loans

[drquentin1217]

Is it just teri loans? Any other type of financial aid?

[SMU_Information]

TERI, veteran's benefits, CanHelp (Teri for Canadians).

[Siddman]

TERI, veteran's benefits, CanHelp (Teri for Canadians).

Just to add to the list...bank loans......


Siddman

[JTP73]

TERI, veteran's benefits, CanHelp (Teri for Canadians).

What are veteran's benefits?

[Bingo]

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[Donno70]

Hi,

I'm wondering how many other students are in the same boat as me. I cannot get a Teri loan, with no MedAchiever loan available, what options are there. I am in the Master's program, so I am able to get 18,500 per 2 semesters. But that's less than half of what I need. I have a good co-signer, but my credit is hosed. I have looked at State reimbursement programs, military programs, National Institute of Health, National Health Service Corp, etc. I am providing the link in case it helps someone else:
http://www.aamc.org/students/financing/repayment/start.htm
In most cases the loan programs are restricted to state residents, or American schools or both.

This site provides loans to FMG but it's through Key bank (the same as Medachiever). http://www.medfunds.com/
They haven't written me back yet. It is through Key bank, but it's a different program. It's funny, I can get a loan for a accupuncture school, but not for SMU. I have wrote them to re-consider loaning us money.

There is also a new program through the Access group:
http://www.accessgroup.org/students/comprehensiveresources.htm
They also haven't written me back yet, but they do have a program for people with poor credit, but a co-signer.

Come on people...if everyone else would pool their resources, we should be able to fix this problem. There must be some bank somewhere who can loan us money. Some people are thinking this won't happen to me, right? What will happen in one more semester when the MedAchiever runs out. You may have money now...will you be able to pay for school then?
We ned to work together to fix this.

Bing,

I feel you and understand your plight because I will be applying for TERI shortly. Alternatively, I think that SMU is working through this as best they can. I'm sure they actively pursuing lenders (hopefully), expressing that they have SEVERAL HUNDRED STUDENTS BORROWING 30-60K ANUALLY. That's allot of clams! Believe me that should get more attention than a pack of students. I know it is extremely unnerving, but there's not much else to do at the moment. If there are any possible alternatives, the SMU officers (who stands to lose out much more $$$) will find them.

DM

[Bob2k]

The Access Group Loan mentioned does have some international locales on its drop down menu to choose from at the start of the app, but Cayman is not one of them and SMU is not on the list of Florida schools as it was with Key. So it doesn't look like we are eligible with this one.

The loan problem may not be as a big a crisis for SMU as one would think. I've talked to quite a few people in my class whose parents foot the bill, plus almost everybody is clear through August anyway. Whoever isn't at that time would probably join master's and the remaining relatively few people who neither have parents footing the bill, money of their own, master's enrollment, or approval with teri would be in trouble then, but I am guessing from my own discussions with folks that that is actually not very many people, and our class is pretty huge as everyone knows.

[Bingo]

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[Bob2k]

I sympathize with your plight and I will likely be in the same situation in a few months, but I rather doubt that a "petition" approach will work for this particular problem.

Key Bank didn't have a sound fiscal policy underlying its loan program which prob caused it difficulties and hence its closure. Distributing unsecured loans of 100k plus to people with little or no credit history to attend a foreign school that's been around for just a few years is not a generally accepted or practiced policy. It's highly unlikely any lending institution will replace Key Bank's former role in this process.

I, too, have contacted a number of lenders and this is the fairly standard, rote answer I get. And it's hard to argue with, because it makes sense. I wish as much as anyone, if not more, that the whole Key pullout hadn't happened, but since it has it's prob better to face the situation realistically and plan accordingly.