Loans and applying to med school! Need help/advice

[tonguetalker]

Hello there, so I have been fortunate enough to make it this far. I am applying to medical school this fall. I thought that I had planned everything down to a T. This summer I was supposed to be working to save up enough money to go to interviews but I think that at best I will have saved around $1000. Since I applied to 18 schools, I dont think that will be nearly enough. Right now, because my family is incredibly poor, my school does have me on full financial aid. What I am wondering is, is it possible to have my COA increased to include applying to medical school and if so could I get a loan for that? Since I have no debt now, I think taking out $5000 to apply to medical school will be miniscule in comparison to the 100-150K+ for medical school. Also, if I defer the repayment until after I graduate medical school, does the interest still accrue?

Thanks a lot

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[tonguetalker]

Is this something that is even possible? Im at a loss as to what I should do

 

[DrMidlife]

The financial aid office at your school can answer the COA question. Generally no, you can't get a federal student loan to cover med school app expenses.

You should be looking into AMCAS fee waivers.

Make a budget for how many trips you can make, and then that's how many interviews you can go on. Your instate public school(s) should be your top priorities anyway.

All student loans except subsidized Staffords start accruing interest as soon as the money goes out. Subsidized Staffords aren't available during med school - just unsubsidized Staffords and GradPlus.

Getting a private loan or using a credit card is a slippery slope - don't use money you don't know how you'll pay back.

One thing you could do is find the "minority outreach" or "student diversity" center at your school, whether you're a diverse minority or not. At my undergrad, these were the folks that knew everything (much more than the premed advising office).

Best of luck to you.

 

[tonguetalker]

You should be looking into AMCAS fee waivers.

Make a budget for how many trips you can make, and then that's how many interviews you can go on. Your instate public school(s) should be your top priorities anyway.

I have the AMCAS fee waiver but my biggest concern is the interviews. Im also way across the country for undergrad so I would have to fly to pretty much every interview except for one...

 

[MT Headed]

I have the AMCAS fee waiver but my biggest concern is the interviews. Im also way across the country for undergrad so I would have to fly to pretty much every interview except for one...

A minority friend of mine simply ran out of money during the interview process and had to stop interviewing. He did get several acceptances, but he could only choose from amongst those schools that offered him interviews towards the beginning of the interview season, before he ran out of $$$. He could not find any special deals or loans for the interview process.

 

[tonguetalker]

A minority friend of mine simply ran out of money during the interview process and had to stop interviewing. He did get several acceptances, but he could only choose from amongst those schools that offered him interviews towards the beginning of the interview season, before he ran out of $$$. He could not find any special deals or loans for the interview process.

Wow that's very encouraging....

 

[DrMidlife]

This summer I was supposed to be working to save up enough money to go to interviews but I think that at best I will have saved around $1000.

Do you have other options for making/saving money? Can you cut back on activities to increase hours? When school starts in the fall, can you keep working?