IUSM IU
RESOURCES FOR

Class of 2013 Students — Applying for Financial Aid

Dates & Deadlines

FAFSA
Priority Date: March 10

School Code:
001813(-00)

Indiana Primary Care Scholarship
Priority Date: May 1

IUSM Application for Financial Assistance
Priority Date: May 31

New!
Advice to New Students from those who have come before...

 

Passed the exam

Please read the cover letter aimed at making you aware of the process.

Class of 2013 Cover Letter

Follow the steps on this page to successfully apply for financial aid for the 2009-2010 academic year.

If you have questions, call us at 317-274-8568 or email us at jespada@iupui.edu.


All forms to be turned in to the medical school can be scanned and e-mailed, faxed or directed to:

635 Barnhill Drive, MS119
Indianapolis, IN 46202-5120
Fax: 317-278-2691

Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)

The FAFSA is required of all students applying for financial aid at IUPUI including the medical school. Applying for financial aid includes the Direct Loan Federal Stafford (Subsidized and Unsubsidized) Loans, Direct Loan Federal Graduate PLUS Loan, the more restrictive Federal Loans and Scholarships to Disadvantaged Students, the Federal Primary Care Loan and any IUSM financial need-based scholarships. The FAFSA on the Web is completed each year beginning on January 1st, with a priority date of March 10th. The priority date is not a deadline, but rather a target date to get the FAFSA in so that you are receiving information from the university on your financial aid eligibility in a timely manner. In order to be considered for the Federal Loans and Scholarships to Disadvantaged Students, the Federal Primary Care Loan and any IUSM financial need-based scholarships, you must provide parental information on the FAFSA. If you are only applying for the Direct Loan Federal Stafford (Subsidized and Unsubsidized) Loans and the Direct Loan Federal Graduate PLUS Loan, then the parental information is not required. Just be aware that not providing the required parental information for the other programs will exclude you from any considerations requiring the parental information.

Summary:

IUSM Application for Financial Assistance



Indiana Primary Care Scholarship

IUSM Campus Scholarships

Estimated 2009 - 2010 Academic Year Financial Aid Cost of Attendance Budgets

Email and Other Essentials


Question and Answers:

Posted January 4, 2009

FAFSA RELATED QUESTIONS

Question: I am trying to complete my FAFSA before returning to school for next semester, but I'm running into trouble with my parent's financial information.  They say they will not have any of the income and tax info until April.  Should I have them use 2007 information although the FAFSA asks for 2008 numbers? Do you have any suggestions?

Answer: I would suggest using the 2007 tax year information as a basis for an estimate on the 2009-2010 FAFSA.  You can estimate the requested information on the FAFSA and then once the 2008 tax year information is available, you can update the information on the FAFSA.

Posted March 2, 2009

Question: I recently submitted and got back my FAFSA and it got me thinking about my rapidly approaching financial issues.  Throughout my college career I have never needed student loans and as such know very little about the process. My questions include: what is the best type of loan, when to borrow a loan, etc.  I have roughly enough money saved for one year of medical school with all expenses accounted for.  I would like to know what is the best step to take from here.  Should I borrow a loan after my money runs out or borrow right away?  Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Answer: About 15% of the student who we admit each year and matriculate have actually had experience borrowing as an undergrad.  So, as you can imagine, we have 85% of the entering class that have never filed a FAFSA or have never borrowed as an undergrad.   On our website, you will find a first year timeline that shows the financial aid budget as well as what is the typical loan borrowing scenario.  Of course, you reduce the need to borrow by acquiring outside scholarships or other more desirable options through the school.  Additionally, in your case, you have your own resources that can be used.  My best advice to you, having your own resources, I would use your resources to perhaps delay or minimize the need to borrow the more expensive Graduate PLUS Loan (at a higher interest of 7.9% in comparison to the 6.8% for the Direct Loan Federal Stafford Loan Programs) until your third or fourth year.  Depending on how much you have, you may be able to avoid borrowing the Graduate PLUS Loan altogether.

The FAFSA and parent information on the FAFSA are key to being positioned to be considered for all resources through the school and Federal Government.  

Posted March 3, 2009

Question: I am a single parent of two teens, for whom I pay child support.  Is court-ordered child support considered a valid expense that can be included in my "financial aid budget" for medical school?  In other words, would I be able to expand the amount I can borrow under the Graduate PLUS Loan Program to cover my child support payments?

Since I am in my 40's and both my parents are deceased, I would not be receiving any "family" support.  I do have a modest amount tucked away in savings, would I be expected to contribute that to my own educational expenses, or can I keep that in savings for a "rainy day" or for my daughter's college educational expenses?

Answer: Unfortunately, the federal government’s regulations and guidelines do not allow for us to include court-ordered child support as an adjustment to the standard financial aid budget.  The court-ordered child support is handled through the FAFSA application as an offset to the amount calculated by the FAFSA as a contribution to your education. The same applies to your modest savings. The savings is considered a resource on the FAFSA from which you are expected to use in contributing to your education.

The only financial aid budget adjustments that are possible for our medical students is child care expenses and the costs related to the purchase of a computer. In the fourth year, many of our students do rotations away in another state or country and the expenses related to this activity are also an item used to adjust the standard financial aid budget. Adjusting the budget allows for additional borrowing within the federal loan programs, most commonly the Graduate PLUS Loan.

Posted March 3, 2009

Question: I have a question about filling out the FAFSA.  Before starting the FAFSA I completed the "dependency status worksheet" which said I was independent and therefore not required to put any parental information on my FAFSA.  However, in your email you specifically say I do need to include parental information.  I was wondering why there is a descrepency between your directions and the department of education's directions.  Also, if I do have to include parental information, could you please tell me why?  Obviously my Dad does not still contribute to my educational expenses, and he considers his tax information private, especially if it seems to be irrelevant.  

A final question.  My Dad does not do his taxes until the end of April.  He somehow gets an extension because of the nature of his work.  Can I fill out his information on this year's FAFSA based on his return last year? He says that  they should be about the same.  After he gets his taxes back in late April I can update his information.

Answer: The FAFSA instructions are correct.  You are an independent student for federal financial aid (funding through Title IV) purposes through the U.S. Department of Education, which includes the Federal Subsidized and Unsubsidized Stafford and Federal Graduate PLUS Loans.  And, you are correct that we are not expecting your parents to contribute due to your independent status.  On the other hand, some federal programs require the parental information regardless of the student’s independency status.  These programs include the Federal Primary Care Loan and the Federal Loans and Scholarships to Disadvantaged Students (LDS and SDS), which are funding sources through Title VII or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).   Additionally, the IUSM Scholarship Committee requires the parental information for students who wish to be considered for any need-based funding specifically through the school, which includes restricted scholarships with a financial need requirement or any other scholarships based fully or partially on financial need.  

One big example for the need of parental information is the Federal LDS and SDS funding.  Eligibility for these Title VII programs are strictly based on the parent income and household size and nothing else.  Without the parental information on the FAFSA, you will not be considered for this funding.  Now, if you do not wish to be considered for the LDS and SDS programs or any funding sources that require the parental information and only want to receive the Federal Stafford Loans and Federal Graduate PLUS Loan, than you are more than welcomed to leave the parent information off the FAFSA.

If you need to estimate the parent income to get the FAFSA in by the priority date, then using the previous year's information is a good way to estimate, especially if income and assets are fairly consistent from one year to the next.

Posted March 14, 2009

Question: I recently submitted my FAFSA and received my EFC number of 13334.  I am a little confused as to the meaning of this number.  The FAFSA website says it is the amount of money that I should pay out of pocket, but I want to take out the maximum quantity of loans available.  Can you explain the implication of the EFC number?

Answer: The EFC is the amount of student contribution (SC) calculated off the FAFSA reported income (Tax Year 2008) and assets.  If parental information is submitted, a similar calculation will be made on their information to produce a parent contribution (PC) that we use in our calculating the financial need.  The calculation of financial need is the Cost of Attendance minus the SC and PC.  The PC is only entered into the medical student financial aid process to help determine the eligibility for any school-based financial need scholarships as well as any Federal programs like the Federal Primary Care Loan as well as the Loans and Scholarships to Disadvantaged Students (LDS and SDS).  The LDS and SDS is based exclusively on the student’s parent income (2008 AGI) and the number of family members.  

As a graduate/professionaal student, the EFC really has no significance as it pertains to qualifying or being eligible to borrow the maximum Direct Loan (DL) Federal Stafford Loans (up to $40,500) or the DL Federal Graduate PLUS Loan (to meet the difference between the cost and other aid).  Now, as an undergraduate student, it has a lot of meaning. With the graduate/professional cost of attendance being so much higher than an undergraduate, it is rare that a student will have more SC than the cost to disqualify them for the DL Federal Subsidized Federal Stafford Loan.

In this case, the EFC is only $13,334 and with the cost for a resident student being near $53,000, this student is eligible to borrow the maximum through the DL Federal Stafford Loan and what is needed through the Federal Graduate PLUS Loan to meet the cost.

Posted: March 31, 2009

Question: Since I am an international student, I am aware that I'm ineligible for Federal loans; however, I was wondering if I qualified for any of the scholarships awarded by IUSM. Secondly, since I am not eligible to receive federal aid, I was confused about whether or not I'd needed to fill a FAFSA form.

Answer: I understand your confusion since most of our information is geared toward a U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident.  We have 3-5 International Student matriculate each year. The greatest challenge for the International Student is funding. The only resource available to an International Student is the private loans at Sallie Mae or other entities that target International Students. Typically, a U.S. Citizen or Permanent resident is required to serve as a co-signer for the private loan.

You do not need to file a FAFSA.  As a public institution with very little scholarship sources, we will still consider you for any need-based scholarships that would not have a restriction that requires you to be a U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident, designated by the donor.  Typically, this is a very small amount (less than $3,000).

LOAN DEFERMENT QUESTIONS

Question: I took out undergraduate through Sallie Mae, and I was wondering how/when I can go about deferring this while in medical school.  Currently, I am supposed to begin payment in November (paying back loans with loans would be disastrous). It seems that I probably need some sort of proof that I am again a full-time student? 

Answer: Once you begin school on August 17th we will be able to process in-school deferment requests. The in-school deferment request form from Sallie Mae or any loan servicer can be turned in to us at Orientation. Be aware that IUPUI participates in the National Student Loan Clearinghouse, so paper requests are not needed. In September, IUPUI will report enrollment information for all students attending the Fall semester onto the Clearinghouse, which in turn, loan servicers like Sallie Mae and others will be able to update their borrower's enrollment status with the information. This is done each semester you are enrolled and sometimes there is a lag in the time of reporting, but all in all things have been working well with the clearinghouse. Do realize that not all loan entities utilize the National Student Loan Clearinghouse. To be sure, contact your loan servicer to see if they participate in the Clearinghouse reporting.

LOAN-SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

Question: When do I have to let the school know what loans I will be taking?

Answer: To allow for the necessary time to get things set for the Fall semester and not jeopardize the timetable for the release and disbursement of loans, it is recommended that you complete making any adjustments to your loans by July 31st. Realize that we can always reduce loans later in the academic year or we can process additional loans throughout the academic year. We encourage students to do their best to estimate what they will need upfront, but if needed, we can work with you to later re-tailer your loans to fit your situation. Of course, we can only process loans that you will be eligible for and have room in your budget to borrow. By law, we cannot exceed your cost of attendance or financial aid budget.

Question: I just have a few questions for you regarding my financial aid situation.  First, when do we need to decide the amount of financial aid we want to receive (I am in the process of debating how much I want)?  Second, is it worth taking out more money in order to pay off the interest each month or is this just trading interest for a higher principal which will equal each other out in the end?  I am slightly concerned with the amount of loans I will have taken out by the end of med school (~$250,000 give or take).  I was wondering if this is something I should be worried about or if it is not uncommon to borrow this much?  I was talking with a doctor friend who said that he consolidated his med school loans at a really low interest rate (2 or 3%).  He graduated a few years back but I was wondering if this low of an interest rate is still possible or what interest rates are currently offered for consolidation?

Answer: You should wrap things up by the end of July to allow time for things to be set in place prior to the release of funds on August 7th.  Of course, we still have the Master Promissory Note to complete once origination occurs.

Unfortunately, the way of life for a medical student is to borrow what they need unless the student has resources that can reduce the dependence on loans.  With 90% of our medical students graduating with student loan indebtedness with an average of $166,000 in the 2009 Graduating class, it is not unusual to see a student graduating with $250,000 or more.  What you do to cut costs by living frugally and seeking roommates and following a budget will go a long way in limiting your borrowing to what you absolutely need.  Using loan funds to pay the interest is what you have stated.  The accumulation of interest and it being part of your balance later or paying the interest with student loan monies where you have borrowed more is virtually the same activity. I would argue that borrowing additionally to pay accrued interest is a more expensive venture in the long run.

Unlike graduates of yesteryear, you will be entering medical school in a student loan environment where your Federal Stafford loans are at a fixed interest rate of 6.8%.  If you borrow additionally with the Graduate PLUS Loan, the fixed interest rate for this loan is at 7.9%.  The interest rate for both loans is for the life of the loan until it is paid in full.  Consolidation is not a possibility for you or your colleagues since the interest rate for a consolidation loan is the weighted average plus 1/8 percent.  Your weighted average being 6.8%, you would consolidate at 6.875% when you factor in the 1/8 percent above the weighted average.