I know absolutely nothing about how medical school financial aid
works, and I've got one burning question I'm trying to answer: Does it
make sense to have a significant amount of money saved up when you
start medical school?

Here's the angle I'm coming from: I know that, for undergraduate
degrees, if you're going to an expensive college, you can often get
need-based financial aid, including grants (free money). The more
money you have, the less grants you get. So, if you have $5,000 in the
bank when you start at an expensive college, all that money disappears
into a black hole, because all they do is reduce your scholarships by
$5,000. One the other hand, if you're applying to a place that doesn't
give need based aid, then having $5,000 saved up at the start means
you owe $5,000 less at the end. So, basically, to answer my question,
I need to know if medical schools frequently give need based (not
merit based) grants to applicants who don't have much money saved up,
or if they just tell them to take out more loans.

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Request for Question Clarification by tisme-ga on 06 May 2003 17:14 PDT

There is a difference between financial aid and scholarships/grants.

Scholarships are usually awarded based on academic merit.
Financial Aid is usually awarded based on financial need (and must be
repaid).
Bursaries on the other hand, are cash "gifts" from an institution and
they are usually awarded on a combination of need and academic merit.
They are usually not as significant as other awards though.

tisme-ga

Hello -

All of the federal financial aid programs for medical school work just
as they do for all other types of education - need based allocations
are determined by, among other factors, the amount of money you made
in the year before admission, the amount of money your parents make
(whether you are a dependent or not), and the amount of money that you
have on hand when starting school.  You can petition for changes to
your financial aid package based upon changes in income (for instance,
not having a job during school, which negates most of the impact of
your prior year's income).  There are private lenders for medical
school loans who operate on more traditional loan criteria (how much
money/assets do you and/or your parents have).  There are caps
however, on the amount of money available for loans per year, which
hover around $25-30,000 per year (tuition ranges from around
$10-30,000 per year).

A good site for begining an investigation into the available loan
programs and guidelines is here:
http://www.aamc.org/students/financing/start.htm

And a listing of available non-federal lenders can be found here:
http://www.finaid.org/otheraid/medical.phtml

Let me know if you have further questions.

synarchy

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Request for Answer Clarification by gremlin-ga on 06 May 2003 19:41 PDT

Is need based aid typically in the form of subsidized loans, or do
many people get grants/tuition reductions?

At least at my university, students working towards PhDs and Masters
typically only get loans, but, for undergrads, gettings grants is
normal. I'm wondering which of these med schools are like.

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Clarification of Answer by synarchy-ga on 06 May 2003 21:43 PDT

Primarily only loans are available - some merit/competition based
grants are available - through the school, private organizations, or
the federal government in the case of MD/PhD programs.  The military
also offers grant-type programs that pay tuition and stipend but
require a year of service per year of support received (often with a
minimum of three years service).  Grants + loans = total amount
available, so grants do not raise the cap available.  Pell grants are
supposedly available, however, my school at least cautioned that most
(if not all) medical students are not eligible.

The most common loans are Stafford loans - the yearly max for these
are $8500 subsidized, $10,000 unsubsidized.  Other federal loan
programs are unsubsidized to the best of my knowledge (although there
are enough loopholes in these laws to make it worth checking with the
financial aid office at the med school where you wish to apply - oft
times it depends upon when you first took out your first federal loan
to determine which laws apply to you).

Having been through this recently myself, I'll be happy to answer any
additional questions that I can.

This link might be of interest: http://www.aamc.org/students/financing/start.htm
Financing Your Medical Education - Association of American Medical Colleges