Medical School without Debt?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>What would be a good strategy for getting through undergraduate education and medical school with NO personal debt? Assume the case of a student who has no financial help from parents or any other relative, has to pay his own tuition and all living expenses during college, and wants to get through the undergraduate degree and medical school without borrowing money at all. Possible? Where?</p>

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<p>Merit Scholarship/Full ride in college followed by MSTP or Armed Forces HPSP program for med school.</p>

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<p>See the AAMC’s guide to financing medical school: [AAMC:</a> (MD)2: Phase II: The Medical School Years](<a href=“http://www.aamc.org/students/financing/md2/phase2/start.htm]AAMC:”>http://www.aamc.org/students/financing/md2/phase2/start.htm).</p>

<p>See this piece about military medical school scholarships: [Military</a> Scholarships for Medical School](<a href=“WEBSITE.WS - Your Internet Address For Life™”>WEBSITE.WS - Your Internet Address For Life™).</p>

<p>There are a few full ride medical or general graduate merit scholarships out there for exceptional students. See [NMSU</a> graduate receives $300,000 scholarship to attend Harvard Medical School](<a href=“http://www.nmsu.edu/~ucomm/Releases/2005/august/penwell.htm]NMSU”>http://www.nmsu.edu/~ucomm/Releases/2005/august/penwell.htm), [MSU</a> News: MSU grads earn full scholarships to top medical school](<a href=“http://www.msstate.edu/web/media/detail.php?id=1585]MSU”>Newsroom | Mississippi State University), and [How</a> to Go to Medical School for Free - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/paying-for-graduate-school/2008/06/02/how-to-go-to-medical-school-for-free.html]How”>http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/paying-for-graduate-school/2008/06/02/how-to-go-to-medical-school-for-free.html)</p>

<p>In practice, it may be easier to pursue a dozen or more niche scholarships than to land “the big one.” A basic google search will reveal thousands of institutional and portable scholarships for medical education.</p>

<p>In any case, it would be useful for financial aid purposes to make sure the student is not considered a dependent on his parents’ tax return. Establishing in-state residency while at college is also a good idea.</p>

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<p>Hubbells dad did it: ROTC 4-year scholarship for college followed by 4-year HPSP scholarship for medical school-followed by a full military medical career(with its gold-plated pension). Paid well enough enough to let Hubbell go to both college(private LAC) and medical school-both full freight and leave all-debt free(of course, Hubbell’s mom is also a working professional). Financial planning from birth of children and living below your means is the key to doing this.</p>

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<p>Assuming that the parents are, in fact, not paying any of the child’s expenses, and that the child is living separately and paying all of his own expenses, what else would need to be done to show that?</p>

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<p>The IRS rule for dependents has five requirements.

[Your</a> U.S. Tax Return: Requirements for claiming a dependent<a href=“a%20non-authoritative%20site”>/url</a></p>

<p>Fafsa treats most undergrads as dependent, most grad students as independent.

[url=Everything You Need to Know About FAFSA | Edvisors]FAFSA Questions: Who is a dependent student](<a href=“http://taxipay.blogspot.com/2008/03/requirements-for-claiming-dependent.html]Your”>Your U.S. Tax Return: Requirements for claiming a dependent)
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<p>(As I’ve posted before with links ) some med schools don’t care what your filing status is. For FA they still demand the parents’ income and asset info.</p>

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<p>Here’s (a rather contentious) thread about med school FA. </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/395951-what-if-i-want-earn-full-tuition-scholarship-med-school.html?highlight=parents#post4712891[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/395951-what-if-i-want-earn-full-tuition-scholarship-med-school.html?highlight=parents#post4712891&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I thought most medical schools counted parents income when determining financial aid regardless if the student is “independent”.</p>

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<p>I have no idea about that, which is why I am asking here. I’d appreciate any further information about this subject.</p>

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<p>Definitely true, at least at my school. You have to provide the school with papers to prove legal emancipation for parents’ income not to be counted. I have classmates in their thirties who still have to turn in their parents’ tax forms.</p>

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<p>ta, my link should clear up any doubts at the schools I quoted.</p>

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<p>You are never forced to turn in parental information. If all you’re interested in are federal loans, then that’s fine. You’ll get all the stafford/PLUS/Perkins loans you’ll need.</p>

<p>If you want a chance at institutional aid provided by the med school itself, you will most likely have to turn in parental information. Most med schools make it obscenely hard/next to impossible to be considered a true independent. Let’s face it, without consideration of parental contribution, most med students would require tremondous financial aid that med schools simply don’t have the money for. There is just not that much grants (merit-based or need-based) to give out. Even places like Harvard or JHU only provide approx. 40-50% of their students with grants (usually nowhere near the cost of tuition) with the majority of students not getting a single penny of grants.</p>

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<p>Adding to what NCG said, that’s not to say that only 40-50% of the students at Harvard or JHU are receiving aid. 40-50% are receiving institutional aid (and, NCG, I know that you know this distinction, but it’s something that I think cannot be overstated). While I don’t have statistics, I would imagine that over 90% are receiving some sort of federal aid, which is actually much higher than for graduate and professional students than what undergrads can receive and is not based on parental finances at all.</p>

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<p>“You’ll get all the stafford/PLUS/Perkins loans you’ll need.” For undergraduates, if parental income is above a certain threshold, the Stafford loans are unsubsidized. Is that the way it works for medical school also?</p>

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<p>You will likely max out the subsidized Stafford loans since most students (especially the younger ones) are dirt poor. I think the max you can get of the subsidized Stafford is around $43,000/yr. This won’t be enough to cover the budget of most med schools. The rest will usually be made up of the unsubsidized loans (which can cover up to the cost of attendance). Like I said, parental income is not a factor in determining federal aid.</p>

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<p>I think that the max of total Stafford is about $43,000 a year (although I actually thought it was $39k-ish a year, but it could’ve changed or I could be misremembering). Of that, the maximum subsidized is $8500 and then the rest is unsubsidized Stafford loans. NCG is right that most people get the maximum amount of subsidized Stafford.</p>

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<p>Yea sorry, I got a little mixed up. The max of the Stafford loans is around 43k. Only 8,500 can be subsidized.</p>

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<p>[FinAid</a> | Loans | Student Loans](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Student Loans - Finaid)</p>

<p>Currently it is $40,500 a year for med students, of which only $8,500 may be subsidized.</p>

<p>Scary even thinking of that amount of loans.</p>

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<p>So, to review the recent replies, “without debt” is an extremely difficult condition of life to achieve immediately after medical school graduation, right? That would be especially so for the young person who has no family members contributing to the medical student’s expenses, right?</p>