If you're older than 25, do schools still factor in your partents info?

[ProteinChemist]

For financial aid?

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[skiqueen]

For financial aid?

Yup, I'm 26 and married and most of my schools still needed it. I heard a rumor they might not need it after age 30, but I have no idea if that's true.

 

[ProteinChemist]

This kind of sucks because my parents don't give me any money and if my EFC increases hypothetically it doesn't translate to reality and I get screwed for something that's out of my control.

Also as mentioned in another post, I make about 40K a year and that all goes to rent and bills.

I guess the alternative is being able to say "oh my parents don't contribute and I have no money left over from my wages" and them saying OK your EFC = 0. But then everyone would say that...

 

[skiqueen]

Yeah, my parents will contribute 0 to my education as well (which is totally fine, they paid for undergrad) but schools really don't care whether or not your parents will actually help pay or not. It's more of a way to see who grew up in financially challenging situations and who could be helped the most by extra aid. I think this is fair, but as someone who had been supporting myself financially for a number of years, I was quite surprised to learn last year that aid would be based on my parent's income.

 

[DreamPills]

I don't think what your parents make is taken into account when calculating your financial aid. Your parent's income section is optional if you are considered
"independent," but some medical schools require you to fill it out probably for statistical purposes.

My parent's income was not factored into my expected contribution for school.

 

[speedyk]

This kind of sucks because my parents don't give me any money and if my EFC increases hypothetically it doesn't translate to reality and I get screwed for something that's out of my control.

Also as mentioned in another post, I make about 40K a year and that all goes to rent and bills.

I guess the alternative is being able to say "oh my parents don't contribute and I have no money left over from my wages" and them saying OK your EFC = 0. But then everyone would say that...

Yup, the system is a necessary evil. Switching from an expected to an actual FC system would be completely unworkable. Sorry... I hope you have good credit for private loans.

 

[mikecougarmd]

Your parents income is only considered for need-based aid granted by your school (reduced rates loans/grants). It is not considered for the main financial aid calculations. As long as you yourself are not making a boat load of money you'll qualify for the subsidized Stafford loan (which is only ~$8000/yr). Beyond that everyone can take out as much as they need in loans up to the total cost of attendance. You're not expected to contribute any cash whatsoever.

 

[ProteinChemist]

Thanks for the input everyone.

DreamPills, I wonder if your school is different because the message I'm hearing is that most schools take parental information into account.

I hope my credit is good enough to get private loans too! I'm sure it is because I got a lot for undergrad. Poor me huh ;-)

I was going to go into internal and travel to third world countries curing the poor and looking for a cure for cancer. However, to pay off my student loans, I am now forced to go into plastic surgery and it's financial aids fault!

 

[dixieflower]

i think most schools do, but there are some exceptions so i would check to see if the school considers you 'independent' based on their arbitrary criteria. For example northwestern will not take your parents info into account if you have supported yourself (making more than a certain amount each month) for at least 30 months. but this is the only school i know that does this.

 

[ProteinChemist]

OK well it sounds like most schools take it into account so I'll just accept it and stop worrying about it

 

[McPoyle]

Your parents income is only considered for need-based aid granted by your school (reduced rates loans/grants). It is not considered for the main financial aid calculations. As long as you yourself are not making a boat load of money you'll qualify for the subsidized Stafford loan (which is only ~$8000/yr). Beyond that everyone can take out as much as they need in loans up to the total cost of attendance. You're not expected to contribute any cash whatsoever.

Yup.

Everyone automatically is considered "independent", the parents info doesn't even need to be reported by anyone unless you are interested in need based money from your school. As far as federal aid goes, there is no pell grant to be eligible for and the high cost of attendance basically nullifies the effect of EFC for most of us. I was told that even I (with my wife and I both working full-time in decently paying jobs) would get the same aid as pretty much every other student.

 

[student1799]

Yup, I'm 26 and married and most of my schools still needed it. I heard a rumor they might not need it after age 30, but I have no idea if that's true.

'Fraid not. I'm 45, married for 20 years and have my own kids, and my parents didn't even support me DURING college. (I put myself through, with the help of scholarships, loans and Pell grants.) Yet a med school where I recently interviewed told me that if I applied for aid, I would have to produce my parents' tax returns!

I'm not going to bother, since I probably wouldn't qualify for aid anyway. But the whole idea really bothers me on principle--it is beyond ******ed.

 

[FlowLimited]

Yup, the system is a necessary evil. Switching from an expected to an actual FC system would be completely unworkable. Sorry... I hope you have good credit for private loans.

There is no reason why you would need private loans to cover med school costs. The government offers fixed-rate Grad PLUS loans and you can borrow up to your full cost of attendance. You're much better off getting one of these on top of your Stafford's than you are risking things with a variable-rate private loan.

 

[TMP-SMX]

Parental information has nothing to do with federal loans in medical school besides need-based aid such as grants or Perkins 5% federal loans.

If you are independent for various reasons:

All in grad school are independent, all over 24 are independent, all married are independent, etc. FAFSA EFC does not include parental info. However, for medical school to be eligible for need-based aid you must include parental information. You aren't forced to, but there is no downside. If you don't include the info you can get the same sub stafford, unsub stafford, grad plus, and private loans as the rest of the people. It has no bearing on that aid.

 

[searun]

It is all good unless you are married to a Wall Street Investment Banker. Oh wait, your financial aid package will actually be much better if you are married to a Wall Street Investment Banker, or if your father is a Wall Street Investment Banker, many of whom, according to the Wall Street Journal, are trying to get $10 an hour jobs at Wall Mart as greeters, I kid you not. So much for "the House in the Hamptons." I love this economy.

 

[searun]

Parental information has nothing to do with federal loans in medical school besides need-based aid such as grants or Perkins 5% federal loans.

If you are independent for various reasons:

All in grad school are independent, all over 24 are independent, all married are independent, etc. FAFSA EFC does not include parental info. However, for medical school to be eligible for need-based aid you must include parental information. You aren't forced to, but there is no downside. If you don't include the info you can get the same sub stafford, unsub stafford, grad plus, and private loans as the rest of the people. It has no bearing on that aid.

Well, I personally got a ton of need based aid directly from my med school, it pretty much is paying my tuition, so think about that. I would not have received that without my parents filling out the FAFSA and Needs/Access and I am 26.

I have my federal loans to cover my living expenses, but grants directly from the med school endowment cover my tuition. Thanks, Mom and Pop for filling out the forms. It is saving me about $160,000 in additional loans that I would have had to borrow without the funds I am receiving directly from my med school, assuming my school grants remain in the same ball park for the next two years.

 

[scarterinscrubs]

I hate this parent info stuff.

My dad owns his own business and procratinates when it comes to filing income information. He doesnt get the info to his accountant until august/september. No matter how much I beg him to get his stuff in early , he still waits. I ended up waiting and praying to get fin aid before my classes are dropped for a second and final time each year of undergrad.

With that said, I pray that I can face this problem in the fall.

 

[majahops]

Hey, what do you mean by "Needs/Access"? Thanks!

Well, I personally got a ton of need based aid directly from my med school, it pretty much is paying my tuition, so think about that. I would not have received that without my parents filling out the FAFSA and Needs/Access and I am 26.

I have my federal loans to cover my living expenses, but grants directly from the med school endowment cover my tuition. Thanks, Mom and Pop for filling out the forms. It is saving me about $160,000 in additional loans that I would have had to borrow without the funds I am receiving directly from my med school, assuming my school grants remain in the same ball park for the next two years.

 

[alwaysaangel]

I don't think what your parents make is taken into account when calculating your financial aid. Your parent's income section is optional if you are considered
"independent," but some medical schools require you to fill it out probably for statistical purposes.

My parent's income was not factored into my expected contribution for school.

For every medical student parental info isn't considered for expected contribution.

However, its not collected for statistical purposes. As others are discussing in this thread its collected because schools use it to determine what institutional grants you'll get.