For FAP and for DO FAP, I live with my parents, but I don't get why they require parents financial information. My parents make like around 100,000 so I don't qualify but I don't work so I would qualify. Is there any sense in applying? I wish I could apply as an independent.
For FAP I do not qualify according to my parents income, but do with my income
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Using that logic, all of us college students applying would also get it for free. They use parental income to separate those who can't pay vs those who don't want to.
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This^
When I applied for FAP, i was working and my parents combined made 30k. Did they help me out at all? No, they couldn’t.
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FAP needs to abolished precisely because it is open to the kind of abuse like you are suggesting. Not to mention it is totally unfair to waive the fee for certain applicants out of pity while the rest of us need to become $3-5k poorer.
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By your logic, medical schools will be filled with students with middle-class to affluent parents and those applicants in the lower SES bracket will be entirely left out of the medical profession. Think before you cry what is fair and not fair....
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You are joking right?
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I thought it didn’t matter if you are independent on taxes... I am married with two kids and definitely don’t have help with any of those things.
AAMC seems to not care Fee Assistance Program
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There's also those like myself that had no connection to their parents and had to pay anyway, but hey... The rules cater to the majority, if they catered to people lie myself the system would be rife with abuse.
No I was just curious as I know someone who got FAP who told me to apply. He got it and I was surprised he got it. I just was throwing it out there and being hopeful I guess. I don't really expect to get it at all. I heard though for DO they go off of your income and not your parents.
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True, AACOMAS FAP is based on your income if you are not claimed as a dependent by your parents. However, if you are saying you live with them and they earn around 100k/yr. do you really want to be snagging those funds away from those who work and have parents that are below 200-300% of the poverty line? Becomes a question of your morals really. Only apply for FAP if you would truly not be able to apply to medical school without it. Otherwise, it's just a major insult to all of us who have been approved that are not as blessed as others. Good luck.
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Yes and most if not all will waive the crazy high secondary fee...
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Your parents make two times the median household income of the USA, therefore you do not need financial assistance.
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I sincerely hope you don't practice this same lack of empathy/understanding with your future patients who may come from low socioeconomic backgrounds and don't have access to resources.
Like was said above, for AACOMAS you need to make sure you not a dependent. With your situation, your parents probably save more money in taxes by putting you as a dependent than you would save through FAP. Many students aren't even aware that their parents mark them as a dependant.
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Who's getting FAP: the applicant whose parents are picking crops as migrant farm workers, the applicant whose mother is a motel maid and who doesn't know her father, the applicant who was orphaned at 14 and raised in foster care. Do you want to trade places with them?
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The OP is a terrible example of someone trying to point out a faulty policy with the FAP. OP does not deserve a FAP with parents who have 100k combined income. But there are terrible things that should be pointed put with FAP.
The lack of appeal process and inability to share one's personal situation is preventing certain deserving recipients from getting something they desperately need. The FAP requires both parents info regardless of situation so long as they are not deceased. This policy cost me dearly in the range of 9k of credit card debt because despite the parent most involved in my life who only made 12k last year. My other parent who has little involvement in my life made 37k (just above the bottom line for a 1 person household). Also should mention that I am an older student who has lived independently for 4 years. So as a result, I was denied a program set out to help students like myself. There need to be tweaks so people like OP still cannot cheat the system but others who have more complex situations are not just simply denied without appeal.
End of rant.
The lack of appeal process and inability to share one's personal situation is preventing certain deserving recipients from getting something they desperately need. The FAP requires both parents info regardless of situation so long as they are not deceased. This policy cost me dearly in the range of 9k of credit card debt because despite the parent most involved in my life who only made 12k last year. My other parent who has little involvement in my life made 37k (just above the bottom line for a 1 person household). Also should mention that I am an older student who has lived independently for 4 years. So as a result, I was denied a program set out to help students like myself. There need to be tweaks so people like OP still cannot cheat the system but others who have more complex situations are not just simply denied without appeal.
End of rant.
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I can’t agree. Anyway you slice it, 100k is double the national median there are plenty of families trying to survive on 20k -30k a year. FAP is a limited resource and it should go to the most needy.
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My bad if what I wrote is confusing. I'm with you 100% OP is in no way deserving of FAP. Like you said too limited a resource and so many families hurting out here with waayyy less. All I was tryna say is there are exceptions like my case that they need to address.
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You've been out of school and working for 4 years. Save or borrow (which you did, lucky you had a credit score that qualified you for credit cards), and apply. The breaks are for those who are coming right out of school in situations where there are no credit cards, no means to get credit, no personal income. The deck is already stacked against kids from low income families ... FAP is just an attempt to remove one barrier to the admission process for those folks.
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I do not qualify for FAP but can I request schools to waive their (egregious) secondary fees if I ask? I am technically paying for this out of pocket even though my parents help me with what they can.
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Drakozord X
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Coming from a family of 4 with my parents (immigrants/highest ed is some high school in foreign country) who work as hard as they can to provide for us despite their circumstances, I find this insulting. Imagine how hard it is trying to find a decent paying job in a pile of limited types of jobs. We would appreciate and welcome 50k-100k combined total annual income any day, with VERY widely opened arms.
I literally volunteered to have an infectious parasite injected into my body for 6 months (clinical trial) for money to pay for interviews and you want to apply with parents who make 100k and support you? FAP only take a small part of the burden for those of us without means.
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Thanks, I realize but if you are not answering my question then I dont really need your feedback. My question was if there are schools willing to pay secondary fees if they have reached out to you and encourage you to apply.
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What feedback? I just pointed something that you made sound “special”
Schools reach out to anyone with a certain MCAT, they don’t even know you exist unless you actually apply!
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They usually reach out because they want you to apply, not necessarily because you’re competitive. This whole process is a crapshoot. I don’t know of any schools that waive fees just for asking (i received FAP so i didnt inquire either way).. problem is, why do it? They have thousands of other people to choose from.
LOL. It’s a zero sum game. When someone gets FAP, everyone else’s application fee goes up to cover it. You are asking your peers to pay extra so you don’t have to pay anything. GTFO.
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I would encourage you to not jump to conclusions about other people’s situations. I did not qualify for FAP because I have not spoken with my father in ages and if I wasn’t able to prove he doesn’t provide for me. It is up to the school waive the fee and if they decide they have means to then why wouldn’t I ask. Also, I’m pretty sure FAP is privately funded and does not come from school funding. Also mind your business if you have nothing beneficial to say.
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I did the same thing lol.
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Just be careful out there. Some trials can have terrible side effects or lead to death.
Student, 19, in Trial of New Antidepressant Commits Suicide
Oh look, another sanctimonious premed who wants a handout. TBH, I don't know the details of how the AAMC funds FAP and how funds are distributed (or fees forgiven to schools) because the financial details of the operation aren't published anywhere I can find. But the money comes from somewhere, and I have to believe that the fees everyone else pays at some point partially reflects that.
Reminds me of when I ran a business and I would get customers that would ask "Can I get a discount?" for literally no reason other than they didn't want to pay as much. Usually accompanied by a story about how they were broke due to health problems or something.
Get some integrity and get a part time job. Just because something is expensive doesn't mean you are entitled to a discount.
Yes they can. I reasoned my trial was safer because it was a live parasite vaccine using a very well characterized parasite and a well characterized drug to treat it should it lead to infection. Clinical trials can pay good, but are a serious risk. Be careful kids! If you follow in my footsteps, know what you are getting into.
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Some will advertise in local papers, on Craigslist, etc.
clinicaltrials.gov will give you listings by city of clinical trials that are currently enrolling and seeking healthy adults.
I work in a research hospital, so I joined their mailing list and waited for one I felt safe with and fit the criteria. Look into your local research hospital. They may have a listing or email list for trials that need healthy volunteers.
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I have a full-time job. If there had been an option for you to get a tax credit or discount when you were running your business would you have given up that opportunity because you are so righteous and wouldn't have taken other taxpayers dollars? Even if you could potentially afford to go without it? The money had to have come from somewhere. I agree that there are people who have it harder than me and get less help. That doesn't mean that I shouldn't try to use every opportunity I have. Should someone at NYU not take the free education, even if their parents are "well off enough", just because it is a handout and someone else before them had to pay out of pocket and was worse off?
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Oh please. If you can't scrape together enough in savings to pay for secondary applications with a full time job of the course of a typical premed tenure (2 years), you are doing something seriously wrong. They're not even that expensive. Wait until you have to take the USMLE exams (esp. the step 2 CS $2,000 stick-em-up scam), apply for residency, and pay board dues in order to sit for boards all before becoming an attending. We're well in the 10s of thousands at that point.
While I realize that you are most likely trolling, to answer your question -- no. I don't take handouts that are redistributed out of other's pockets without their consent. These kind of things are for people in the absolute most dire of circumstances. NOT YOU.
You are the exact same as my customers. "Can I get a discount?" Why? "Well, I'd just really, really rather spend that money on other stuff."
Please come back and let us know how your "Can I get a discount" plea works with the med schools. If I were on the admissions committee and you called me up with that question, I'd throw your application immediately in the trash. Great way to screen out someone who is going to be super annoying/entitled and cause all sorts of problems later on.
Come on dude, grow a pair. You should be ashamed of this ****.
Also, FYI a tax credit is not the same thing as a gift of free money or services/stuff. Legally reducing your tax burden (the amount of your own money you are being forced to surrender to others) does not == "taking other taxpayer's dollars" unless the tax burdens of others are increased directly as a result of your deduction (which they are not). False equivalence.
