When is the best time to get married in pharmacy school?

[endlesslove]

So for those who are not married yet, when is the best time to get married in pharmacy school and still get the most financial aid? (By financial aid, I mean financial aid from the pharmacy school, not from your spouse and such, as I know some of you on this board tend to consider that your financial aid, tho it is true to an extent ) or is the best time (in terms of FINANCIAL AID) after pharmacy school? (If it helps, my S.O. makes $50K/yr as a network engineer. would that mean I get a lot or no financial aid if we decide to tie the knot during my PharmD studies?)

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[nikkai]

And to add a supplment (sorry =) ), what if I got married and both of us were students? Do we get the same amount of financial aide as if we weren't married? Or do we get more, since we are doublely "po". =)

 

[atlanta_pharm]

So for those who are not married yet, when is the best time to get married in pharmacy school and still get the most financial aid? (By financial aid, I mean financial aid from the pharmacy school, not from your spouse and such, as I know some of you on this board tend to consider that your financial aid, tho it is true to an extent ) or is the best time (in terms of FINANCIAL AID) after pharmacy school? (If it helps, my S.O. makes $50K/yr as a network engineer. would that mean I get a lot or no financial aid if we decide to tie the knot during my PharmD studies?)

Never get married....just jivin. Can't wait til after Pharm School? What's the rush? In my opinion the pressure of Pharm School and the pressures of making a Marriage work is too much. If the relationship is meant to be than he/she can wait. Remember whatever your partner brings in as debt now also belongs to you too. Do you want that responsibility? How much debt does your partner have? FICO scores? Debt to income ratio? So many things to think about eh?

 

[trishias]

My bf and I are waiting till Im done with pharm school to get married. We have a hard enough time just living together sometimes, plus I want to maximize the free handouts! Seriously, if you are married then u have to list your S.O's info on the fafsa, which could increase your contribution to your education decreasing your fin aid. It similar to when u were in undergrad and they needed your parents info. If u really want to get married, then go for it but watch the cost of your wedding, you'll need for pharm school. But if u guys are truly in love, it shouldn't matter when u get married b4 or after school, but I think u should wait.

 

[bananaface]

If your spouse works your financial aid will probably bite. When I got divorced I went from 7K in financial aid to 17K. If you get married either your spouse will have to help you financially or you'll have to look for private loans to make up the difference.

 

[off2skl]

And to add a supplment (sorry =) ), what if I got married and both of us were students? Do we get the same amount of financial aide as if we weren't married? Or do we get more, since we are doublely "po". =)

If you're both in school than your EFC is basically cut in half for each of you (same amount overall). It also depends how much you're working. Last year both DH and I were working full time and we would both be students this school year (he's still working full time, me part time). I got more than enough financial aid for my tuition; basically our EFC was oru living expenses. That'll change this coming year for us since he's done with school, but like I said I'm only working part time. Our EFC increased, but it still should basically be our living expenses. I'll have to wait and see the package.

 

[Allie_g81]

I know how you feel - my boyfriend and I havign been talking about getting married since we've been living together for awhile now, but I'm afraid of what will happen to my financial aid since his income is about $37K, plus a bunch of investments - I know your aid figured a bit differently because I believe they consider you a "family" even if its just two of you and you get a slightly bigger allowance for financial aid. My opinion is not to wait - if you love eachother and want to get married then do it...its not like you're going to be hurting for money out of pharmacy school...he makes a good salary too so why not just take out those alternative loans to make up the difference in what the school will give you? You can always consolidate everything at the end. I think its worth it to have a few loans at a bit higher interest rate so that I can get married. Since your S.O makes decent money have in focus on saving some over the next few years to help start paying off loans when you're out. Maybe I'm just a hopeless romantice but I think that life is too short - I know I waited four years until we graduated from college and I just want to do it now. One perk you might want to think about if he has a good health plan that you would be covered under once you're married.

 

[ultracet]

i would advise against getting married during pharmacy school

i have watched my classmates do it and there have been many many problems with everyone

and don't forget your classmates will be all up in your business

we were also told during orentation that there will be many divorces in our class.. and yes there were there have been engagements and engagements broken and all sorts of other drama

i have always been told that the first 3 years of marriage are the hardest and i'll be honest, i don't want them to be any harder compounded with school, financial aid, kids, etc

 

[endlesslove]

compounded with

 

[Bluhappy102]

If you wanna spend the rest of your life with that person...what's another 4 years without a marriage certificate and a wedding ring? my opinion

 

[pv214]

I'm in a relationship, and my bf and I are planning on gettting married if I will end up in the same city....or else we will just get engage and wait , Im not even in pharmacy school, but he is a first year radiology resident at Medical center at university of chicago.....stresses, problems will always be there....before or after school, it's good to have someone to support u at least emotionally when u are in school....

 

[indoflip]

I got married May 2004, the summer before my 4th year with 4 out of 6 rotations left. It didn't affect my financial aid at all. I think because I had already completed my financial aid application and I didn't have to state anything about having a spouse. If you do get married during pharm school, I definitely suggest the summer before rotations start or something, not during your didactic years. And make sure you have a ton of time to chill afterwards so you can unwind, which is why I got hitched late May

But if you can wait after school is over, all the better. It was hard for myself to make the adjustment of living with my spouse and studying all at once, especially if your spouse isn't in school or anything. He was so bored til I graduated Luckily my hubby is in the medical field as well so he was pretty understanding (but still bored) about the long hours I had to put in.

 

[spacecowgirl]

I didn't receive any grants (prior degree) but my marriage status did not affect my financial aid. I thought you are eligible for the same amount in loans regardless of your marital status.

That said, I am currently waiting to file for divorce after 3 years of marriage (1 of those prepharm 1 in pharm school). While I know pharmacy school didn't cause our divorce, it certainly didn't help us either; I guess what I am saying is that the additional stress (financial and otherwise) drove the wedge between us further. It's different for everybody - some relationships do well under pressure, some don't. Why not wait until after graduation? Planning a wedding is a lot of work, and I had a small wedding! I can't imagine trying to plan a wedding, nurture a new marriage and go to school.

 

[adventurer]

I have been dating my man for 5+ years now and we live together. We have shared finances (some, not all) and future plans. I agree that there is no real "need" to get married-but the subject does come up. The financial aid thing is something to think about, but from what I understand (I could be wrong, I am just starting out at this) in Professional School, its mostly loans anyway, so its not the same as it is undergrad (more money=less grants) So that shouldn't really matter in the scope of things.

The other thing to think about is if you are planning on changing your name or not, and if you want your license/diploma/publications to have different names on them. I was married before, and changed my name to his (and then back again when we divorced) so I know what a pain it is to change your whole identity and explain why the names don't match. Its something to think about.

 

[NYCillini]

...You can always consolidate everything at the end.... [/QUOTE]

Whatever you do, Do NOT consolidate loans with your significant other. If something were to happen to him or her (i.e. become permanent disabled, dies, etc) you will still be responsible for THEIR debt until it is paid off. Just "gift" them the money as you can afford it....there's no reason to add your name to even more debt.

OH and about the health insurance thing. I know in my company we will give employees the option to add unmarried significant others to their health insurance (of course there are some guidelines such as living together for 1 yr). Check with your company to see if they have such loopholes.

 

[Apteka]

So for those who are not married yet, when is the best time to get married in pharmacy school and still get the most financial aid? (By financial aid, I mean financial aid from the pharmacy school, not from your spouse and such, as I know some of you on this board tend to consider that your financial aid, tho it is true to an extent ) or is the best time (in terms of FINANCIAL AID) after pharmacy school? (If it helps, my S.O. makes $50K/yr as a network engineer. would that mean I get a lot or no financial aid if we decide to tie the knot during my PharmD studies?)

Hi there:
Congrats on heading to UCSD! Yaay!
To emphasize what many of the posters have said, they are right-- if you get married and your combined income is anything over $40K (not sure what the exact cutoff is, but it seems that they do not care where you live, what your rent is, or what your expenses are like- clearly living expenses are more expensive in certain places.) --- Your grants/unsub loans/etc. will be really, really, minimal, if not zero. I got married in late '04 and my 2005-2006 financial aid package was enough to make us want to sign an annulment so we could get married again, LATER, after graduation (hey, not a bad idea.)

We were engaged before I found out I was going to school, so we had made all these plans and clearly we weren't going to put them aside just for financial aid reasons... But since you have the opportunity, think it through and see if you can just have a 'celebration union' (ie: domestic partnership- you can register @ city hall, have a big par-tay, and that is not necessarily marriage in terms of financial aid) and THEN have your big wedding after graduation! Wedding planning during school isn't the easiest thing to handle, keep in mind... especially when wedding planning is SOOOO much fun!! (I wish I had a younger sister so I could do it again, ha ha!)

 

[endlesslove]

hey guys! thanks for all your very useful responses! as I suspected, your financial aid package would plummet to 0 once you tie the knot and also as anticipated, it'd be really difficult to maintain your marriage, schoolwork, grades, work, and not to mention your own sanity but as someone had read my mind, i think getting married the summer b4 your 4th yr (rotations) would be best (that is, if you want to get married before graduation), right? since you will be doing rotations that are most likely not at school, would a marriage truly affect your financial aid package during the 4th and final yr? yeah, waiting another yr wouldnt be so bad but just curious if it really affects your financial aid once you're on rotations.

cool beans.

 

[ultracet]

hey guys! thanks for all your very useful responses! as I suspected, your financial aid package would plummet to 0 once you tie the knot and also as anticipated, it'd be really difficult to maintain your marriage, schoolwork, grades, work, and not to mention your own sanity but as someone had read my mind, i think getting married the summer b4 your 4th yr (rotations) would be best (that is, if you want to get married before graduation), right? since you will be doing rotations that are most likely not at school, would a marriage truly affect your financial aid package during the 4th and final yr? yeah, waiting another yr wouldnt be so bad but just curious if it really affects your financial aid once you're on rotations.

cool beans.

my best friend is doing this in july... i'll let you know how that pans out for her


now you also must remember that you don't necessarly have off during the summer of your fourth year...

my third year ends in may and fourth starts in june (tuition due as well).

my program is different because we get december and next may off as well as 2 additional months thrown in there. they try to accomodate you if you are getting married