Scholarship Information?

[musclesmiyagi]

Current medical and podiatry school applicant. So far I have 4 out of 5 interviews to the podiatry schools I applied to; BUCPM, TUCPM, SCPM, & KSCPM. None for med school at the moment.

Eventually the talk about tuition will come depending on the school I choose. So, I would just like to know what are the best ways to search for scholarships and/or what helped you with finances towards your tuition, housing etc..

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[OnePodRanger]

From seeing other students' experience with money, they all took student and personal loans. Some podiatry school give out scholarships for pretty competitive applicants. Don't be afraid to call and/or email the school about finances and during the interview, please talk to the faculty and students about your concerns. They are willing to answer your questions.

For my suggestion, go look about finances on the school's website in terms of scholarship and possibly housing. Some schools do not provide school housing, so you must live in a home/apartment in the area.

 

[ftdoc11]

Current medical and podiatry school applicant. So far I have 4 out of 5 interviews to the podiatry schools I applied to; BUCPM, TUCPM, SCPM, & KSCPM. None for med school at the moment.

Eventually the talk about tuition will come depending on the school I choose. So, I would just like to know what are the best ways to search for scholarships and/or what helped you with finances towards your tuition, housing etc..

Some info in this thread (Scholarships), but compared to medicine there is significantly less scholarship money out there for podiatry.

Unless your family is in the position to cover your expenses there is no way to get around taking out a large amount of loans. My advice is to live conservatively and try to take out less than the maximum allowed for living expenses. Depending on the school you choose, you can often save a lot of money by living off campus and with multiple roommates. Over the long term you should have no problem paying back loans assuming you don't live well above your means.

Also, depending on your interest in podiatry vs. medicine, pod school tuition is typically about half that of many private MD/DO programs. That's not a reason to choose pod school if you have no interest in the profession, but a nice perk if you could see yourself being happy in the field.

 

[heybrother]

Most podiatry scholarships are not really scholarships. They are a form of tuition abatement combined with marketing and flattery. The unfortunate truth is most applicants do not have statistics that are worthy of a scholarship. Get as much money from the schools as you can, but don't fall for the game. They set an overly high price and then knock the price down a little bit to make you feel like you are getting a deal or are special. Your parents will get to post on Facebook than they are the proud parent of a medical student who even got a scholarship! Many 1st year scholarships do not extend to later years. My experience is that the schools increase their price approximately $1000-2000 a year. Consider the fact that with a $1000 increase a year, a student starting the year the cycle after full classes graduates will pay $16K more for their 4 years not even taking into account tuition increases during the new cycle's time in school. My alma matter's tuition is approximately ~$8-9K more expensive per year than when I first considered this field approximately 7 years ago. Over 4 years that is higher than the price of a year of tuition back then. Good luck!

 

[musclesmiyagi]

From seeing other students' experience with money, they all took student and personal loans. Some podiatry school give out scholarships for pretty competitive applicants. Don't be afraid to call and/or email the school about finances and during the interview, please talk to the faculty and students about your concerns. They are willing to answer your questions.

For my suggestion, go look about finances on the school's website in terms of scholarship and possibly housing. Some schools do not provide school housing, so you must live in a home/apartment in the area.

Thanks for the advice! So far I have browsed their financial aid website and found some links about scholarship information.

 

[musclesmiyagi]

Some info in this thread (Scholarships), but compared to medicine there is significantly less scholarship money out there for podiatry.

Unless your family is in the position to cover your expenses there is no way to get around taking out a large amount of loans. My advice is to live conservatively and try to take out less than the maximum allowed for living expenses. Depending on the school you choose, you can often save a lot of money by living off campus and with multiple roommates. Over the long term you should have no problem paying back loans assuming you don't live well above your means.

Also, depending on your interest in podiatry vs. medicine, pod school tuition is typically about half that of many private MD/DO programs. That's not a reason to choose pod school if you have no interest in the profession, but a nice perk if you could see yourself being happy in the field.

I will definitely try to do my best. Considering where I go, I want to try and use my bike as much as possible. Minimizing any other expenses is key (insert key emoji).

 

[musclesmiyagi]

Most podiatry scholarships are not really scholarships. They are a form of tuition abatement combined with marketing and flattery. The unfortunate truth is most applicants do not have statistics that are worthy of a scholarship. Get as much money from the schools as you can, but don't fall for the game. They set an overly high price and then knock the price down a little bit to make you feel like you are getting a deal or are special. Your parents will get to post on Facebook than they are the proud parent of a medical student who even got a scholarship! Many 1st year scholarships do not extend to later years. My experience is that the schools increase their price approximately $1000-2000 a year. Consider the fact that with a $1000 increase a year, a student starting the year the cycle after full classes graduates will pay $16K more for their 4 years not even taking into account tuition increases during the new cycle's time in school. My alma matter's tuition is approximately ~$8-9K more expensive per year than when I first considered this field approximately 7 years ago. Over 4 years that is higher than the price of a year of tuition back then. Good luck!

Yeah I even saw this happen to my own undergraduate college. Although, I could find other scholarships from foundations, church, etc. and still have it apply just fine, right? Or do pod (or med) schools have a cap?

 

[ftdoc11]

Yeah I even saw this happen to my own undergraduate college. Although, I could find other scholarships from foundations, church, etc. and still have it apply just fine, right? Or do pod (or med) schools have a cap?

Pod schools (at least mine) cap the amount you're allowed to take out in the form of federal student loans (you could theoretically take out more private loans on top of those). All my outside scholarships had to be reported to financial aid and they subtracted that amount from their estimated cost of attendance to determine what I was eligible to borrow. In other words, if the school estimates tuition + living expensive will be $62k max and I have $20k in outside scholarship money, I'm allowed to take out up to $42k in federal student loans.

 

[musclesmiyagi]

Pod schools (at least mine) cap the amount you're allowed to take out in the form of federal student loans (you could theoretically take out more private loans on top of those). All my outside scholarships had to be reported to financial aid and they subtracted that amount from their estimated cost of attendance to determine what I was eligible to borrow. In other words, if the school estimates tuition + living expensive will be $62k max and I have $20k in outside scholarship money, I'm allowed to take out up to $42k in federal student loans.

Gotcha, that's pretty interesting. I'm trying to fill out my fafsa now in order to apply for more outside scholarships. I'll consult their financial aid website and with a financial aid advisor to ask that question. If I may ask, what school has a cap on federal student loans?

 

[GypsyHummus]

My alma matter's tuition is approximately ~$8-9K more expensive per year than when I first considered this field approximately 7 years ago. Over 4 years that is higher than the price of a year of tuition back then. Good luck!

This sums up approx 80% of all higher education. Not unique to the medical field, and certainly not to healthcare. Idk how the Dentists deal with it, they go almost to 500k in dental school debt. Considering you can get out of Pod school for under 300k, the DPM degree seems like a fair deal.

Of course the best deal is state MD school but hey, we can’t all be rockstars.

 

[ftdoc11]

Gotcha, that's pretty interesting. I'm trying to fill out my fafsa now in order to apply for more outside scholarships. I'll consult their financial aid website and with a financial aid advisor to ask that question. If I may ask, what school has a cap on federal student loans?

I'm at Scholl. The policy at every school is going to be the same because the Graduate PLUS Loan is capped by the government at the cost of attendance set by each school. Obviously the cost of attendance will differ slightly from school to school, but you legally can't borrow more then that unless you want to take out additional private loans in addition to the federal loans.

PLUS Loans

 

[Summernight]

Sharing this scholarship opportunity, might help someone:
Professional Student Exchange Program (PSEP) | Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education

Also, for the military veterans using GI Bill:
Barry U Pod program's Yellow Ribbon is 16K a year combined with the GI Bill = FREE tuition for 36 months. They have 8 spots a year for military veterans.