Max Debt Amounts?

[bella_dottoressa]

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I'll be entering med school in a couple years and will have already accumulated some pretty sizeable debt from undergrad. I've heard that the max $$ you can have loaned out is $250,000. Is this true? With a ~$50,000 undergrad debt, this would limit the schools I could even apply to, wouldn't it? Any insight would be much appreciated 🙂

Also...I get a lot of fin aid for undergrad (EFC is zero)...Will this carry over to med school? Do med schools vary in the types/amt of financial aid they give out? Is everything awarded in the form of stafford loans/etc, or are there grants as well?

Lots of questions...Thanks so much 🙂

 

[mpp]

I'll be entering med school in a couple years and will have already accumulated some pretty sizeable debt from undergrad. I've heard that the max $$ you can have loaned out is $250,000. Is this true? With a ~$50,000 undergrad debt, this would limit the schools I could even apply to, wouldn't it? Any insight would be much appreciated 🙂

Also...I get a lot of fin aid for undergrad (EFC is zero)...Will this carry over to med school? Do med schools vary in the types/amt of financial aid they give out? Is everything awarded in the form of stafford loans/etc, or are there grants as well?

Lots of questions...Thanks so much 🙂

The maximum aggregate Stafford loans for medical students (including undergraduate loans) is $189,125. If your school offers it, you can have an aggregate maximum of $40,000 in Perkins loans (including undergraduate loans) giving a grand total of $229,125 in Federal loans.

Private loans are another matter and each individual lender may have their own cap.

Institutional grants vary widely from school to school in amount and eligiblity (some merit-based, some for minorities, etc). There are no federal grants for medical education (and no work study) apart from programs such as the Medical Scientist Training Program, the National Health Service Corps and the military Health Profesionals Scholarship Program. Some states have their own grant programs for medical school, usually in a similar fashion to the National Health Service Corps. Private scholarships from organizations are available but not as many for medical school as there are for undergraduate education and again many are based on minority status, etc.