After a child is admitted to a med school, how do parents help the child for the living expenses, pay the child’s living expenses or let the child get more loan? Thank you for sharing.
- You parents can pay all or part of the living expenses.
OR
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Your medical school student can take grad plus loans up to the cost of attendance.
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You can choose to not fund living expenses at all.
Who is paying the tuition, fees, books, tests, etc? That’s a big chunk of change also.
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You can use 529 money for living expenses for med school.
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Also, not sure how this question varies from your other thread last year…
Maybe read the responses again. They give the same suggestions as this thread likely will.
I bought a 2 bdrm apartment for my brother and rented it to him and a roommate. The rent to him was “below” market and if money were tight, he could pay me late. Decent apartments close to major universities are more likely to appreciate than depreciate, and I ended up pocketing a nice profit at a capital gains rate.
His other expenses were paid for by a combination of loans that he and my parents took.
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My daughter is in a DPT program, 3 years, 9 semesters. She took out loans for tuition and bartends 3 night shifts a week to pay for rent/food. Clinicals make it tough because thru are 40+ hours a week and unpaid, but she does some here at home and sublets her room in Boston (just secured a subleaser for this summer).
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As others have said, there is a range. At one extreme the student takes out enormous piles of loans to fund medical school. At the other extreme the parents pay for their child to attend medical school. Something in the middle also happens (with a combination of parent-pays and loans). One thing that we have occasionally seen discussed here on CC is that if the student has a budget for a bachelor’s degree, and if the student under runs the budget, then some parents will let any money that is left over be used to pay for medical school. A 529 can be used to pay for medical school (again assuming that there is money left over after someone gets their bachelor’s degree).
If a sibling similarly under runs their undergraduate budget and graduates with money left for example in a 529, this can be transferred to the sibling who is going to medical school and used to pay for expenses (and this also works for a DVM 
).
In-state medical schools frequently cost less than out of state or private medical schools. If the student lives in a WICHE state there may be WICHE discounts in some cases. Also, it is common for a student to take a couple of gap years after getting a bachelor’s degree before going to medical school. If they move to a WICHE state, and live and work there for a year before applying to medical schools (which would imply two years before starting medical school) then in some cases they might be able to qualify for a WICHE discount. However, WICHE discounts are not automatic even for someone who lives in a WICHE state and attends a WICHE medical school. There may be restrictions on where the student can do their residency and/or practice for a few years after graduation. Of course something similar is possible if a student moves to a state that has a very good in-state pubic medical school.
Strictly speaking there could be some gift tax issues. However, others here on CC and my accountant have all said that this really is not that big of a deal. First of all both parents can separately give the student a certain amount of money without hitting the gift tax considerations, and if it comes from a joint account the same parent can actually sign the checks and still consider it to be coming equally from each parent. Also, apparently gift tax is not a big deal up to some huge amount that is more than is needed even to pay for medical school. Also, as I understand it there is a gift tax exemption for tuition and fees. If the parent pays the tuition and fees directly to the university (rather than send the money to the student who pays) then it just does not count as a gift.
Of course it might help a lot if the parent can afford to do this. Fairness between siblings is also a potential issue to consider. We for example have only paid for one sibling an amount that we could afford to pay for the other sibling if the sibling were to need it at some point in the future.
Even for a doctor, the amount of loans to cover the full cost of attending medical school can be quite painful, and can take a very long time to pay off. For someone going into veterinary medicine, this issue is even more acute. Finding a relatively affordable path (or at least a less horridly expensive path) is a good idea for a potential MD, and is even more critical for a potential DVM.
We have also taken the view that if the student is working very hard and living frugally and taking a very responsible path that is the right path for them and that will lead to a solid career, and if we can afford to help them, then it is okay for a parent to help their child with MD or DVM expenses, even if the child is an adult.
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All of my daughter’s seven roommates, in med school, were on loans, loans, loans, and loans.
Since you have never returned to these posts to provide input, I wonder why you take the time to keep posting here Because you don’t seem to listen to any advice that anyone provides and any information is not given a response.
Our daughter went to an in-state public university which was half of what we were paying for our son. We had money left over to pay for her medical school costs because she kept her undergrad cheap, and she ALWAYS had a job in college. We also had been saving for years in advance.
My physician just finished paying off his medical school loans. He said he’s been paying on that loan for 20 years. Good luck to your daughter and your family; you will need it if you can’t afford the loans.
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I agree. The answers have not changed since you posted this question in July 2023.
You don’t have significant savings to cover 4 years of your daughter’s med school?
Who did you think was going to pay?
Wherever she got in for med school is where you need to ask for loans.
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Your med school student will need to complete the FAFSA form to access the direct Loan ($40,000 a year for medical school students) and the Grad Plus loan. In many many cases, you parents will have to provide YOUR financials also as a LOT of medical schools require this. So be prepared to do so if you want your student to have access to the federally funded loans.
Did you mean to respond to me or to the post?
Oops…to the thread.
Question if you know, if you are paying full cost for your med student, do you still need to show parent financials? Just curious as we didn’t even bother doing the FAFSA for undergrad but had a taste of the invasive required CSS profile when son applied to Ivy league and other private schools in 2018.
@caz0743 if you plan to pay the full costs of medical school yourselves, there is no need to complete the financial aid form for medical school students. You would only do this to access the federally funded loans, if you wanted or needed to take those.
AFAIK, there is no CSS Profile for medical school students.
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Actually…it looks like the Profile is used for some medical schools…but on’y if you are hoping for aid.
Is the aid like undergrad? I think I read our son can’t claim independent until age 24? Our s19 is 21, has a full-time hospital job but we can’t claim him on taxes due to too high of an income level. Does he apply for “aid” by himself? I mean he makes peanuts at the hospital job now but if they require CSS profile he’ll get ziltch aid for himself, I suppose. He’s applying this May cycle. We are prepared to pay for him.
Most medical school students are pretty poor, and they really can’t work during medical school which is more than a full time job.
Is the aid like undergrad? I think I read our son can’t claim independent until age 24
No…the aid is not the same. There are NO Pell grants or things like that for medical school, and most aid is merit aid, not need based. And just because your son is independent for financial aid purposes for regular college or grad school at age 24, has NO bearing on medical schools asking for your financials.
Your tax status has nothing to do with applying for need based financial aid for a medical school student. If the college requires parent income on the student FAFSA, you need to provide that information.
Like we said earlier, medical school is largely financed by the bank of mom and dad, or loans, loans and more loans (or a combination of these).
We are getting a little off topic here…but the financing of living expenses in medical school and the financing of tuition and fees both take the same plan.
@aunt_bea
Oh the med schools use FAFSA? Didn’t know that either.
Well bank of mom and dad are prepared and he definitely earned it!
Maybe he’ll get merit, but like undergrad if they see parent financials first they may not pass out the merit for someone who doesn’t need it financially.
As many have said, the student can take out loans, for living expenses as well as tuition. DH and I did not come from families who could help with anything but undergrad. We both took out full loans for tuition and then loans for the bare minimum to live off of. We graduated med in the early 00s and paid off both in less than 13 yrs.
Lots and lots have loans. It is doable if you budget. We bought two houses during that time, no help from parents, and also were able to afford private school(we started our family when one was still in med school). Many friends did similar, some took more like 15-16 yrs, and did not have parents who could help. Medicine is lucrative and pays the bills easily: even primary care can bring in well over 200k, and generally that is the lower end of salaries for docs.
Parents should not feel pressured to help and do not need to stress as much as they do on CC over students paying their own med school loans!
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Congrats on slaying your debt! I do like the group White Coat Investors if you’ve ever heard of that
This is such a simple question but I don’t know the answer. Did your loans accrue interest while in school or only once you graduated? S19 has mentioned he would like to take out the loans as, like you said, medicine is lucrative and he can pay them back. I just didn’t want him accruing interest while he was in school, as we could provide the cash without interest … he could pay back. No loans were taken out for undergrad so I don’t know this answer.