Paying for Pharmacy School Question?

[Minh Huynh]

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Should I apply for a private loan now and use it as backup while I try to work during Pharmacy school, and just pay back what I don’t use?

I recently got accepted to KU’s School of Pharmacy, and I had planned on quitting my job completely if I had gotten accepted to the Lawrence Campus. To my surprise, I got my preference to the Wichita Campus!

I currently work full time at a call center here in Wichita where I make $18 an hour with great health benefits and a low cell phone bill. My company is able to accommodate my schedule down to 32 hours a week, and I can likely get an extra day or two off each week to get my hours down to 20-25. They even reimbursed me for most of my undergrad classes. I’ve read posts on here that suggests pharmacy students shouldn’t work more than 20 hours a week. My current job has nothing to do with pharmacy, except for the customer service aspect.

Since I made over $40k last year, FAFSA didn’t offer me much. Plus, I’m still considered an undergrad because I am entering the program with 104 credit hours. They require 132 credit hours to be considered graduate, which is confusing since I’m going into a graduate program…

I’ve accrued approximately $7,500 in subsidized loans.

This year, I’ll be getting $3,500 subsidized, $6,000 unsubsidized, and a $1,200 scholarship for a total of $10,700.

I don’t know how long I can last at my job while going to pharmacy school from exhausting all my hours and days off I will be using each week. I will likely have to quit eventually, so I am trying to figure out how this loan thing works.

1) Again, should I apply for a private loan now, and just pay back what I don’t use?

2) Will this disqualify me for future federal loans, grants, scholarships, or any other loans the school has to offer?

3) Should I wait until the last moment to apply for a personal loan when I need it the most?

I’m trying to be proactive about this, and figure how I’m going to get my way through pharmacy school.


Thank you for any of your suggestions.

 

[AJF505]

I can't speak to the curriculum at KU but you could get away with working 32 hours a week at UMKC. Just don't plan on having much freetime.

 

[sakigt]

Next year youll get graduate loans since youll have enough credits, right? So its only year one youre worrying about?

My thoughts: Youre getting paid well and it would be advantageous to use that income not to borrow as much, but....Your job will not help you find a Pharmacy job, so you should probably plan on quitting it by Summer #1 to find a Pharmacy internship that will.

Working > 20 hours per week will be hard or not based on your program. I worked a lot first year, took the second year off a bit (worked ~10 hrs/week) and killed the electives.... then worked ~25hrs/week 3rd year since I didnt have any electives to do. 4th year is pretty much impossible (Weekends only).

If only I had borrowed s much for years 2-4 as I did year 1........

 

[molyhelp]

Should I apply for a private loan now and use it as backup while I try to work during Pharmacy school, and just pay back what I don’t use?
Thank you for any of your suggestions.

My friend Minh, I am glad to see you being bright and proactive in planning about this.

Your school year will start in 08-2014? I wholeheartedly wish you luck and beg that you invest into Class of Memory now before you start school in 3 months. You will need good Memory Skill during pharmacy school. That's another topic.

About loan, you will see opinions from all sides. Each has his or her own supporting reasons. Here are my contributions with supporting reasons:

Pharmacy school has many chances of failure. We have to plan for the worst and act accordingly.
I have heard of many events that can go wrong in pharmacy school. Here are some examples of true events that did happen in pharmacy school and if you did not hear them, please be aware they did happen, unexpectedly.

Car accident: hit by drunk driver, result: broken bone. Hospital 5 days, delayed 1 exam.
Family death: result: unstoppable depression, leading to: failing many exams.
Pregnancy during pharmacy school: result: stopping pharmacy school for 1 year. Losing income of 100 thousand dollars.
Break up with lover, result: depression, leading to: failing exams.
Failing exams, again and again, leading to: depression, leading to: failing exams.
Letting friend borrow homework, pharmacy school friend was so stupid to copy word for word, both got caught by professor.
Cheating during exam by hiding materials in restroom and got caught, leading to: got kicked out of school. Result: whole school was not allowed to go to restroom except with escort by school administrators. Many had to wear adult diapers for exam of 2 hours.
Failed so many exams, leading to: forced to leave school after 2 years of pharmacy school, near the end of the road, total debt over 120 thousand dollars.

The hardest hit was: after failing school, the debt could be well over 120 thousands; now this student gets a low pay job, feels depressed and the pay is so low that after paying all expenses, we can only save about 500 dollars a month. That student debt of over 120 thousands will take over 20 years to clear. We know we cannot file bankruptcy for student loan. What do we do? Who will loan me money to pay minimum required payment?
Obviously, if we are not active student in school, we cannot borrow any student loan. 6 months after last class, we have to pay first payment.

Let's think about ways to minimize failing pharmacy school.

We all know we do not want to cause more debts and pay the unnecessary interest. That's the common thinking for civilian.

Pharmacy school is war time. You need to have different mindset. You need to concentrate like a sniper and give all energy and sacrifice like a martyr. You have to be ready to sacrifice joy, entertainments and take hardships waves after waves like a soldier in the middle of rough sea storm.
In short, think total immersion in fighting. Study with survival mindset will increase your chance of getting out of pharmacy school alive. The rest, later. The most important goal of pharmacy mission is to graduate so you can take board exam. That means expenses in term of loan interest is not a priority now, you will have time to work and pay back later. You will make around 60 dollars per hour for 40 hours a week for 52 weeks a year for 30 years. You will earn over 3.7 million dollars before tax.

If we choose to work too much in the beginning, we may not have time to adjust to the rigorous intense training. By the time we fail exams, reshaping study habit may not be quick enough to catch up with fast pace of waves of exams.

One of the common mindsets is: Okay, I will work 20 hours or so until I fail exam, then, I will ask my boss to work less. Some of us have the blessing that we don't really need that money from working 20 hours; some of us work to pay the interest while in school and minimize student loan. Some of us work to build connections for future jobs...

What's the risk of working during intense boot camp? Working will interfere with your training. How many soldiers work about 20 hours a week during 6 months of intense boot camp training?

If I choose to work, I am taking the risk that if I fail pharmacy school, I will owe over 100 thousand dollars. Do you have plan to deal with that debt?

The time that we spend on working 20 hours a week could be spent on sharpening and mastering additional skills to prepare for the hardship of pharmacy school, some of the skills that are super important would be:
Relax skill. Do you have a good way to relax and recover after intense training?
Sleep skill. Do you have a good way to ensure good quality sleep so you can absorb lessons quickly?
Time management skill.
Depression rescue skill. If you do not fail and your classmates fail, their depressions somehow may still affect you. Are you ready?
Depression prevention skill. You may fail and depression may affect you. Are you ready? The weird nature of depression is: depression is like a bad sucking sinking hole. Once we have depression, we often have no energy or stamina to dig out. By letting ourselves being sucked down the sinking hole because we simply nothing during depression, we effectively keep being sucked downward. You have to have a plan ready to help yourself to recognize signs of depressions and stop depressions in the beginning.

Memory skill to absorb and spit out quickly? Are you ready to be HIV and Hepatitis expert within 72 hours and then have exam? You will have chances to deal with that during pharmacy school including: memorize all brands, generics, abbreviated short names, side effects, combo names and components of each combo, give best therapy for pregnant women, people with bad liver......Apparently, about 40 pharmacy school students (who already survived over 20 brutal pharmacy exams) were not that sharp at memorizing and failed such nasty exam when they were thrown into the battle by surprise during class of 2011 in a pharmacy school. Be ready, soldier, surprise ahead. Please be ready with good memory skills.

In summary,
If money is not so tight that we absolutely must work to earn money during intense pharmacy school, then, that's how I would invest 20 hours of work time during pharmacy school into skills and weapons that will help me get out of pharmacy school alive, on time, and therefore, owe the least amount of student loan money.

Please remember: failing pharmacy school and delaying 1 year means losing income of at least 125 thousand dollars. How do you feel when your classmates is working out there and earning 125 thousand dollars this year when you are still studying because you worked too much to earn some money? That's my reasons for leaning toward the idea of: minimize work, survive by max loan, spend very little, very little, relax the mind with no luxury, all to maximize study and graduate successfully.

U`

 

[spaceboy2006]

Minh, you should contact Scott Guerrero in the financial aid office in Lawrence. He should be able to address your questions pretty well. I'm currently a 3P in Lawrence. We all make sacrifices to achieve our dreams. I gave up a life-sucking but well paying job in Overland Park, sold the house I lived in for 10 years, and moved my family to Lawrence and now live in a cheapo duplex near campus and work 12 hours a week at CVS making much less than my previous job. But that's just what I decided I had to do.

 

[sosoo]

the only negative thing about private loan is that if something goes wrong down the road, you cannot defer the payment like you would with federal loan. a lot of new grads are having hard time finding jobs. so if you can't get a job after graduation, you're stuck with a huge payment you cannot afford. pharmacy isn't the big opportunity it used to be. four years later with more n more graduates, job prospects is more dim. ... if i were u (in my opinion) i would rather continue the $18/hr job. at least u have the peace of mind not owing $140,000 tuition loan.... a house doesn't cost that much, and the interest rate isn't that high. real estate is a better investment. ....

 

[accordman83]

I routinely worked 25-28 hours during all years of pharmacy school, and I did fine. I am not a genius either, so I think 28-32 flexible hours would be doable if you are a good student. That sounds like a pretty good job, I would hate to give it up if I were you.

 

[Dred Pirate]

Should I apply for a private loan now and use it as backup while I try to work during Pharmacy school, and just pay back what I don’t use?

I recently got accepted to KU’s School of Pharmacy, and I had planned on quitting my job completely if I had gotten accepted to the Lawrence Campus. To my surprise, I got my preference to the Wichita Campus!

I currently work full time at a call center here in Wichita where I make $18 an hour with great health benefits and a low cell phone bill. My company is able to accommodate my schedule down to 32 hours a week, and I can likely get an extra day or two off each week to get my hours down to 20-25. They even reimbursed me for most of my undergrad classes. I’ve read posts on here that suggests pharmacy students shouldn’t work more than 20 hours a week. My current job has nothing to do with pharmacy, except for the customer service aspect.

Since I made over $40k last year, FAFSA didn’t offer me much. Plus, I’m still considered an undergrad because I am entering the program with 104 credit hours. They require 132 credit hours to be considered graduate, which is confusing since I’m going into a graduate program…

I’ve accrued approximately $7,500 in subsidized loans.

This year, I’ll be getting $3,500 subsidized, $6,000 unsubsidized, and a $1,200 scholarship for a total of $10,700.

I don’t know how long I can last at my job while going to pharmacy school from exhausting all my hours and days off I will be using each week. I will likely have to quit eventually, so I am trying to figure out how this loan thing works.

1) Again, should I apply for a private loan now, and just pay back what I don’t use?

2) Will this disqualify me for future federal loans, grants, scholarships, or any other loans the school has to offer?

3) Should I wait until the last moment to apply for a personal loan when I need it the most?

I’m trying to be proactive about this, and figure how I’m going to get my way through pharmacy school.


Thank you for any of your suggestions.

1. You are undergrad for one year - then your subsidized loans will cover just about everything (I was in similar situation).
2. I worked 30+ hours a week during school, more during summer (some of you are probably sick of me saying this) but it is my advice to help avoid accruing huge student loans. You are going to a public school (smart move) so you will save money there. Try to not take out a loan to cover living expenses - you can easily live off of what you make, and maybe even through some at the subsidized loan/tuition. Private loans suck (at least for me) interest rate is way to high. Avoid them if at all possible.
3. A private loan will not disqualify you for anything , it is the loan of last resort
DO NOT DO A PERSONAL LOAN _ EVER

even if you pay of the loan at the end of the first year - you will have wasted money on interest. Ask to sit down with a financial aid counselor to get more exact, specific information on your specific situation