Can anyone offer Debt Grant?
The school that I am going to in the fall has an average debt of 98,000.
The tuition at this school is about average for a private school. Why is
it that some other private schools have higher tuitions and lower average
debt (75,000)? Is it because the students are wealthier or is it because
of the students average age (older students borrow more)? I know that
grant money is virtually non-existent so I do not think that is the
factor. Also I noticed that some osthepathic schools have reported debt
loads of 100,000+. This makes me think that school debt correlates
highly with the average age of the students at the school. Can anyone
offer any insight that I am missing?
Actually, your comment about grant money is incorrect. The medical
school at your current institution, Washington University-St.Louis (a
private school), actually gives a large amount of grant/scholarship aid.
They take your total budget, take out your EFC and $5000 from Stafford Loan,
and then grant you _half_ of the remaining need. As I recall, WashU's
tuition is ~$27000/yr (including everything), so a seemingly huge tuition
does not necessarily result in a huge debt load.
Stanford has need-based grants, as well as possiblities to RA/TA and
gain substantial tuition credits and stipends. Again, this is an example
of a private school giving financial incentives that cause the debt load
to be much lower than expected. Stanford's avg debt for those that
received aid is ~$50000 (Tuition $8500/qtr over 13 quarters).
I am not that familiar with DO schools, but my understanding is that
there is very little grant money available, so most students end up
taking out loans for everything. This can be very costly, and I don't
think that correlates with average age of the students.