Need-based Aid for Older Students

[mhagerman]

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Dear fellow non-trads,

I've been wondering lately whether need-based aid is calculated any differently for non-traditional students who have had previous careers. To give some background, I'm a first generation college student. My parents make less than $30k a year each. I've had a stable career for a number of years now; I grossed about $50k on my 2015 tax returns, which are those that were requested for the FAFSA.

Mostly, I'm curious: how do you think this stacks up as far as need-based aid is concerned? I know it can vary between schools, but I'm hoping someone can shed some light on the process. Particularly because I made some decent money in 2015, and that's reported on the FAFSA, but I obviously won't have that revenue after matriculation. So I feel like my "EFC" will be a little skewed compared to someone who applied right out of college with 2015 returns showing much less.

Thanks for your input.

 

[sazerac]

The system for medical schools is incredibly opaque (and frankly quite random) but the prevailing rumor on SDN is that for need based aid in medical school, your parental income is more important than your own. So being personally rich but having poor parents is the best situation to be in. I find this to be true from personal experience too.

That being said, need based aid in medical school is incredibly rare - nobody is working as a med student, so everybody has financial need. Do you really need less tuition (less loans) than that person sitting next to you? And somewhere in the high high 90 percent of those medical students will go on to get jobs that are in the top 5% of US incomes. So whether any student actually has financial need once accepted is really up for debate. An accepted medical student is basically a cash cow that schools, examination boards, textbook writers, etc are going to be milking for as much as they can. Get used to it.

 

[trev5150]

Basically you have to be completely destitute to get need based aid. I'm basically expected to use up the entirety of the 401K I built over 12 years (and that's with taking the 10% hit on top of the income tax for whatever I take out every year), whatever is left in my checking account, and a kidney in a bathtub in Mexico before I ever get anything other than fed unsub loans. FML amiright?
Thank God for the Post-9/11 GI Bill or I would be alternating year by year, school and a deployment until I'm 70 years old.
And I still have two years of undergrad left.

 

[backside_attack]

Med schools don't generally have a lot of need based aid. Obviously there are always exceptions, but assume you'll probably just be eligible for federal loans to cover a particular school's COA. Anything else (random grants, merit scholarship awards) is just icing on the cake. But I would say almost everyone just has regular loans - it isn't like undergrad where need is actually taken into consideration.

My parents aren't well off but my spouse and I are, and that eliminated me from some state grant money that most of my classmates got. So while it sort of matters, it was a drop in the bucket in the long run.