FAQ - Life as a Veterinary Student

Financial Aid | SAVMA Membership Card/Number/Password | School Cancellations | KSUCVM Student Employment

Financial Aid

• As a veterinary student, the maximum student loan that you are able to take out is a total of $18,500 per year. It makes no difference whether you are a resident or non-resident student – the cap is still the same. This amount is set by Federal regulation, and is not subject to change for individual students. Of this $18,500, a maximum of $8500 is subsidized, a maximum of $10,000 is unsubsidized.
   

• Subsidized means the government pays your interest on the loan, unsubsidized means you pay the interest on your loan (and the interest on your interest).
   

• The easiest way to apply for financial aid is by going to www.fafsa.ed.gov. You can start applying for the following school year anytime after January 1st. The priority deadline is March 1st of each year. If you wish to apply for the Health Professions Loan (lower interest rates), you must also include your parent’s income information on the application. If you do not wish to apply for the Health Professions Loan (if your parents make fairly good money, you probably will not qualify, but it never hurts to try), you do not need to include any information regarding your parents.
   

• For students that need more than the $18,500 in loans, (which would include most non-resident students), you can apply for alternative loans through companies such as Citibank (www.studentloan.com), Wells Fargo (www.wellsfargo.com), Bank of America (www.gateloan.com), Key Bank (www.key.com/educate), and Sallie Mae (www.salliemae.com). Each bank has different maximum amounts available and different requirements. There is one requirement that each bank does have though, and that is that the loan approval is based on your credit history, unlike a standard student loan. However, these loans function similar to regular student loans in that repayment is not due until 4-6 months after you are no longer a full-time student.  There is also a student loan available from the American Veterinary Medical Foundation, for more information, check out www.avmf.org.
   

• When filling out your financial aid application, if you plan to work on campus at any point for the school year you are applying for, you should sign up for workstudy. Many on campus employment positions require that you be signed up for workstudy, because it means that they only have to pay half of your salary. If you are signed up for workstudy and you are employed on campus in a workstudy eligible position, your employer will pay half of your total salary. The other half will come out of you student loan money – kind of like getting your loan money without having to pay it back. The catch to this is, if you are taking the full $18,500 in student loans out each year, you cannot get more than that in workstudy. So, if you were to earn an expected $2000 at a on-campus job, since $1000 of that would come out of workstudy, you would only be able to take out $17,500 as an actual student loan. You would still get the full $18,500, but $1000 of it you would not have to pay back (you would basically be working it off).
   

• After you graduate, or stop attending veterinary school for any reason, you have a 6 month grace period before you have to start paying back on your loan. You can apply for an extension, but it is up to the lender that guaranteed your loan as to whether they will allow that, and for how long. The exception to the 6 month grace period would be if you continued on in school – such as an internship, residency, or graduate degree, in which case you would have to begin repayment 6 months after finishing that particular course of study. If you have a Health Professions or Perkins Loan, you have a 9 month grace period after graduation to begin paying back your student loan.
   

• If you have any other questions regarding student Financial Aid, the Financial Aid Advisor for veterinary students is Lucille Wiley. You can either make an appointment to talk with her through the main campus financial aid office located in 104 Fairchild Hall – 785-532-6420, or you can e-mail any questions to her at gramo@ksu.edu.

SAVMA Membership Card/Number/Password

• As a member of SCAVMA, you are automatically a member of SAVMA, which enables you to access the AVMA website and utilize the AVMA member benefits. To access the website, or for most AVMA interactions, you will need your AVMA membership number. This number is given to you by your SAVMA delegate each fall on a wallet sized card that is placed in your mailbox. Once you are assigned a number, it will be the same number for as long as you are a member of the AVMA. If you lose your membership number, you will have to wait until a new card is reissued by the AVMA the next fall. Your SAVMA delegate cannot get you a replacement card – you are responsible for keeping your card and number in a safe place.

• When accessing the AVMA website, your membership number is the number listed on your card. Your password is your last name, with the first letter capitalized (case sensitive).

School Cancellations

• If KSU main campus classes are canceled due to poor weather conditions, vet med classes are also canceled.

KSUCVM Student Employment

Looking for a job at the Veterinary College? Following are a few positions available to vet students (and in many cases, main campus students). If you know of any other positions available, or if the information has changed in any of the following positions, please e-mail scavma@vet.ksu.edu with the current information.

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