<p>Does Penn have a limit to the amount of debt a student can take on a year? I fear that my EFC will be too much for my family to handle and I will therefore need to take out some additional loan money to add onto whatever is initially part of Penn’s financial aid.</p>
<p>Has anyone else been in this situation before? If your parents can’t handle the EFC would you be able to get a re-evaluation of financial aid from Penn or would the student have to eventually take on the amount their parents can’t pay themselves?</p>
<p>I don't know if Penn has a limit, but the Federal government puts limits on the amount of stafford loans that you can take out each year. The limit increases with each year of college. I don't know if this is just for subsidized stafford loans or not.</p>
<p>I know friends whose parents took out 30K PLUS loans every year... but I don't know of any students who took on additional debt outside of the stafford loans Penn gave them.</p>
<p>You can have your financial aid package reevaluated, but there's no guarantee that anything will change. It helps if you are RD and can say "well school X gave me 5,000 more" to get Penn to match it.</p>
<p>Awwwww. I'm sorry. I doubled my debt in grad school if that makes you feel any better... And I work in the non-profit industry so unlike my fellow Wharton brethren, I can't pay it off quickly :(</p>
<p>Whartonalum: My mom is only willing to contribute 4k a year and so I will be graduating with like 37k total debt. My mom's logic is that I have my whole life ahead of me to work it off -- she is older and therefore shouldn't need to contribute anything more.</p>
<p>legendofmax: That's exactly the situation I will be in... my parents will not be able to contribute very much. I'm currently searching for scholarships across the board like crazy because I'm gonna have loans from undergrad AND Med school :-( Getting into Penn would be amazing and I know I really really really want to go there for undergrad and Med school (ahh.. what a dream)... however, I know that I could get free tuition at "lesser" schools because of my grades and stuff... do you guys think it would be wiser to go for the free tuition undergrad or will going to Penn undergrad truly be worthwhile in my dreams to get into Penn's Med School?</p>
<p>ecm, if you're going to do Med School, I don't think undergraduate degree matters. Plenty of people go onto prestigious Med Schools from public univs and lesser schools</p>
<p>Yea Penn is a great place to be, but you really have to consider if you want to have rediculous amounts of debt. You can a great education at lesser schools that will give you a lot of money. For example, I'm applying Penn ED cause I really want to be there, but I have extenuating circumstance that help me pay. If I don't get in Penn Im really not even applying to any other big names besides Tufts and Duke. My most likely option if I don't get in Penn will be Rutgers, my state school. Ill get a full ride from them, and thats hard to turn down, because my parents also can't contribute much. Fact of the matter is, when you're dealiung with undergrad, you can still go to a decent school like rugters (ranked 60 by the way) and as long as you work and get good grades and be up their in your class, you can still get into a good Med school. Plus your gonna need money to pay for med school.</p>
<p>med school is the great equalizer. you can get into med school with good grades from any respectable school. then, it's just a matter of surviving your first year of med school and finding an internship. i talked to an adcom for penn's vet shcool (which is significantly harder to get into than med school), and he said that you had about the same shot for admissions coming from penn state or penn undergrad.</p>
<p>so, if you're going to med school, just go somewhere where you're going to succeed and enjoy yourself.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice everyone. I will be applying to Penn still and am hoping for some financial aid.. if not, Villanova would be a great school that I think I could get a good amount of money from and still get a really solid pre-med education. I'm also applying to Seton Hall (NJ), BC, and Notre Dame... the only thing I'm worried about is that there would be more research opportunities at a school like Penn, but you guys don't think that going to Penn undergrad would really increase my chances of getting into Penn's Med School? You guys have been soo helpful and I really appreciate everything!! One last note, is Penn pre-med like super competitive and hard?</p>