What is Financial Aid?

Financial aid consists of the following three types of assistance:

• Employment
• Scholarships/Grants
• Loans

Employment

Generally, students of the USF Morsani College of Medicine are not permitted to work during their enrollment; therefore employment will not be a part of any student's financial aid package.

Scholarships/Grants

This type of financial aid is in very short supply in graduate schools and especially limited in medical schools. It is recommended that all students look for possible scholarships that are provided by outside organizations and/or businesses. The World Wide Web is an excellent place to look. A popular and recommended web page is http://www.finaid.org. This web page provides information about the Federal loan programs and has free scholarship search databases that include federal and private organizations who offer scholarships and grants. The scholarships/grants that are available to USF medical students are institutional funds and most are based on financial need. All of these programs are explained in detail in the "Sources of Financial Aid" section.

Loans

The majority of the financial aid you will receive will be in the form of loans. Some loans are based on financial need and some are non need based. Some are federal funds, some are institutional funds and some are outside agency funds. These are explained in the "Sources of Financial Aid" section.

With few exceptions, financial aid programs through the Morsani College of Medicine Office of Financial Aid are awarded based on financial need. Financial need is the difference between the cost of education and the amount of money you and/or your family are expected to provide for your education. Financial aid is intended to provide for payment of the following costs for the student: