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Figuring out how you're going to
pay for medical school is no small feat. With most med
schools costing upwards of $70,000 a year, you need to
consider all possible outlets for financing your
education. That's why the sooner you start planning, the
better off you'll be.
According to Senior Admissions
Consultant Greg Goldmakher, "Typically, most applicants begin the
financial aid application process early in the new year,
around January or February."
Most students use a combination of
federal, institutional, and private loans to pay for med
school. The medical schools administer the federal
loans, and each school determines how much federal aid
you're eligible for. The amount will vary from school to
school.
The first step in applying for
financial aid is completing the
FAFSA, or Free
Application for Federal Student Aid. This application
collects all the information med schools need to
determine your eligibility for financial assistance.
Many med schools also use the FAFSA when deciding how to
distribute institutional scholarships and grants.
Says
Goldmakher,
"Regardless of whether or not you plan
to ask for financial aid, the FAFSA is used as the
starting point to determine your eligibility for federal
loans."
You can find the FAFSA online on
the official FAFSA website at www.fafsa.ed.gov, or you can get one from
your school's financial aid office. Be sure to go to
this official site, as some other websites will try to
charge you to apply for financial aid or find
scholarships. We told you so here: the FAFSA is free.
Federal loans are a great option
for med school students, because you can usually get a
lower interest rate than with private loans. However,
you may also need to take out private institutional
loans from banks or other lenders, because there's a cap
on how much you can receive in federal loans.
For 2011, subsidized and
unsubsidized Federal Stafford Loans should
offer a maximum of $20,500 per student with no more than
$8,500 being subsidized. (The aggregate limit of Federal
Stafford loans is $138,500 with no more than $65,500
being subsidized.)
Depending on your personal finances, you will likely need to
borrow additional funds to cover your med school
expenses.
How much you can get in private
loans depends in part on your credit score. Banks are
more likely to lend you money if you have good credit.
That's why it's a good idea to get a copy of your credit
report. You can request one free copy of your credit
report each year from www.annualcreditreport.com.
Credit reports sometimes contain
inaccurate information, and it can take time to get
those errors corrected. "The sooner you receive your
credit report, the sooner you can clean up any credit
problems," says Goldmakher.
"If you get a copy of your report now, you should have
plenty of time to correct any mistakes you find. I
recommend making sure you have good credit prior to
applying for a private loan."
Greg also recommends a few other
alternatives for financial assistance. If you're in the
military, "various branches of the armed services will
fund your medical education in exchange for a commitment
to serve as an armed services physician for several
years after graduation." Greg notes that this is not a
bad deal, since a military physician is an officer in
the service.
For students with serious interest and
experience in research, the Medical Scientist Training
Program is an option to think about. "This is an MD-PhD
program which was started by the NIH, but many schools
have additional funding from private sources for the
program, and have many more slots than the NIH funds,"
says Greg. The two largest are Washington
University in St. Louis and the UT Southwestern Medical
Center in Dallas.
Take the time now to learn all you
can about your options for financing med school. If you
use all your available resources, you should be able to
secure the funds you need to pay for your priceless
education.
So get busy on your FAFSA today. With the rising costs
of medical school, make sure you give yourself the best
possible chance for all the financial aid you deserve!
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