Paying for medical or dental school

Paying for College
1

<p>Do most medical and dental schools offer generous financial aid, research assistant stipends, etc. to the students? When I have to deal with this in a few years, can I be independent from my parents and file my own tax returns so that I can qualify for financial aid? My parents will pay for my undergrad, but I'll have to take the loan for grad school, so I want to figure out what my options are. And I'm really aiming for as good of a grad school as possible, so I guess I'm mostly talking about Ivies and other top ranked schools.</p>

<p>Thanks a lot!</p>

2

<p>You will need to pay most, if not all, of your medical shool tuition unless you commit to the military.</p>

3

<p>Medical schools do not as a rule offer financial aid to students. And just about any medical school in the country will be adequate due to standards that they all must follow. You do not need to aim for an Ivy.</p>

4

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No; however, you could borrow a lot for medical / dental school. See <a href=“https://www.aamc.org/services/first/first_factsheets/183294/afford_med_school.html”>https://www.aamc.org/services/first/first_factsheets/183294/afford_med_school.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

5

<p>You are confusing graduate school with professional school, perhaps.</p>

6

<p>wow $170,000 median debt. Don’t loans have limits on how much you can borrow? What if you need more than that?</p>

7

<p>“Do most medical and dental schools offer generous financial aid, research assistant stipends, etc. to the students?”</p>

<p>lol…I wish. </p>

<p>Med students should expect to pay all of their costs…either with loans or family funds.</p>

<p>Sometimes med schools will offer “some” merit awards to students that they really want, but those are rather rare. </p>

<p>The ones that do get funding are the ones that are MD/PhD students. </p>

8

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<p>Well…. since you’ll be a college grad by then, you will be considered independent for FAFSA purposes and will be eligible for federal student loans. </p>

<p>But private and some OOS public med schools will still want all your parents’ financial info even if you’re married (then they’ll want your spouse financial info too) or have lived independently for many years and will calculate a family contribution using everyone’s financial data.</p>

<p>BTW, if you’re looking at the average med student debt, please note that between 16-18% of all med students graduate with ZERO debt. (Meaning the Bank of Mom & Dad funded 100% of their medical studies.) This skews the average med student debt so it appear lower than it probably really is. </p>

9

<p>Banks are very generous with loans to medical students. Also, once you start your residency you will be getting paid, which helps to pay some of your expenses.</p>

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<p>"When I have to deal with this in a few years, can I be independent from my parents and file my own tax returns so that I can qualify for financial aid? "</p>

<p>Everyone is independent when they’re applying for med/dental/grad school. Everyone has huge need. Doesn’t matter. The aid for grad/med/dental school is mostly based on merit, not need. For PhD students, nearly all costs are funded. For everyone else, you pay with loans, family funds…or if you’re lucky you might get some merit. </p>

11

<p>Yes…banks are very generous to medical students. But that does not take away the fact that the debt for medical school can well be in excess of $250,000. There a was an article circulating on FB today about women going to medical school. It told the story of a doctor couple who had staggering debt between the two of them for medical school costs. </p>

<p>I so appreciate those who are entering medicine as a career. But the debt is awful.</p>

12

<p>Banks ate very generous to professional school students who have good credit. If you don’t, it will be very hard o borrow the money you need with out a cosigner. If you have good credit you can borrow up to the full cost of attendance minus any financial aid</p>

13

<p>If you plan to go to medical or dental school, prepare to borrow the entire cost of attendance.</p>

<p>Students in medical professions grad school may borrow up to $40,500 in Direct unsubsidized loans per year, with interest rates capped at 6.8%. To cover the rest, you can borrow Grad PLUS loans up to the cost of attendance at your medical/dental school. Grad PLUS loans are capped at 7.9%.</p>

<p>There are a few competitive scholarship programs for medical students. A few are through HRSA, which offers straight-up scholarships as well as some low-interest loans, parts of which are service-cancelable (they will repay the loan themselves if you serve a certain amount of time in low-income, high-need areas), but these offers are usually limited to primary care physicians.</p>

<p>Also, as noted, the Army, Air Force and Navy offer Health Professions Scholarships (search HPSP), which will pay the full cost of your medical school or dental school tuition plus a $2,000/month stipend. However, in return, you must serve 4-5 years in that particular service, and they have a certain amount of control over what kind of residency you do because your obligation begins after you graduate from medical school. Also, there are some obligations while you are in med/dental school - I believe for 1-2 summers you must do some kind of summer training with the military.</p>

<p>Also, you don’t need to go to a top-ranked medical school. In fact, the best deal for you will likely be an in-state public university medical school, if you can get into one.</p>