Need help deciding how much to allocate to loans/personal savings?

Financial Aid & Scholarships
#1

<p>US Citizen and I'll be studying medicine in the UK for the next 4 years. The tuition I pay is about the same as US medical schools (maybe just a bit more).</p>

<p>The school sent me a cost of attendance calculator for the first year. It includes first year tuition + fees. They use a very liberal exchange rate and use liberal estimates. With that, it comes up to be a tuition of $44k + $20k for living expenses. </p>

<p>I have personal savings of about $50k. I saved this up through years of working.</p>

<p>Should I rely completely on Stafford (subsidized + unsubsidized loans) and direct PLUS loans (accrues interest right away)? Or should I put some on loans and use my personal cash for some?</p>

<p>I need some help finding the balance between loans and personal cash. This is bearing in mind that this is just for the first year.</p>

<p>Please advise. Thanks.</p>

#2

<p>The maximum that you can get as stafford loans is 20k. After this year, there will no longer be subsidized stafford loans for graduate and professional school students (all loans will be unsubsidized). Will you be taking a GRAD Plus loan for the balance?</p>

#3

<p>I would probably take the $20500 in Stafford loans, especially if you're eligible for the subisidized portion and pay as much in cash as you're comfortable with before taking the Grad Plus for the remainder. Obviously, you'll want to leave yourself a decent cash cushion to carry you through emergencies and miscellaneous expenses.</p>

#4

<p>I am eligible for:</p>

<p>Stafford - Subsidized: $8500
Stafford - Unsubsidized: $12000</p>

<p>PLUS Loans that go up to the remainder of my request.</p>

<p>My tuition is $44,625 for the first year.</p>

<p>My anticipated living expenses are around $20000.</p>

<p>I have personal savings of about $50k and some support from parents.</p>

<p>I will have three more years after this one. I don't anticipate too much of an increase in my personal savings during this time. So I pretty much have to ration my savings for the 4 years. Initially, I thought I'd do the loans for just the tuition and use my personal savings for living expenses throughout the 4 years. Then I thought, why rely so much on the loans? the interest will eat me alive? But then I realized that I'd run of my own money in the first year and I'd end up relying on loans anyways. </p>

<p>It's a confusing mess. Not sure how to allocate my funds.</p>

#5

<p>Need more thoughts on this please.</p>