Bryn Mawr College

Financing Professional School Education

The cost of attending professional school is more than just tuition.  Financing your graduate education will begin with the fees for standardized tests and applications as well as expenses incurred for travel to interviews.  In addition to tuition, the total costs will include school fees, textbooks and equipment, health insurance, housing, food, relocation costs, and miscellaneous living expenses.

The majority of students enrolled in health professional schools will receive financial aid, and most of that aid will be comprised of need-based assistance.  The resources below have been provided by professional school associations and "service-obligation" scholarship programs to assist prehealth students in researching and understanding the complexities of financial aid.  Note that much of the general loan information described in the medical and dental school publications is applicable to financing other health professional schools and that many of the service obligation programs provide funding for several health professions in addition to medicine and dentistry.

• Medical School Resources
• Dental School Resources
• Service Obligation Programs
• Website with information about a range of loan forgiveness and scholarship programs in many fields including health care

1.  Financing Medical School

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has a comprehensive web site about finanical aid planning for premedical students, medical students, and medical residents.  For your convenience we have posted some of the free AAMC publications (in .pdf) format on this web site; however, we encourage you to review the AAMC web sites as you plan for your medical school educational expenses.

www.aamc.org/students/financing/start.htm   AAMC web page for medical school financial planning

AAMC publications

a.  MD-2 :  Monetary Decisions for Medical Doctors

(http://www.aamc.org/students/financing/md2/start.htm)

Phase I:  The Premedical Years  

Phase II:  The Medical School Years

b.  AAMC Debt Card:  A summary of medical student education costs, debt, and resident stipend facts

c.  Medical School Tuition and Young Physician Indebtedness 2004 (Updated October 2007)

d.  Medical Educational Costs and Student Debt - A Working Group Report to the AAMC Governance

e.  AAMC web site database

     Financial Aid Forms Required by Medical Schools

2.  Financing Dental School

    

The American Dental Association (ADA) web site has information about financial planning and management for dental students and for dentists at all stages of their careers.

ADA publications

a.  Infopak:  Managing Finances

     (http://www.ada.org/prof/ed/careers/infopaks/finances.asp)

b.  ADA Financial Planning Resource Site for Dental Students

    Financial Planning Issues for Dental Students - a pdf file for predental and dental students

3.  Service Obligation Programs

a.  National Health Services Corp

A program supported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service, the mission of the NHSC is to provide primary health care to medically underserved communities throughout the United States.  Their scholarships and loan repayment programs can be used to support education in medicine and dentistry as well as education in other allied health professions.  Applications and information are available at the NHSC web site:  http://nhsc.bhpr.hrsa.gov/ .

b.  United States Army Health Care Corps

The U. S. Army Health Care Corps is comprised of six corps:  Dental Corps, Medical Corps, Medical Service Corps, Medical Specialist Corps, Nurse Corps, and Veterinary Corps.

Review the web pages for each specific corps to learn about its educational benefits and Health Professions Scholarship Programs.  The local recruiter for the U.S. Army is :

Major Leon E. Hooten, US Army Health Care Recruiter

email:  Leon.Hooten@usarec.army.mil tel: 856 414 0145 ; cell:  877-560-8115; fax:  856-414-0174

c.  United States Air Force Health Care Education

The U.S. Air Force provides educational benefits for education in several health professions.  The local recruiter is:

Kimberly Robinson, TSgt, USAF Biomedical Officer Accessions

email:  Kimberly.Robinson@rs.af.mil

tel: 610-660-0694  Fax: 610-660-8341

d.  United States Navy Health Care Careers

The U.S. Navy provides educational benefits for education in several health professions.  The local recruiter is:

LT. Cynthia Holland

email:  Or6_phil@cnrc.navy.mil

tel:  410-761-7419; cell:  443-871-0805