So my parents agreed to pay for my undergrad years, but dental school is way too much. I heard you can borrow A LOT more when you go to a grad school in the med field is that true? The average dental school tuition is nearly equal to the average dental school debt. Thanks for the help!
Yes, professional school is expensive and you will be borrowing a great deal of money to pay for it.
The average indebtedness of a newly graduated med student is around $200,000.
If you’re asking how much you can borrow–
Federal professional student loan limits are $40,500/year for federal unsub loans and up to the COA of the school you’re attending in Grad Plus. Aggregated (all loans, undergrad & grad) lifetime borrowing limits is $224,000.
Grad Plus requires a credit check and a good credit score to be eligible. It has a higher interest rate and limited repayment options.
so basically if I have no money for dental school I can still borrow as much as I need for it? @WayOutWestMom
what’s credit check? is 224k youre talking about is for grad school only or for everything? @WayOutWestMom
You can’t borrow unlimited money. You can only borrow up to $40.5k per year. If your tuition, fees, insurance, books and living expenses are more than that, you have to find some other source for the money you need. A number of medical & dental schools have tuition that reach into the $70K/year range.
The $224 is total, including all undergrad loans, all grad loans and any interest those loans have accumulated to date. Since undergrad unsub loans and professional school loans start accruing interest immediately upon disbursement, those can increase your loan amounts very quickly. Current unsub grad loans have a 6.21% interest rate.
A credit check is an investigation into your personal finances to see if you have any bankruptcies, any debt sent to collections agencies, any unpaid bills (medical, rent, utilities, credit cards, cell phone, etc). It also looks at your employment history and at the amount of your debts vs your assets to see if you are good risk for repaying a loan. To qualify for private or grad plus loans, you must also have a credit history–that is a personal record of taking on debt and paying it off regularly and on time.
I’m sure that I will have less than 10k loan when I graduate undergrad school. If things go wrong I can still borrow a lot more from my brothers one is a programmer the other is an accountant. And I did some research the average tuition for dental schools are around 40k(http://www.asdanet.org/debt.aspx). I’m definitely going to a dental school in my state (va commonwealth), out of state schools cost way much more.
By the way, I looked it up. They say the average loan you can borrow your whole life is less than 150k but the other page says the average dental school debt is around 250k so what exactly is going on…? they’re both .org (reliable) pages
also, can I borrow more from the school itself and not just the gov? @WayOutWestMom sorry for not tagging you in the other comments
Tuition is not the full cost of attending a dental school. It’s just the beginning.
You will have mandatory fees, mandatory insurance (medical, disability, needle stick, etc), books & supplies, transportation (including possibly a car to get to clinic sites), plus your living expenses (rent, utilities, internet, cell phone, food, professional clothing, renter’s & car insurance).
You also have to figure in the interest that accumulates on your loans. Interest starts to accrue on the day your loans are disbursed. So unless you paying off your interest monthly, each month your loan balance will increase and at the end of the year you’ll “roll over” your interest into next year’s loan. (This is called capitalization and basically you’ll be paying interest on your interest after the first year.)
No, you cannot borrow additional monies from the school. Dental and medical schools are not in the private loan business. If you need to borrow additional money, you’ll either need to qualify for a private loan or for a grad plus loan.
what does a private loan require? But the average debt for dental school students is literally 250k. Oh my I’m confused. My main question is: can loans cover my full cost of attendance for dental school? I can handle my living expenses by either working part time or borrowing money from my family.
http://accounting.vcu.edu/tuition/calculator/ by the way, this is the school I’m going too and the link is its cost of attendance calculator. it says tuition but it covers meal plans and housings as well. Most meals&houses have the same cost. for the program, I chose the professional-dental program(D1-D4), each year cost around 30k(tuition is 17k). Please tell me if I’m doing anything wrong.
I think you are reading the calculator wrong: looks like the total for ONE semester is around $25K for tuition, equipment, fees, does NOT include housing/meals. Most grad programs do not offer campus housing, so you would have to find an apartment or room, pay for utilities and food costs.
In-state dental schools COA runs about $65-75K per year, depending on the school and its location. You will not have a lot of time to work a part-time job.
Have you already been accepted to VCU’s Dental School?
You cannot assume that you will be accepted to an in-state school. Most successful applicants need to apply widely to public instate, public OOS ad private professional school sat assure their best chance for an acceptance.
What does a private loans require? In most cases, a co-signer with a excellent credit score and an income that can support repayment of the loan. @dentmom4 how is it wrong…? there’s obviously the name of the course, housing, meal plan, even insurance etc. I think 65-75k is private school and there’s no way im paying for that. The calculator literally shows the total cost of everything. I’ve tried other courses, other housings, other meal plans and this is one of the most expensive ones.
Private schools cost way too much. I also assumed that getting into a public instate school with 65% acceptance rate is fairly easy.
No, private loans depend on the income and credit rating of your co-signer.
As for “easy” to get accepted:
From VCU’s Dental programs FAQ page:
VCUs School of Dentistry’s acceptance rate is 3.7%.
(I think you’re getting confused by this page: http://dental-schools.startclass.com/l/59/Virginia-Commonwealth-University-School-of-Dentistry --the 69% acceptance rate shown in the bar in the middle of the page is for the undergraduate college, not the dental school. For starters, dental school don’t use SAT scores for admission.)
@WayOutWestMom I believe I can do it. I trust you but please don’t use .com pages, that’s one of the biggest things I learnt in doing research papers. The ones who apply can also be international and out of state students. I’m an instate student, which gives me another big advantage. Plus, how can I even find an easier one? vcu is the only dental school in my state, I cant find any other ones.
You’re also not using the calculator correctly-- you need to select “graduate or professional student” as your status–otherwise the calculator assumes you’re an undergrad.
The COA for the dental school is $25,564.00/semester for tuition & fees, with no housing and no meal plan included. So the COA is going to be in the $73-75K range for the dental school.
per year!? I’m not gonna spend 50k for my living expenses…