How often can you pull out more loans?

[amad01]

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I have about 20,000 saved up and I am hoping to invest a little in a Roth and put the rest towards tuition. I have a SO who works and will pay the bills. I plan to use the unsub fedloan to cover the rest of tuition. I am wondering how often I can go to the financial aid office and request more loans? Is it a one-time chance in August or can you go whenever and get more? How long does it take for them to distribute it to me? Does it differ depending on school?

Many say to keep 3-6 month emergency fund. I would rather keep my ~7% loans DOWN and request for more $ if I absolutely need it, than have 3-6 months cash in a savings account doing nothing. Does this make sense?

Thanks for any thoughts.

 

[LChristmas]

I'm in a similar situation with most of my living expenses being covered by a SO. I'm trying to figure out how much to accept right now and if it is a one time only offer, or if I can go back to the trough if we start running low. Did you find out anything from your school in the past month?

 

[RangerBob]

When I was a medical student you did not have to borrow the full amount you were eligible right away. I think we had until ~mid/late-October to take out any remaining federal loans we were eligible for. So not a whole lot of time.

If I'm not mistaken, after that you have to apply for cost-of-attendance increase and justify why you need more money. I don't know how this plays in with not borrowing the maximum amount you were eligible for in the first place.

In either case, this is something to talk to your school's financial aid office. While the deadline to borrow any federal loans your eligible for should be the same, schools may approach things slightly differently (especially the cost-of-attendance increase)

Why not just calculate your expected budget and borrow an additional $2-3,000, if you're that nervous about it? Personally I went through all of medical school with an emergency fund of about $2,000... 3-6 months of a cushion is nice, but I'm not so sure you need 6 month's worth of emergency fund if you don't have a house, kids, etc. If there's a risk of your SO losing their job then you would want more cushion, but that's also something you could use to justify borrowing more money if they did ever lose their job.

 

[amad01]

I'm in a similar situation with most of my living expenses being covered by a SO. I'm trying to figure out how much to accept right now and if it is a one time only offer, or if I can go back to the trough if we start running low. Did you find out anything from your school in the past month?

I haven't asked yet, planning to call to get more info this week. I can't imagine it only being a 1 time shot, but we will see.

When I was a medical student you did not have to borrow the full amount you were eligible right away. I think we had until ~mid/late-October to take out any remaining federal loans we were eligible for. So not a whole lot of time.

If I'm not mistaken, after that you have to apply for cost-of-attendance increase and justify why you need more money. I don't know how this plays in with not borrowing the maximum amount you were eligible for in the first place.

In either case, this is something to talk to your school's financial aid office. While the deadline to borrow any federal loans your eligible for should be the same, schools may approach things slightly differently (especially the cost-of-attendance increase)

Why not just calculate your expected budget and borrow an additional $2-3,000, if you're that nervous about it? Personally I went through all of medical school with an emergency fund of about $2,000... 3-6 months of a cushion is nice, but I'm not so sure you need 6 month's worth of emergency fund if you don't have a house, kids, etc. If there's a risk of your SO losing their job then you would want more cushion, but that's also something you could use to justify borrowing more money if they did ever lose their job.

I don't intend to borrow even half of the COA. I'm not nervous, just would rather not loan out more money than I need that will build 6% interest for the next 9 years. There's just a lot of factors at play moving to a new city with a high COL. SO needs to find a job and don't know what income will be, not to mention probably won't even be working/have a job offer by the time I need to decide how much loan $ to accept. I don't see why they wouldn't let me just ask for more of the stafford loan. In undergrad I got both increases and decreases in stafford amounts after the initial loan acceptance. I will call the finaid office and see.