Financial Aid News
The PULSE:
The PULSE is a newsletter published by the Student Affairs Office several times during the academic year. Its purpose is to provide regular updates to AMS students regarding curriculum developments, student research and scholarship opportunities, professional development programs, and other matters of interest to medical students.
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Financial Aid Policy Announcements:
The financial aid policy and tuition charges for the 2008-2009 year were announced in March, 2008.
Dear Students,
We are writing to bring you up-to-date on the financial aid policy and tuition for the 2008-2009 academic year.
The 2008-2009 financial aid policy was approved after extensive discussions by the Financial Aid Policy Committee during the last few months. The committee consists of medical school administrative staff and a student representative. The Committee's principal goal was to minimize increases in borrowing through modest budget adjustments and the addition of scholarship support. This was undertaken in the face of our need blind policy and the growth of the student body. We have achieved this goal.
The key elements of next year's policy are as follows:
- Base loans will increase by only $900 for all class years.
- The portion of the base loan that is packaged in the Unsubsidized Stafford Loan will be reduced for all class years and will be replaced with institutional loans, which accrue no interest while you are enrolled in school and for at least six months after you graduate.
- Student budgets will include a 2% increase in living expenses.
- The summer earnings expectation for Years I and II students will remain at $1,500. This contribution has not increased in 13 years.
Beginning in 2007, the Alpert Medical School has made a concerted effort to achieve a progressive annual decrease in the tuition charges while keeping borrowing at or close to current levels. Effective the 2008-2009 academic year, the medical school will hold the tuition increase to 4.8%, 0.2% below last year's level.
Your tuition dollars will continue to support important medical education initiatives in an effort to create the best possible medical education for you. These initiatives include ongoing curriculum redesign, further development of Doctoring, additional development of the Scholarly Concentrations Program and direct support of clinical faculty for their teaching activities. In the aggregate, these activities represent an increase of approximately $1M in annual educational expenditures.
We anticipate that in the 2009-2010 academic year we will again be reducing the magnitude of the tuition increase. We are determined to do everything in our power to continue this downward trend while concurrently minimizing increases in student educational debt.
As always, we welcome your feedback and questions.
Sincerely,
Philip A. Gruppuso, MD, Associate Dean for Medical Education
Kathleen A. Baer, Director of Admissions and Financial Aid