Will my defaulted Sallie Mae Loans stop me from getting into med school?

[cmac2217]

I have a 3.25 cGPA 3.16 sgpa i am looking to take the MCAT in sep 2016.

my question is will my defaulted student loans with Sallie Mae hinder me from getting financial aide. Since under grad have not been able to pay them and now i have 160k of defaulted Sallie Mae loans even though i originally borrowed just 87k. I was thinking about applying for the NHSC to help pay tuition, but i would like to become an ophthalmologist, specifically a retina specialist i have been working in ophthalmology as a technician for 1 year and i love it! NHSC only pays for MD internal med, fam med, and psych med.

Is it true that the max stadford loan is 40.5k are separate loans for new med school students. Assuming that i get in, will my financial aid packet base any award amount off of my existing under grad debt?

Help please!

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[DrMidlife]

admissions are completely separate from financial aid. getting accepted has no impact on your ability to borrow or vice versa. this will probably change n the future.

you are not going to be able to get new federal loans with existing federal loans in default.

your ability to get a federal scholarship like NHSC or military may also be hindered by default status.

i suggest consulting a med school financial aid office for advice. also you should be thoroughly reading studentloans.gov

in your shoes i'd move to Texas, get a job, get those loans out of default, and get academic fresh start. that's a decade. probably the fastest route for you. and then you're in med training for another 7-10 yrs before you make doctor money.

even faster? pick a less ridiculous career path. what else could you do with a couple decades?

stafford limits are higher for med school. generally you have to also get federal grad plus to cover the cost. grad plus requires no adverse credit history for some period. finaid.org has good overview info.

if you're thinking of becoming a doctor as a way out of this financial mess, that's about the longest, least likely, most difficult option. not that there are good options.

sorry. best of luck to you.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Regardless of the medical school question, is there any way you can get out of default? Do you qualify for an income based repayment option?

 

[doc05]

your defaulted loans won't keep you out of med school, but your gpa will.

beyond that, you won't be able to borrow for med school loans with the history of loan defaults.

 

[hokiefanx5]

I used to be financial aid officer. Let me try to help. First of all what type of loan? Federal or private?

If it is a Federal Loan make certain you contact your lender (probably they will recommend a loan consolidation(they combine all your loans together, then a loan rehab. Loan rehab means that you have to make 6 payments on time, then you can earn the ability to have your loan reinstate). If it is private loan then your credit is probably already affected. And that is not really good, because most students in medical school will have to use GRAD PLUS loan which is credit base. However, you can get someone to endorse you. Hope this helps.