Married Medical Students, Financial Aid Question: How Does Your School Handle?

[hurdlepup]

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Hello all!
Are there any married couples out there who are either starting med school together or got married in the middle?

If so, how did your financial aid office disburse your fin-aid award? Was your award slashed? Or were you treated as individuals?

Our story: We are both MS-1's, and our school gave us each money for tuition and health insurance, but for some reason, think that it is ok to cut our living expense portion of the award in half. The official position is that they only cut things like internet in half, and not food expenses, but they literally only gave us each HALF of the allotted living expense that any other medical student would receive.


Calling all married couples! Put your story of how your school handles your situation here (don't have to name school), because I am meeting with administration next week and I hope to have examples of other schools handling this differently.

 

[clinicallabguy]

Sorry to hear that.

My wife is not in medical school, but I have 2 kids as well. I requested an increase in the estimated cost of attendance so I could get a little more loan money, and they declined. So I've got 4 mouths to feed on the same living allowance that all of the single people in my class have. We've had to go to extreme measures to cut expenses. I hope that your administration will increase the amount you get, but if you can live on less you will be glad that you have less debt later.

 

[hurdlepup]

Wow, that is devastating. Do you have any money saving tips? Also, if there are any dean of student type people at your school, maybe try talking to them to see if they can talk some sense into the financial aid?

My school was able to provide more for us, but we are having to jump through a lot more hoops. It seems unfair to have to prove every monthly expense we have, when we are living well below the budget they allow for single individuals. We would be better off, it seems, if we just shacked up!

 

[clinicallabguy]

Wow, that is devastating. Do you have any money saving tips? Also, if there are any dean of student type people at your school, maybe try talking to them to see if they can talk some sense into the financial aid?

My school was able to provide more for us, but we are having to jump through a lot more hoops. It seems unfair to have to prove every monthly expense we have, when we are living well below the budget they allow for single individuals. We would be better off, it seems, if we just shacked up!

I've talked to the financial aid office, but I haven't tried that. Maybe I will talk to my Advisory Dean. Some things we do: keep the thermostat low in the winter, limit window air conditioner use during the summer, do not eat out, and watch craigslist for any things we need (our microwave broke, and we found a free one on a yahoo group called freecycle). We have a budget meeting between us sometime in the last four days of the month.