money-money-money-money.

[shireen]

i was wondering what my options for supporting myself during med school are (yes Fix-it-Man, i admit i am pre-med. however i don't mean to intrude upon your designated "current med student" space. i only wish to gain some of your wisdom). if most schools expect you to not work, how do you pay for tuition & fees, housing, books & supplies, food, the occasional pair of helmet lang open toe stillettos, etc. loans? grants? scholarships? and is that enough to cover your cost of living? i won't have any financial support from my family. my boyfriend and i were hoping to move in together at the end of my senior year and i just want to know if i'll financially be able to do that. (can a person live completely on loans?)
thanks for your help.

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[lilycat]

First off, try doing a search for this topic -- it's been covered extensively in the past. Actually, you may want to even try just reading through some of the recent topics in this section -- I think this came up only a week ago in the Allopathic forum.

You get a loan package to cover all your school expenses plus your estimated living expenses (the FAO does this, not you). Some schools are more realistic than others. Living expenses are rent, food, personal items (usually $100-200/month), car (usually $100-200/month), etc. I'm having no problem living on this right now as long as I budget a little -- I don't go out to dinner that often and I don't go out to clubs and stuff like that very often. The main problem I would see is if you have very expensive tastes for clothes, make-up, etc. -- you will either have to curb that or get money on birthday, Christmas, etc. Assuming your boyfriend has a job, you should be fine.

 

[Kirk]

Hey Lilycat- Are you sure you wrote the right numbers down?

"Living expenses are rent, food, personal items (usually $100-200/month), car (usually $100-200/month)"

If your paying rent and food off of 200 a month, thats got to be a dive your living in!

Kirk

 

[shireen]

although i believe you meant it as a joke, i have indeed thought about the idea of harvesting my eggs...the only thing stopping me is the horror stories i have heard about the med's used to encourage successful harvesting. as for the "hooking", i kind of like not having genital herpes and such therefore it's not currently on my list of options

 

[lilycat]

Originally posted by Kirk:
•Hey Lilycat- Are you sure you wrote the right numbers down?

"Living expenses are rent, food, personal items (usually $100-200/month), car (usually $100-200/month)"

If your paying rent and food off of 200 a month, thats got to be a dive your living in!

Kirk•

The $100-200/month was to indicate how much they give your for personal expenses, and then another $100-200/month for auto expenses. I did not include the figures for housing or food.

 

[Kirk]

I see what your saying. I have a question then... how much does your school budget for rent?

 

[ryandel]

Hi Lilycat!
This post is from your high school home girl.(I had to lose the previous name because I lost my password and am on a new computer.) can see from your post that you are managing the finance thing. You give me confidence for next year. I think the hooking and harvesting eggs thing is pretty extreme. I know that some of my friends who were on short funds during med school taught MCAT classes and the like through Kaplan. The money helped. When I was POOR in college I taught screenwriting at a local high school that didn't have arts funding. I got a thousand dollars a quarter grant money. I cannot even begin to explain how much that money changed my life(I had none before). The kids I worked with were awesome. It was a very good experience.

 

[MacGyver]

Might I suggest an MD/PhD program? You graduate literally debt free and not only that but they pay you a nice living stipend as well.

Its not living large, but its certainly enough to where you wont have to worry about money and live probably a little better than your MD-only counterparts who dont happen to be wealthy.