During Jordan's undergrad at Wichita State University, I knew medical school was the ultimate goal, but I always worried about how we would be able to afford it. Especially going into medical school with surprisingly 2 children under the age of 3. But, I saw other couples on social media make it through so I always just figured the financials would work themselves out.
When I found out we were going to the Caribbean, and I wasn't going to be permitted to work I was more anxious. It is true that Caribbean medical schools are more expensive than US medical schools. Jordan and I had already been married for 6 years when he began medical school, and throughout our entire marriage I have worked full time. We already had adult responsibilities..a rental house, car payment, some credit card debt, etc. One year prior to medical school I had been running my own custom embroidery business out of our home, and when we were moving to St. Maarten I had to pack it all away. We sold all of our furniture minus our bed, a vehicle, and just the majority of our household items. This helped us fund our move overseas. Now, in hindsight, I'm so glad we didn't sell everything like we originally anticipated.
During the first 2 years in St. Maarten we lived solely on student loans and what was left of our savings (It went fast). Talk about nerve wracking!! I know that financial aid is different for every school, and the amount of reimbursement changes based on tuition increases, etc so I'm not able to give exact dollar amounts. Somehow we managed to make it work financially. Looking back I'm not 100% sure how we did, but we did and I'm so glad that the boys and I were able to spend those 20 months in St. Maarten with Jordan during basic sciences.
After Hurricane Irma, I was ready to get back to work and make some money! I reopened Sew Worth It Designs and it became the boys and I's main source of income.
When Jordan started studying for the STEP 1 exam he was on a leave of absence (LOA) so no student loans were distributed. There are private loans students can take out during this time, but we were not approved for those honestly. He just didn't qualify for whatever reason. I know a lot of Jordan's colleagues were able to though. So during January-May 2018 my embroidery business was our only income!! Crazy right! I'm still super proud of that and am so grateful for everyone who supported my small business. We literally lived in a 1 bedroom apartment for $325.00 a month in a super tiny town in Kansas. We are going to look back and laugh one day...
Anyway! After STEP 1 Jordan started working for a company online called Varsity Tutors. Basically he took a bunch of online assessments to test his proficiency in different subjects and once he was approved he could be matched with students to tutor in different subjects, mainly pre-med/science related. Sessions paid $15-$20/hr depending on the subject, then there are bonus' like depending on how the student rates you, if the student signs up for another session, etc. So Jordan online tutoring really helped fill the gaps financially before he started the clinical portion of school. In fact, Jordan STILL tutors about 4 hours a week while in rotations. He is currently tutoring a pharmacy student.
Once clinicals started his student loans kicked back into effect, but here's a word to the wise...make sure your credit's 100% clean. Jordan had some medical bills show up on his credit report and his student loan was denied. Scary right?! We paid them off and all was right in the world again. Every 2 semesters student's credit reports are pulled and if there are blemishes they will not approve your loan.
We are thankful that we are now in a lower cost of living area for the clinical portion, because we are able to save for expenses that are going to pop up like residency applictions, interviews..oh, and let's not forget the costs of those board exams. Whew! Step 2 is over $2k!! Anyway, this is about as real and raw as it gets in regards to going to medical school with a family. I'm not going to sugar coat it..it's stressful! I oftentimes feel a ton of mom guilt that we've dragged our kids through this process, but this is the choice we made and I can only hope that our boys grow up seeing the sacrifices their parents made to better their lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment