<p>Can somebody explain what a unit loan is? Say for instance a school has a unit loan of $24,000, is that the amount that a student is expected to take out, and besides the EFC then the rest is covered in institutional grants? Or am I completely off base, which is probably the case. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I would like to know the answer to this question too.</p>
<p>It appears to me that the term “unit loan” is not used by the schools. Also, there appears to be no single loan that is as large as $24,000. There are many varieties of loans that add up. The names of loans are also quite different from school to school, except for the federal loans. Even for the same federal loan, the amount seems to be somewhat different between schools. The subsidized federal loan seems to be the same though. (BTW, I heard that, starting next year, thanks to the “fiscal responsibility” movement in congress, the subsidized federal loan (Stafford?) will become unsubsidized. If this is the case and if we could afford it, our family would like to pay the interests at least while DS is still a student.)</p>
<p>Curm, can you help? You seem to be pretty good at this. I believe I learned the “unit loan” from one of your posts (CC or SDN.)
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<p>Oops, I guess the term is “base loan.”</p>
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<p>Just one reference point: for one school last year, federal subsidized Stafford loan is 8500, federal unsubsidized Stafford is whopping 31549. (It seems other schools has provided less unsubsidized aides but the same subsidized.) This school appears to be a less generous one for us.</p>
<p>I could not correlate the number $24,300 with my numbers $31,549 and $8,500.</p>
<p>It appears that federal Stafford loans tend to be the single major portion of the total loan package for many schools. Without subsidized Stafford loans starting next year, it really hurts.</p>
<p>Th other days, I noticed that at some “pricy” schools (forgot it is a professional school or UG), the average accumulated debt for their graduates is actually much lower than that of most other schools, including the public. Go figure!</p>
<p>Sorry, I missed this till now. Unit loan is the amount you have to take out before you get any grant aid. And don’t get all caught up in the federal limits. The unit loan could be made up from some fed, some school sources. I view it like this: if you are an orphan without any assets, you still have to take out the unit loan every year. So…look for the school with the lowest unit loan if FA is in the picture.</p>
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If this is the case, the FA of some (but not all) colleges is definitely more generous. It appears to me that it is not easy to find out the exact amount of unit loan for many schools though – or I do not know how to interpret the numbers.</p>
<p>This information is useful to applicants. Last cycle, an applicant DS knows of got into two comparable schools. He tried to “negociate” the price with the FA office of one school he was more interested in matriculating originally, but it was not very successful in the end. One school seems to be willing to go extra miles to recruit him (He is a hooked applicant, an URM.) But the other was willing to lower the price a little bit only. Maybe the unit loan is more flexible at one school than the other.</p>
<p>If the unit loan is $24,000, is it the “norm” or a generous one? my educated guess that it is likely slightly more generous than most PRIVATE medical schools.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Here’s HMS . </p>
<p>[Financial</a> Aid Packaging](<a href=“http://www.hms.harvard.edu/finaid/html/financial_aid_packaging1.html]Financial”>http://www.hms.harvard.edu/finaid/html/financial_aid_packaging1.html)</p>
<p>here’s YSM. </p>
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<p>Here’s Stanford. </p>
<p>[Meeting</a> the Need (Institutional) - Financial Aid - MD Program - Education - Stanford University School of Medicine](<a href=“http://med.stanford.edu/md/financial_aid/meeting_need_institutional.html]Meeting”>http://med.stanford.edu/md/financial_aid/meeting_need_institutional.html)</p>
<p>Now I think I know how to interpret the numbers.</p>
<p>For example (let’s use YSM as an example), if TOTAL expenses (COA) are $69,328 and the need-based “scholarship” is, say, $39,000 (Let’s use a very rounded number to simplify the computation below), the out-of-pocket contribution from parent’s income/assets and student’s future income is then $30,328.</p>
<p>Since the unit loan is $22,700, the school asks you to pay additional $30,328 - $22,700 = $7,628 just because the school thinks your family is “rich” enough to shell out this much. Let’s call $7,628 the loan amount beyond the unit loan.</p>
<p>The key is how the school decides the loan amount beyond the unit loan (not just the unit loan amount.) How desirable the student is to the school, as well as how resourceful the family is?</p>
<p>Whatever described as “Resources: parent/student contribution” (as follows) is really irrelevant:</p>
<p>Resources
Student Contribution: $3,125
Parent Contribution: $4,792
TOTAL: $7,917</p>
<p>However, I bet while the student contribution is the same for every student, the parent contribution is very different.</p>
<p>Thanks again.</p>
<p>mcat2. I’d go the other way (but we might end up in the same place). </p>
<p>COA $70,000
Parental contribution from income and assets $12,000
Student Contribution $2,000
$14K expected family contribution at a very generous school like Yale.
$70,000-14,000 = $56,000 worth of need. </p>
<p>From that need subtract the unit loan of $24,000 (whatever).</p>
<p>$32K comes from Yale funds as a scholarship. Free money.</p>
<p>The $24K unit loan is made up of a combo of Federal and school funds. </p>
<p>If the student and parent cannot come up any/all of their share of the expected contribution, they take out those additional amounts in loans. Again made up from various sources. </p>
<p>BIG GIANT CAVEAT. This probably applies to fewer than 20 medical schools. Maybe fewer than ten. Many med schools have very limited scholarship funds available.</p>
<p>This does not consider merit scholarships. YSM, HMS, and Stanford have none.</p>
<p>I like your example better than mine.</p>
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<p>From these two numbers, the “real” cost is $14K + $24K = $38K, which is about $40K.</p>
<p>The debt after 4 years is then $40K X 4 = $160K, assuming that the family does not contribute any in these 4 years (Maybe the family needs to save for residency interview cost in these years :)) and this real cost will not increase each year (At most schools, it will increase, because, as I learned from somewhere, the school year is longer in third year. Heck, some school like UTSW even tells you frankly that they give you more in the first year because it could help you reduce the total interest cost when the student has a larger loan in later years.)</p>
<p>To CCers: When “uncle Curm” starts to talk, you had better listen. He really knows this stuff, for both college’s FA, and professional school’s FA.</p>
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<p>listening with both ears squeaky cleaned and wide open :D</p>
<p>Son’s experience with the “unit loan” varied from school to school. We asuumed from reading the different FA websites that the unit loan would be the maximum in loans offered. And from attending the FA meetings during interviews. The EFC is zero.</p>
<p>This turned out to be not true at all schools. And this was from the private med schools referring to the base or unit loan. Some schools this was the starting point in which to build the package on with more loans being added later. Sub and unsubsidized fed and the the school’s own loan financing.</p>
<p>Added to this was the fungible COA. What they stated as COA at one school varied greatly at other schools taking into consideration location, climate, rent differentials, food and transportation.</p>
<p>or my favorite…misc… some schools have it over $5000…FOR what??</p>
<p>So, some COAs are way too low for the area and reasonable rent, transportation, food and other schools are so padded that the loans can be diminshed by over $10,000 per year. Son went over the figures for months and the actual costs incurred and then the “unit loans” and yes he did “ask for a FA re-evalution” several times at different schools.</p>
<p>In the end he went with the school where he would owe the least amount out of pocket. And would be able to keep his options open for dual degrees at a later date. </p>
<p>Also of note son’s scholarship increased after he withdrew from other schools, was only awarded after the school could see the withdrawls. Went from partial to a full tuition plus (laptop, research, supplies…). Other schools stated the same thing, but were not as upfront about it…little more cagey but ended up saying the same thing.</p>
<p>Similar situation happened to son in undergrad but that was a 4 year process. I have a feeling this may happen as well. Son would like dual degrees (MPH/MBA) and current school is indicating they would like him to remain rather than him leaving for some other locales. Son needs to start looking soon since it would be between MS2 &MS3 and then MPH between MS3 and 4.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>BTW,
FYI, if comapring loans, keep in mind that all loans are higher % than current equity loans, and also equity is much simpler and tax deductible.</p>
<p>But keep in mind that Home Equity notes are not subject to the same forbearance, income based re-payment terms, or loan forgiveness for service that apply to (some of) the school-sourced and Fed loans. Every family’s situation will be different and Miami makes a good point. Know your options.</p>
<p>Jan wont be too fun filling out the FAFSA haha</p>
<p>We have been filling FAFSA for 5 years now. It takes few minutes, not biggy. I even do not know why we fill it for Med. School. D.'s UG advised to fill it for full range of Merit awards, worked very well for her. She does not have a penny in Merit awards at her Med. School. I guess, we do it because it is not biggy and in case something happens and D. would need to take loans.</p>
<p>*BIG GIANT CAVEAT. This probably applies to fewer than 20 medical schools. Maybe fewer than ten. Many med schools have very limited **scholarship **funds available.</p>
<p>This does not consider merit scholarships. YSM, HMS, and Stanford have none. *</p>
<p>So, the bolded scholarships really means need-based grants? What are the 20 or so schools that give need-based aid?</p>
<p>Parental contribution from income and assets $12,000
Student Contribution $2,000
$14K expected family contribution at a very generous school like Yale.</p>
<p>For a school like Yale (and probably H), what kind of income/assets would have a parent contribution of only $12k? Do Y and H follow the 10% rule that they use for undergrads or are they even more generous because they expect even less from parents at this point?</p>
<p>Which ones give some merit? I know that UAB and USA do.</p>
<p>Chicago, Temple, UNC, Michigan, Duke, Penn-merit (also do need-based)
Dartmouth, Yale, Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, Penn-need based</p>
<p>This info son gathered from interviews and FA packages received. (his and his close friend).</p>
<p>maybe Miami and USC, but this was not as solid info</p>