<p>I am a senior in High School and the schools that I am apply to (Rice, Emory, and Vanderbilt) all have programs where if you family makes less than a certain amount, then the tuition will be available loan-free. We fall into this category.
I am wondering if it would be possible to take out an additional 20k load to use for other itmes. I would allocate 5k for each school year. Is this possible? I know that I could probably live on less but during junior and senior year, I plan to be applying to medical which is extremely expensive. Applying to 20 different schools and then interviewing at 3-6.
That is going to cost at least 3k.
Also, if I were to take out a loan for that amount would my financial aid decrease?</p>
<p>If you attend a school where your need is met without loans, you will still be able to take out unsubsidized Stafford loans up to the maximum allowed for year in school. There is a bit of a catch, though. Note that I am basing everything I say here on the assumption that you will be attending a 100% need-meeting, no loan school. If you have an expected family contribution (EFC) that is lower than the maximum loan amount for year in school, you will only be allowed to borrow the amount of your EFC. </p>
<p>Example 1: Roy’s family has an EFC of 0. Roy receives Pell grants, SEOG, work-study, and institutional grants that total his cost of attendance. Roy is NOT eligible for any loans.</p>
<p>Example 2: Roy’s family has an EFC of $2000. Roy receives Pell grants, SEOG, work-study, and institutional grants that total his cost of attendance minus his EFC. In this case, Roy may borrow $2000 in unsubsidized loans.</p>
<p>Example 3: Roy’s family has an EFC of $10,000. Roy receives Pell grants, SEOG, work-study, and institutional grants that total his cost of attendance minus his EFC. In this case, Roy may borrow $5500 in unsubsidized loans as a freshman ($6500 sophomore, $7500 junior/senior). </p>
<p>In no circumstance can any government loans (including parent PLUS loans) be awarded in excess of COA.</p>
<p>Remember, unsubsidized loans begin accruing interest immediately (you can capitalize the interest to pay later, but you’ll be paying interest on interest). It makes no sense to take out loans if you don’t need them or before you need them.</p>
<p>The loan limits for grad and professional school are extremely high. Med students can borrow $40,500 per year (up to $8500 of that can be subsidized, meaning interest doesn’t start to accrue until the loan is due; the rest is unsubsidized).</p>
<p>Thanks a lot. I guess I won’t be eligible for loans then. I fit category one.</p>
<p>You can always talk to the school when the time comes for med school applications. If you are a low income student, they may have some scholarship ideas for you, or there may be some other source of funding available. Schools want their strong students to be able to go on to med school - they will help if they can!</p>
<p>I think the above advice is helpful but can be a little misleading.</p>
<p>The total cost of attendance of a school also includes incidentals, like books, transportation, and other miscellaneous expenses. For example, I had a full scholarship at my college that covered my tuition, fees, room, and board. However, I was still able to borrow the Stafford loan limits (which is only $3,500 in subsidized loans; the other $2,000 is unsubbed. All of the limits kelsmom provided are totals. $2,000 of that yearly total will always be unsubbed), which were much lower when I was in school ($3,500 for my second year, and $5,500 for my third). That’s because the CoA at your school includes more than just tuition, fees, room, and board.</p>
<p>Second of all, if you are not living on campus, you can still take out loans that equal the cost of room and board and pay your own rent every month. My roommate does that now, and I know plenty of students who also do that, as well. So it is entirely possible that you may be able to take out loans to support yourself – although the way to do it is not to take out $20,000 your first year. Instead, you would want to borrow $5,000 each year.</p>
<p>Beyond that, this is only covering loans from the government. Private loans don’t have those restrictions; as long as you have a cosigner. If your parents have good credit (or some other family member), they can do this for you. Private loans are more flexible, although you still would do better by taking $5,000 each year rather than $20,000 upfront.</p>
<p>Lastly, don’t apply to 20 medical schools – that’s too many. Applying to graduate/professional school is expensive, but even my most driven pre-med friends applied to 10-12 schools and at most 15. Beyond that, you have no idea how many will interview you yet – or if you’ll even apply to med school. I thought I’d be in my first year of law school right now, and instead I’m in a Ph.D program. Plans change. On top of that, you can get a job in undergrad that will help pay for those applications. I worked 15/hours a week as a research assistant in order to make enough money to apply to graduate school.</p>
<p>Juillet, I think your info may be misleading. Too many students are surprised by the fact that they cannot borrow more than the cost of attendance, which is set by the school. </p>
<p>If the OP has a 0 EFC, he can only borrow up to the cost of attendance. That is the law. If his grants/scholarships do not add up to the COA, he can get sub & unsub loans (only because his EFC is 0 - if it is higher, the following info may not apply, as it is dependent on EFC). Sub loan in this case is up to $3500, unsub up to $2000 freshman year. If the OP gets full tuition/room/board but no extra beyond that, he will be eligible to borrow whatever in the COA budget is not covered by his scholarship/grant. However, he is talking about a school that meets 100% of need without loans (the assumption I clearly stated when I provided the scenarios) … this means that they will cover the FULL cost of attendance without loans. In this case, he CANNOT borrow sub or unsub loans. Once the COA is met, there are no Stafford, PLUS, or school-certified alternative student loans available. Period. Any borrowing would be noneducational loans.</p>
<p>Yes, my EFC is ZERO and yes, assuming I get in, then they claim that that they will cover the COA which is set for 44k at Rice and that also includes personal expenses at 1.5k. So, I am not certain if they will pay for everything minus work-study or what? I’m just not used to this and my parents are not helpful AT ALL.
[Financial</a> Aid at Rice University](<a href=“http://financialaid.rice.edu/main.aspx?id=38]Financial”>http://financialaid.rice.edu/main.aspx?id=38)
I’m confused because does my work/study only cover the actual “tuition” part meaning that the 1.5k for personal expenses will be up to me of will I have extra money left over plus the 1.5k?</p>
<p>I pm’d you. Also, you should check out the Rice forum. There are a lot of knowledgable folks who post there.</p>