med school living

[ixitixl]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

How is it possible to pay tuition, rent and living expenses if your family is not willing (but is financially capable of) helping you out. Is it possible to do everything entirely with loans and graduate with a massive debt?

 

[Buster Douglas]

Originally posted by ixitixl
Is it possible to do everything entirely with loans and graduate with a massive debt?

Yes, this is what most of us do. 🙁

 

[ixitixl]

Originally posted by Buster Douglas
Yes, this is what most of us do. 🙁

Are you paying rent/mortgage with loans as well then?

 

[mpp]

The school will budget an amount for living expenses and include that in a financial aid package of loans and possibly grants.

 

[jbish]

Yes, many people live entirely off of loans. This means entirely. All tuition, fees, room, board, travel, alcohol come out of loans. This means interest accumulates (unless you're lucky enough to live off of 8,500$ of subsidized govt. loans) and you graduate with a ****load of debt.

 

[jennie 21]

It's not fun, but it's definitely possible. The amount the school will budget for living expenses won't be a lot though. You should be able to pay rent on an apartment or something, but if you have an expensive mortgage you might have a problem. Also, schools don't budget for car payments (insurance yes, payments no) so if you have a car that's not paid off you'll have to cut back in other areas. You can do it, you just won't be living high off the hog, that's all.

 

[camisho]

Let's say you need a car, your parents have no $$ like at all, so you get some grant aid from your med school and some loans as well. Is it possible to get a car on loan like that, nothing ridiculous or anything, like maybe $6000 or something for a used car?? How does the process of getting a car work if you have no $$, is what I am asking.

 

[Vincristine]

Originally posted by camisho
Let's say you need a car, your parents have no $$ like at all, so you get some grant aid from your med school and some loans as well. Is it possible to get a car on loan like that, nothing ridiculous or anything, like maybe $6000 or something for a used car?? How does the process of getting a car work if you have no $$, is what I am asking.

My school has a special car loan if you need it. Since we are expected to have a car from M2 onward, when they are working on your financial aid package for M2 (or M3 or 4 if you need a new one later), you can get money added to buy a car. Now, keep in mind this is like $5k or something, so this will definitely be a USED car. But it'll get you where you need to go.

 

[kem]

My school (as much as I love it) told us that we needed a car and pretty much left it at that. From my understanding there was no money available if you didn't have a way to get one. Most people I know either got one from Mom/Dad/grandparents, got a loan from parents, or had one already from college/working prior to going to med school.

I am in such an overwhelming amount of debt (from college/in-state med school) now I don't like to think about it...

🙂 kem

 

[mpp]

The school may provide it's own loans for cars. There is no money budgeted specifically for a car. They do have a 'transportation allowance' in the annual budget but it usually isn't much. If you live frugally enough, it shouldn't be too much of a problem to buy an inexpensive used car on the loan money (although you really aren't supposed to, it's doubtful anybody would find out).

 

[Blade28]

Originally posted by ixitixl
How is it possible to pay tuition, rent and living expenses if your family is not willing (but is financially capable of) helping you out. Is it possible to do everything entirely with loans and graduate with a massive debt?

Of course, that's what financial aid is for when they assume you're an independent student (no help from parents).

I get the max Stafford/Perkins loan every year, somewhere around $30,000-$35,000. After taking out money for tuition, rent, bills, etc., there's a little left over for food and gas. And hospital parking. 🙁

 

[OB1🤙]

www.partypoker.com

Seriously though, I bought a used car on my loan money. It can be done.