So what happens to $$ when you don't match or scramble?

[FDoRoML]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hey, just thought I'd throw this question out there...

Regarding student loans, which would normally be deferred in residency of course, what happens to the grads who didn't match or find a spot in the scramble? Say, they choose to do a year of research or something b/c they don't want to take even a prelim spot in another field they are less interested in. So, technically, they're not residents... they're not students... do the loans go into repayment? Scary thought.

 

[cdql]

I believe there is a grace period of one year on all federal loans. So even if you don't match and choose to spend that one year during research, you'll have that one year grace period.

For school loans, it depends. I think my school loans have a grace period of 6 months after graduation. But I'm sure it could be negotiated if you didn't have any source of income!

 

[Hawkeye Kid]

Student loans have a six month grace period (ie. repayment starts 6 mo after graduation). It's possible that the grace period would be lost if the loans were consolidated, which they likely should have been. However, deferrment technically has nothing to do with being a resident--you're not getting a residency deferrment, you're getting an economic hardship deferrment. Qualification for deferring basically means that your monthly income is less than X% of the minimum monthly payment of your loan. The reason that almost all residents get deferrment is that almost all residents meet this criterion. Chances are good that your hypothetical research person would likely qualify as well since they probably wouldn't make much more than the average resident. Hope this helps. That's the situation as I understand it; the more financially inclined are free to correct any inaccuracies or elaborate further.

 

[FDoRoML]

Cool, thanks for the clarification. I guess only the alternative loans could be an issue.

BTW-- I'm not in this situation... I was just browsing some of the match and residency threads, trying to think ahead (yep, it's a character flaw ). I am probably (90% sure) going to go for a pretty competetive residency and the possibility of not matching and then having to choose between a scramble into a dead-end prelim surg year or taking off for a research year, well, you get the point. Just trying to forsee the future and plan for the bad (hey, if you havea plan to deal with the bad, then maybe you'll never have to, right?).

Thanks again.