Financial Aid For Medical School

Not all financial aid for medical school is the same, the best ones are those that do not involve loans as a way of paying for medical school.

As a medical student, you want to be aware of all the ways of paying for medical school so that you do not graduate with a crushing amount of debt in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Researching financial aid for medical school is not fun or interesting, but the facts you find out now can affect the rest of your life financially. In no way is this a comprehensive resource for paying for medical school, instead consider it to be a basic primer on financial aid terms.

Gift Aid

There are "gifts" to help you with your medical school costs. Gifts are the best way to ensure you have the least amount of medical school debt.

Gifts of financial aid for medical school are mainly scholarships, grants, awards, and prizes that do not need to be paid back. You can get this type of award for a number of reasons including:

• Merit: because of your stellar academic performance.
• Need-based: based on your financial situation and what you can afford to contribute towards your medical school education.
• Talent: having gifts or abilities in an area other than academics.

Student Loans

Nothing is free in life, including becoming a doctor. If you cannot afford the cost of a medical education you may find yourself having to borrow money.

With student loans only borrow what is absolutely needed and nothing more because repaying your loans can put a major dent in your physician salary if you're not careful.

Your medical school loan will be one of two types:

• Subsidized: do not accrue interest while in school, meaning you'll be saving money in comparison to
• Unsubsidized: interest accrues while in school, costing you more money in the long run.

Here are some important medical school loan terms that you should know.

Work Program

You may have completed a work-study program while an undergraduate student and you can do the same while in medical school, but it is not advised. Medical school demands a lot of your time and the benefits of working few hours really do not outweigh the costs in most cases.

Besides when you consider the average medical student graduates with a debt of over $130,000 a few hours of work each week doesn't add up to much in the grand scheme of things.

My advice is to focus on your academics and become the best doctor possible.

How To Get Money

When it comes to financial aid for medical school use every available resource.

There is no tried and true method for securing the money to cover your medical school education. You need to be persistent and think outside the box and always, always focus on money that does not need to be repaid back.

A starting point for getting money should be your financial aid office. They can point you to a number of resources within your institution and outside of your school.

Unfortunately, many times you'll hear, "go online" and do a search for scholarships and grants to get additional money. When conducting the research for this page I contacted Pennsylvania's Department of Higher Education Agency and that was the advice given.

It is tough finding the financial aid for medical school so use your network of friends and family because you never know who knows someone who can help you.

Don't ask these people for money though! But if they offer money, you just might want to take it. Be sure to follow up with a thank you note though.

You contact individuals stating you're going to medical school and want to know if they know of any scholarships and/or grants to help you offset the cost of your medical education.

Here are the types of individuals/organizations to contact:

• Doctors
• Pastors/Churches
• Educators
• Community Leaders
• Employers

And if they do not know of any scholarships ask if they can point you in the direction of someone who does.

Money doesn't grow on trees so it is going to take work and effort to find scholarships and grants but they are out there.

And here's what a doctor who specializes in internal medicine had to say when he found out I was going into medicine, "That's great medicine is an excellent choice. I'm excited for you. But don't be discouraged about your educational debt. You'll be able to pay it off with your salary as a doctor…doctors aren't exactly poor."