My parent does not live here in US and I never applied for FAFSA for my school. I am working and my wife is working too and we do our own tax return. Now I am planning to go back to school and apply for FAFSA in 2019. So I will have taxable income in 2018. But when I will go to school in 2019, I will not have any income but my wife possibly will have taxable income.
How does the fafsa application will work based on no parent and no current income but have previous year income ?
If you are married, you are independent for FAFSA purposes. You will complete it with the income and taxes paid for both you & your wife.
While I understand that you will be returning to school & therefore will not have the same income you may have had in 2016, you will still need to include the 2016 income. You can request a special circumstances review from the school & ask them if they will adjust the income … however, please realize that most schools will not adjust the income for a student who is returning to school. You can certainly ask, and it might happen - but it very well may not.
If you are going back to school in the fall of 2019, the FAFSA you complete for that academic year will use 2017 income.
Did you finish a bachelors degree when you were in college before, or did you leave before finishing? For a second bachelors degree the only aid you will qualify for are unsubsidized loans so your income won’t matter at all. Just file the FAFSA, ask for the loan, and move on.
If you are still finishing up your first bachelors degree, then your FAFSA will determine what aid other than federal loans you qualify for. So stay in touch with the financial aid office about your income situation, and make certain to complete whatever paperwork they require for special circumstances.
And remember…for the 2019-2020 FAGSA, you will need to include both yours AND your wife’s incomes from 2017…if you are married when you file that FAFSA.
I have a international Undergrads. Not from US. And I am planning to go to med school and saving up my money so in case of family emergency, I know that I have some back up. Also we are saving some money for our kids. My wife is not has decided that she will not work while I will be in med school so she can spend time with kids. so we will not have any income from 2019. Actually I think I will be starting med school from 2020.
Please let me know how my savings, and my kids college fund will impact my funding. I don’t want to touch my savings or kids savings before I finish my school.
How are you going to pay for med school?
You are asking about filing the FAFSA for medical school. That is completely different than filing it for undergrad degrees.
Check the medical schools on your list to find out whether or not they offer any need-based or merit-based aid. All you will qualify for in federal aid is loans. That won’t be affected at all by any other savings or income that you have.
Financing and federal loans for medical school works differently than it does for undergrad.
All med schools offer need-based aid, principally in the form of unsubsidized federal student loans, and (relatively high interest) Grad Plus loans. A very tiny minority of schools (private, well-endowed and highly competitive) offer their own in-house loans. Some med schools offer merit aid, though the competition for receiving merit aid is quite daunting.
Medical schools, particularly private medical schools, use a form called Needs Access in addition to FAFSA. NA is like the CSS Profile in that it delves deeply into your personal and your family’s finances. You are required to report your savings and your children’s college savings. Med schools will likely expect you to use those savings to help pay for your medical education. Additionally most private medical schools require parent income information even if you are married and even if you are older and have been self-supporting for years. (Up to age 35 at some schools.)
There are caps on the amount of money you can borrow thru FAFSA for med school. Currently it is $40,500/year–which is well below the actual COA of most med schools. If your credit score is good, you can borrow additional monies thru a Grad Plus loan up to the med school’s published COA. The COA does not take into consideration that you have children or that your wife has chosen not to work. The med school is unlikely to adjust your COA to reflect those circumstances.
One additional comment--most US medical schools will not accept an international undergrad degree as fulfilling med school admission requirements. At a minimum, med schools require med school pre-reqs to be taken at a US or Canadian college. Many (most?) US medical schools require 90 credits from a US or Canadian college/university for admission. Three or so US allopathic med schools will "consider" degrees earned in the UK. There are 7 or 8 osteopathic medical schools that will "consider" international undergrad degrees when accepting students. Thanks for your informative email. I am taking all pre-med classes as a non matriculated student from Suny 4 yr school. I am close to complete all of them. I did not see 90 credit requirements in lots of school’s website. May be it is their requirement but they are not publishing it? They are saying, I will have to get evaluation from WES. And my few friends who are doing their PhD in US, did evaluation and all schools accepted their BS as US equivalent.
As for COA, I am planning to use my savings during the 4 years of med school for additional expenses for my family. But my question is, for example, estimated COA is 60k/yr. Will I be able to get 60K fund or school are expecting me to spend certain percentage of it from my savings ? Because as you said, my expense will be more than COA for my family and that’s why I am saving my money. If school are expecting me to spend my savings, than I will have to calculate my financing differently to make sure my family (kids&wife&parents) can live their life without financial difficulty . My parents are retired about 15 yrs ago. I am actually supporting them financially and will be supporting them from my savings while I will be in med school.
The requirements for applying for medical school…and applying for a PhD are NOT NOT the same.
It is very possible for a student to get a degree abroad, and apply to and get accepted to a PhD program.
That is not always the case with medical school, as noted…most medical schools require prerequisite courses to be taken here, and very often at least 90 credits completed here…if not the full bachelors degree.
Is your question here about filing the FAFSA for medical school aid? Have you been accepted to medical school for fall 2018?
Admission requirements for MD/DO programs and PhD program are quite different.
You’ll need to buy access to MSAR (Medical School Admission Requirements) from AMCAS to see each school’s specific requirements. Cost $30/year. The 90 credit requirement typically isn’t listed on admission websites because of the assumption that US med school applicants will hold a US/Canadian undergrad degree.
Also be aware that AMCAS, AACOMAS and TMDSAS do not recognize and will not verify international degrees. Thus your international baccalaureate degree may not be considered by med schools as fulfilling the requirement for having received an undergrad degree. You will need to contact each medical school you plan to apply to individually to see if they will consider an international undergrad degree as meeting their admission requirements.
SUNY Upstate requires 90 US credits for admission
SUNY Downstate requires 60 US credits for admission
U Buffalo requires 60 US credits for admission
Stony Brook requires all pre-reqs plus 1 year of full time studies be taken at a US college/university with a US college/university awarding the undergrad degree
Your med school will compute a EFC for you based upon your reported family income and savings. You will be expected to spend a portion of your savings (typically 25% annually) toward paying your COA each year. Med schools/FAFSA will not care that you are supporting your parents and that will not consider that when determining your EFC.
Your first year of med school your FAFSA EFC will use both yours and your wife’s income plus any savings you hold on the date of filing FAFSA in its calculations. You can ask the FA office of the med school for a special circumstance reconsideration, but there is no guarantee it will be granted.
From your example–
If the COA is $60K/year, your aid would be $60K LESS whatever your FAFSA EFC is. Your aid would be awarded as $40,500 minus FAFSA EFC. For any remaining uncovered need, you would be certified to take out Grad Plus loans. I believe you may be able to borrow your EFC as a Grad Plus loan. (but I’m 100% sure of that…)
Because the terms on Grad Plus loans are not favorable, you will want to minimize the amount of Grad Plus loans you take out. The origination fee for Grad Plus loans is 4.3% (per each loan) and the interest rate is 7%. Expect these rates to go up later this year.
For Grad Plus loans, repayment begins immediately upon disbursement, but you can defer repayment until after graduation (but your interest will rollover and capitalize each year).
AMCAS has some really good financial planning tools for medical students.
https://students-residents.aamc.org/financial-aid/
https://students-residents.aamc.org/financial-aid/article/medloans-organizer-and-calculator-mloc/
Here’s info for non-traditional students: https://students-residents.aamc.org/choosing-medical-career/article/medical-school-costs-for-non-traditional-students/
One more thing…in terms of information for the FAFSA form. Many medical schools will require your parent information even though you are married…until you are a certain age. This varies by med school. Some don’t require it at all. Some require parent info until age 26…some older. You would need to look on each website to see.
There is precious little need based aid for medical school. Most aid comes in the form of loans…huge loans.
The reality is…medical school students can’t work. Especially second year and beyond…many, if not most, have an EFC of $0, because they have NO income. Just loans.
Re: grad plus loans…yes, you can take those out to cover your contribution…but the loans cannot exceed the cost of attendance at the med school.