling as a D1 in the fall and I have a question regarding financial aid and what would be best for me long-term. The IS COA for my school is ~$95k for D1 year., but they wont send out this upcoming year's tuition until late May. I applied for FAFSA and recieved $31k (a mix of sub/unsub loans), but I am not sure how to manage the rest of the ~$64k. I am caught between whether I should apply for external scholarships (most of which would not be awarded until midway through the fall semester) and try to cut down tuition costs, wait to see if I get any sort of merit/need-based scholarships from my school, or if I should just cover the rest with the Federal Plus loans when I apply for that in June. I have done some research on grace periods after school and each type of loans' interest rates, but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot in the long-run buy taking out unneccesary loans if there is an easier way to manage the debt. Does anyone have advice on how to mitigate loan debt? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Your financial aid office should be your best friend when it comes to your questions. They have enough experience when tuition rates are approved in adjusting your package accordingly. There will also be a lot of webinars and meetings run by ADEA focused on your questions. So search them out online.

 

[SigmaFS]

Why wouldn't you apply for external scholarship? What's the dilemma?

 

[HowToTeeth101]

Hey everyone,

I'm enrolling as a D1 in the fall and I have a question regarding financial aid and what would be best for me long-term. The IS COA for my school is ~$95k for D1 year., but they wont send out this upcoming year's tuition until late May. I applied for FAFSA and recieved $31k (a mix of sub/unsub loans), but I am not sure how to manage the rest of the ~$64k. I am caught between whether I should apply for external scholarships (most of which would not be awarded until midway through the fall semester) and try to cut down tuition costs, wait to see if I get any sort of merit/need-based scholarships from my school, or if I should just cover the rest with the Federal Plus loans when I apply for that in June. I have done some research on grace periods after school and each type of loans' interest rates, but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot in the long-run buy taking out unneccesary loans if there is an easier way to manage the debt. Does anyone have advice on how to mitigate loan debt? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

My COA is around 90k/yr as well. I plan on searching for scholarships and I'm starting a new hobby to hopefully make some extra cash. I found nerdwallet.com to be helpful when it came to looking and understanding federal and private loan options outside of the financial aid office. I plan on trying to work hard and earn some merit scholarships from good grades but I'm a bit naive about the sheer amount of information I'll be consuming and applying in lab so this is tentative. Regardless, I'm going to be in 450k-480k when my dental education is complete. This includes undergrad debt (w/o the principal accruing 3% interest/yr).

Edit: I'm also enrolling as a D1 this year.