Whose Money Counts?

[biophysicianai]

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Hello everyone,

Does anyone know whether you're expected to have a "family contribution" to your medical school tuition if you take time off and work for a few years after undergrad? That is, if you are an independent adult at the the time of matriculation, are you expected to go back to being dependent on your parents?

Thanks!

 

[nogolfinsnow]

Hello everyone,

Does anyone know whether you're expected to have a "family contribution" to your medical school tuition if you take time off and work for a few years after undergrad? That is, if you are an independent adult at the the time of matriculation, are you expected to go back to being dependent on your parents?

Thanks!

Expected Family Contribution is a bit of a weird concept for medical students. EFC is calculated based off of your FAFSA, and as a medical student you should not be including your parent's information in your FAFSA. At my school, the EFC is basically irrelevant. I'm married so my spouse's income is reported on FAFSA, and an EFC is calculated based on that. But my school will still process my loans for up the cost of attendance, thus disregarding the EFC. You are absolutely not expected to be dependent on your parents. Since you've worked (this happenned to me too) an EFC will be calculated based on your most recent tax return. But it doesn't mean you have to come up with that money and can't borrow what you need.

 

[TMP-SMX]

For medical school, or any grad school, you are automatically considered independent for FAFSA purposes regardless of anything else. You don't have to include your parents in your FAFSA but it doesn't hurt you at all. Your EFC for FAFSA purposes will never actually include the calculations with your parents.

There is one caveat though. If you want any chance at scholarships, lower interest Perkins loans, grants, or any need-based aid besides sub Staffords you must include your parental information.

So get your parental info!

By the way nogolf, it isn't necessarily the whole story that you will get up to the CoA regardless of your income. While grossly that is true, but if your EFC is high enough (CoA-EFC<$8500) then you will begin to get less subsidized Staffords until you hit a CoA-EFC of 0 where you will be getting no subsidized Staffords and all unsubsidized Staffords. Your sub Stafford maximum is always $8500 and Stafford total and with unsub included is $40,500 for a 9 month year (and rises slightly for longer years).

 

[biophysicianai]

Thank you both.

Do either of you know whether schools that generally give extensive financial aid packages - the larger, wealthier private universities - will consider me a dependent in their financial aid decisions?

Private med schools are NOT cheap...

 

[yadayadadude]

You should expect that you will be required to report your parents' financial information to receive institutional financial aid (grants, lower interest loans). At my school, for instance, a lot of grant money is handed out, but until you're over 30 you must report parental information to be considered for the grants.

 

[nogolfinsnow]

My school, despite its astronomical tuition, does a spectacularly crappy job of providing grants/low interest loans, etc to anyone. No one had to report parental income last year. If you're talking about financial aid in terms of free money, then yes I do believe the school will want your parental information regardless of whether you're a dependent or not (this probably wouldn't be true with a merit-based grant/scholarship though). If you're talking financial aid in terms of how much your school will allow you to take out in Stafford + Grad PLUS, then they'll consider you an independent.

TMP: thanks for the clarification. The info will come in handy just in case my wife gets a 500% pay raise this year!