The dad can appeal child support now, nothing is guaranteed, we are aware of it. He can also stop working, become disabled, die. Anything can happen, yes. CSEA is not involved. We signed a document where he agreed to pay child support on his own, without CSEA. Yes, he is still in appeals court for the child support he owes for the last 5 years, and he will most likely appeal again. We survived without his CS for 5 years, and kids got into a good school and are doing great, so I have faith that we will be fine even if he stops paying. There are options.
Thank you for your comment!
Some med schools have a summer off between MS1 and MS2, but other school schedule mandatory exploratory or rural rotations or optional research rotations. Students interested in competitive (or even semi-competitive now that Step 1 is P/F) specialties will be doing specialty-related research to get publications out before they apply for the Match.
Some schools will schedule STEP prep for the first 4-6 weeks after MS2 and the STEP exam immediately afterward then on to clinicals; other schools will immediately start clinical rotations. No breaks.
Winter break during MS1 is typically 10 days over Christmas-New Years. But not much longer than that. MS2 may or may not have a winter break–depends on the curricula.
There are no fall or spring breaks.
From the beginning of clinicals, there are no breaks. Not for summer. Not for holidays. They’ll work more or less the same schedule as residents. Maybe one golden weekend a month (golden weekend = 2 Sat and Sun both off, though the student may have worked Friday overnight. ) if they’re lucky. But most students use any down time to study for their shelf exams. (NBME exams for each specialty which they must pass to pass the rotations. Shelfs aren’t easy because there’s no formal teaching of the material. Students must self study from a “shelf” of standard specialty textbooks. Test questions may come out of any of the 5-12 textbooks for the specialty.) Or do research.
Student who want to get High Honors (equivalent to an A) will need to go above and beyond the regular hours for the rotations, doing extra studying of material, going into the hospital an hour early to pre-round patients, staying late to finish patient notes, develop treatment plans, checking lab reports and radiology results.
During MS4, rotations may be less intense but most students hoping for competitive (surgical subspecialties, ophtho, derm, IV rads, rad onc) or semi-competitive specialties (anesthesia, rads, Ob/Gyn. general surgery) or specialties that requires outside LORs (EM, PMR), will scheduling and doing audition rotations and extra sub-Is to get specialty LORs. Plus med students need to have taken and passed Step 2 before they apply for residency in late September of MS4. Step 2 is scored and your score helps determine your eligibility for certain specialties.
Also everybody is cramming in research projects hoping to have pubs/poster/presentations done before they submit residency application in Sept.
The Dean of Admissions welcomed my daughter’s MS1 class to the first day of orientation by asking them to list 10 things they value, including: sleeping 8 hours/day, eating healthy meals, exercising, spending time with pets, spending time with family, spending time on hobbies, getting good grades,… The he told them to cross out all but 3 items. Because those 3 items would the only things they had time for during med school.
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This should not be impossible (or even too difficult) at schools that have majors in both areas and general studies requirements that are not so onerous that it’s difficult to double-major. Or there is the option to major in one and minor in the other.
It might be impossible in a university outside the US – I understand that universities elsewhere expect students to focus on a single course of study. But in the US, this should be doable almost everywhere.
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I am starting to think that going abroad (Europe/NZ) and coming back to the US for Residency is the best option. My ex-husband went to Medical School in Ukraine (6 years after High School) and took 5 exams in the US to get into Residency. He got into Residency in NYC and later got into Cardiology Fellowship, but decided not to do it, started working as a doctor and in 10 years he is the Head of Hospitalists and Chief of Staff and Head of Electronic Records. With zero school debt and only 9 years of study/residency. It looks like it’s much harder to do it all in the US.
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For medical and graduate school, there is no such thing as a custodial or non-custodial parent. All parents are non-custodial because they are no longer legally required to support the student.
However medical schools use their own set of rules when it comes to offering FA from their own resources–both merit-based and need-based. They can and do ask for the income of BOTH parents (and the spouse, if applicable) of the student.
Under federal rules, a student is consider independent at age 24 and no longer needs to provide parent financial information.
That’s not true for medical school. Students are considering dependent students for school-based aid until they are much older. (28 is very common, but I’ve heard first hand from an affected student it’s up to age 35 at some schools.) Also if student starts med school while a dependent under school rules, they will remain a dependent until they graduate.
So there are two very different set of financial rules: one for federal aid (Federal student loans) and one for school-based aid the individual medical school offers.
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I would recommend against NZ. There are very few seats for international students and the international fees are quite high. Most run about NZ$90,000/year for tuition. (You’ll still need fees and living expenses, plus visa costs.) NZ expects international grads to leave the country upon graduation. There are very, very few PG1 positions for internationals available.
Australia may be a better option. They offer many more med school seats for international students and Australia offers a defined pathway to permanent residency and citizenship if an international physician wishes to remain in Oz.
Most Australian med schools are 6 year post HS entry med schools, although there are some 4 year post-grad entry programs.
University of Queensland Oschner School of Medicine is a post grad program that is specifically designed to send US and Canadian medical students back to the US for residency.
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There are a couple of Polish med schools that have good reputations for sending their grads to US for residency.
And there is the Atlantic Bridge program for US and Canadian citizens who wish to return to the US/Canada for residency. Partner medical schools are in Ireland.
Atlantic Bridge offers both 6-year direct from HS and 4-year post grad entry medical schools.
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Thank you for your comment. I see a lot of options in France and Scandinavia as well.
Be aware the UQ offers NO financial aid for international students. Your son will be full pay there. (2025-26 tuition USD$76,000/year plus fees & living expenses. Brisbane isn’t Sydney, but it’s not inexpensive either…)
UQ may be eligible for US federal student loans, but I wouldn’t bet my future on it as the fed student loan program is evolving. Also there are some new very stringent regulations coming online in the next few year regarding foreign medical schools.
Not sure about anyone else, but as I read this thread, college outside the US really sounds like a better fit for this student and his family. The student is comfortable in multicultural settings, speaks several languages, and has excelled in academics. Those will all count in his favor, while some of the concerns that come up in holistic reviews in the States will be non-issues abroad.
With med school as a goal, an undergraduate degree from any school - whether Stanford or Bama - can be a step toward an MD wherever he can get admitted. With that MD degree, the undergraduate degree really matters very little. But oh, the work to find one that’s affordable and meets so many criteria.
With both brilliance and American citizenship, he could likely get back into the US system to practice even if he did medical school abroad.
The American system is expensive, but most of us here have to put up with it for lack of other options. This student has options.
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IMO, even if he ends up needing to get private loans to cover some of the costs of a US medical school, it can still be feasible. A few medical schools offer either financial aid (JHU, Columbia, Cornell) or merit scholarships (WUSTL, Vanderbilt)
University of Kentucky offer a full ride merit scholarship (Otis A Singletary) and is an R1 university (highest level of research activity) with 5 out of their 8 research priority areas being medical: UK Research Priority Areas , as they also have a medical school on campus. It also has an explicit credit by exam policy if he’s interested in self studying or getting credit for what he already knows.
As a national merit finalist, at TAMU he could get ~$10.5k per year plus a waiver for oos tuition, which would lead to the remaining total cost of attendance being ~$10k, which could be affordable if including on-campus employment and/or saving money by living in College Station rather than Hawaii. TAMU has a medical school and an engineering BSMD. They also have honors dorms.
If he’s applying to schools that have BSMD programs for their regular undergraduate degree (e.g. Brown, CWRU, Rochester, TAMU) and the BSMD programs are non-binding (as in, if you attend, you have to go there for med school), then I would recommend applying to the BSMD programs since there’s no downside relative to not applying.
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Surprised OP mentioned Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering and a school which is at the Top in both (#1 and #2), Georgia Tech, has not been mentioned yet. Atlanta is also a very vibrant city with both Tech and medical. Since it is a public not sure about aid or if the southeast is something that’s attractive to OP, but if admitted, the tuition is more reasonable than most for such a top school.
The OP also mentioned a few other things:
- Budget. There is a need for schools that won’t require the non-custodial parent waiver…and will meet some price point. I don’t think GA Tech works.
- Student hates warm and humid weather, and wants to be near where they can ski. GA Tech won’t fulfill that either.
- The parent says the school is working with colleges where the HS has “a relationship”. Does GA Tech fit?
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Sorry, missed a few of those criteria and the weather part. Warm and humid weather, skiing will eliminate just about most schools in the Southeast then. 
Well…not completely. Both Tulane and Rice are being considered…
Which waiver are you applying for, the fee waiver or the non custodial parent waiver? You have repeatedly called it the “css profile waiver” but it’s unclear which you are asking for. I assume you are planning to apply for the non-custodial parent waiver, but can you clarify please.
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GT does have some competitive scholarships (including the Stamps/presidential). Yes its hot and often humid in Atlanta, but mostly in months classes are out, and there is something called air conditioning… 
And if they’ve lived in Hawaii for a year, then hopefully they’ve adjusted to warm weather. That said, separate from that, ski lift tickets, even for students, are pretty expensive, so it may be hard to really plan to go skiing during college years anyway. And if they don’t own equipment, rentals are also an add-on cost.
So if he is paying child support, what is the court case and what is being appealed? Maybe he is just way behind?
French medical school requires very high level of language fluency in French (B2/C1 level) for admission plus, specific IB science classes and taking either the Parcours Accès Santé Spécifique or Licence avec Accès Santé.
Admission is highly competitive and requires oral exams as well as written exams for admission.
There are no medical schools in Sweden, Finland, Denmark or Norway that teach in English. International applicants for medical school in all of those countries must demonstrate a high level of proficiency in the local language.
Sweden and Norway both require the SwedSAT.
International applicants to Danish med school admission must apply via Quota 2 --which involved extensive testing in language, logic, mathematics, science and writing skills–all taken in Danish, followed by test of oral Danish language competency.
International applicants to Finnish medical school must take in person a once-a-year admission exam that’s offered in May. The exam is entirely in Finnish.
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Neurosurgeons don’t make $500/hour.
Neither do heart surgeons.
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not directed at Mwfan…
I know FAFSA has changed since my kids were in school and it is not that simple, but $154k is is more than than my spouse and I ever made combined and our EFC (as it was called then) was about $13k per kid. And our actual contribution was more than that! (Even for a huigh stats kid.)
That said, FAFSA has changed, the landscape had changed. I had lunch with a friend the other day who is a private college counselor - they mentioned how many of the small schools are hurting and giving more money than in years past.
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