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Adcoms or anyone who knows,
I am a pre-med applying to MD and DO programs. Would admissions committees at U.S. MD or DO schools be hesitant to accept an applicant who is $160k in debt from undergraduate student loans? I have read that medical schools are ranked by "total student indebtedness" which includes both undergraduate and medical school debt. I am concerned that starting medical school with $160k would make the medical school look bad in those rankings so they might not want to accept me.
Should I mention being $160k in debt in admissions interviews or in my personal statement if it's relevant? If I did, I'm thinking that someone might have ideas that could help me, or maybe I would be offered a scholarship, or favored for a scholarship if I were equal to another applicant in most other ways. I'm fine answering questions about this in person as long as the number of $160k itself wouldn't make me a less attractive candidate.
Since the question always comes up I will explain how I accrued $160k in student loan debt while in undergraduate school. If you're in a hurry, you can forgo reading the remainder of this post because it's only an explanation of that. I am not trying to get pitty points. I only want to explain this because it probably doesn't make sense by itself. I grew up as a ward of the court. This means that I was in foster homes, many of them, all on a short term basis. I was never adopted by any family. I was passed from home to home until eventually getting into college. I think the lack of a family explains why no one taught me about finances or about financing college. In fact, where I grew up, most people didn't go to college, even the non-foster kids. Before signing any loan agreements, I met with guidance counselors, and attended seminars about paying for college. The advice I received was not to worry about college student loans because you will be able to pay them back with your job once you graduate college. I thought I had done my homework about that.
The rest of the problem I faced is that back when I went to undergraduate school, the national FAFSA financial aid form didn't ask students if they were a ward of the court. If my memory serves me right, there were two similar questions, one asking if the student is an orphan (meaning both biological parents deceased), and the other asking if the student was born before some year (checking age to determine independent status). Neither applied to me.
The undergraduate university I attended charged over $35k a year in tuition. As a teenager, I didn't know the difference between $35k, $100k, etc. The most money I was familiar with was $100. I did not know how much I would make at a job. I didn't know what job I would be getting. Everyone kept telling me, including advisers, not to worry and that it would all work out. They seemed to think I was being a perfectionist even though I felt that I was asking important questions, which as it turns out, I was.
Every year, my undergraduate school ran out of money except for stafford loans, private student loans, and a few smaller loans. Even though I would submit my completed financial aid applications on the first day and first hour I was allowed to each year, I would get practically no financial aid at first. My initial offers were usually around $10k. Then I would go to the financial aid office and meet with my financial aid adviser and ask why no money. Every year I was told that the school assumed that I would be living with parents and therefore awarded me nothing for room and board, etc. When I told my financial aid adviser that I grew up as an unadopted foster child with no family, they usually seemed sorry, but had no money left to give me besides private student loans for the remaining $25k to $30k of tuition. This came on top of the Stafford Loans in my original award letter. For a few years in a row, my financial aid adviser told me that I should stay in the computer system as independent, but it never worked. I had the same problem every year. So that's my story.
For the record, I did live as cheaply as possible. I had either a part time or full time job throughout most of college. Some people called me, "the one who always works," because it seemed like I was always turning down invitations because I had to go to work. I tried to eat cheaply which was difficult with no kitchen and only bathroom water. One year, I lost my job due to a concussion, and had no food because I didn't know about food stamps. I lived off of peanut butter and jelly and a protein shake here and there for 5 months straight. It was awful. I'm grateful that I recovered though. I'm also not trying to make people feel sorry for me by posting this. I'm just trying to give you a sense of how hard it was. Thanks for understanding. Any advice you have for me moving forward and possibly disclosing this debt to admissions committees would be appreciated.
I have never heard of anyone discussing undergraduate debt in the med school application process. I do not recommend doing this. I would note that although I've posted this, I don't think it fits well in CC. Might be better to consider simplifying the post and posting it in a WAMC thread.