When do you apply for financial aid for med school?

When do you apply for financial aid for med school, when applying or post acceptance? Thanks for sharing.

Once you have been accepted…which will be LONG before you start in most cases. But you can do it sooner…

In many (if not most) cases, you will be required to provide parent financials up to a certain age…varies by medical school.

What kind of financial aid do you think you will get from medical schools? By completing the FAFSA, you are eligible for the DIRECT loan ($40,000 a year for medical school students) and the Grad Plus loan (for up to the cost of attendance).

Do medical schools provide traditional financial aid - meaning grants that don’t need to be repaid - or is the “aid” just a lot of loans that need to be re-paid? Most of my friends who are doctors borrowed most (if not all) of their medical school tuition which is why I ask.

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@Thorsmom66 some med schools provide merit aid but that is based on the strength of the application/student for their program. Need based aid isn’t a thing…med school students can’t work really, so all of them are very low income (unless they have a spouse who works a higher paying job).

Many (if not most) medical school students pay for medical school with loans, loans and more loans, and help from the bank of mom and dad.

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That was my impression - I assume that merit aid is very limited and hyper competitive (considering how strong medical school admits are to begin with).

I don’t know about now, but my daughter did receive some need based aid for med school, but she started 12 years ago. IIRC, the number of schools that offered it was very low, single digits. It wasn’t like UG need based as far as amounts, but it was something.

My kid got $3000 in need based aid…a drop in the bucket considering the overall costs of medical school. And we had to provide parent information. I was retired by the time this kid applied, and that helped.

Are you saying that the DIRECT loan for med school students is capped at $40k a year? If so, that’s not even going to cover the tuition alone for most of OOS and private med schools. My kid just filed the FAFSA as independent to prepare for his coming med school journey. Although it’s an in-state med school, the tuition is over $40k a year. Hope he doesn’t have to get supplemental loans on top of DIRECT loan?

I think my daughter takes out private loans in addition to federal loans for her DPT program, which is about $50,000 a year not including housing.

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Are you saying that the DIRECT loan for med school students is capped at $40k a year? If so, that’s not even going to cover the tuition alone for most of OOS and private med schools.

UNsubsidized DIRECT loans are capped at $40K/year for medical and dental students. IIRC, for other professional school programs, it’s capped at $20K/year.

Medical students can borrow GRAD PLUS loans upon to the full COA if they have a clean credit report. (No defaults)

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The annual cap is a bit above $40K (increases by med school year), aggregate cap of $224K (which includes undergrad). Most med school sites have information about loans including various options, annual caps, interest rate and vig, here’s Vandy’s: MD Loans | Student Financial Aid | Vanderbilt University

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When do you apply for financial aid for med school, when applying or post acceptance? Thanks for sharing.

After acceptance but prior to matriculation.

After a student has received an acceptance, they can fill out FAFSA and send it to the med school they plan to attend.

Some medical school require additional financial aid forms like the CSS Profile that require greater in-depth information than does the FAFSA. The Profile is typically used by schools that award need-based grants.

Please note that medical schools are NOT required or obligated to provide financial aid packages BEFORE the CYMS enrollment deadline of May 1.

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