Affording an Additional Degree (Masters, Post-Baccalaureate Certificate, Ph.D. etc.)
Pursuing an additional degree before your professional program (MD, DO, PA, Dental, etc.) can strengthen your academic record, expand your experiences, or support a career pivot. However, it also has important financial and federal loan implications that require careful planning. This page outlines key considerations to help you make informed decisions.
Understand Your Purpose
Before considering cost, clarify why you are pursuing an additional degree. Not all programs are viewed equally by admissions committees, and not all justify the financial investment.
- Academic enhancement (GPA repair, prerequisite completion)
- Career change from undergraduate
- Research experience (MS/PhD)
- Personal or professional exploration
What Is The Cost Structure
Be sure to evaluate Total Cost of Attendance (COA), not just tuition. Many students underestimate that living expenses can be 30–50% of total cost.
- Tuition and fees
- Living expenses (housing, food, transportation)
- Health insurance
- Books, supplies, and exam prep
- Opportunity cost (lost income if not working)
Federal Financial Aid Implications
This is one of the most critical areas, and where students often misunderstand the impact.
- Federal loans have total borrowing limits and additional degrees may reduce what you can borrow later for professional schools (Medical School Borrowing Capped at ~$200,000)
- Program type determines which federal aid pool is used. Post-bacc can utilize undergraduate loan eligibility or graduate loan eligibility depending on the course type/designation of the program. Where masters / Ph.D. level programs utilize graduate loan eligibility (While many Ph.D. programs can offer full tuition funding, not all do and it's still an area to investigate)
- Understanding your total federal loan eligibility (at the undergraduate and graduate level) can give a clearer picture on overall borrowing potential. Example
- Your Total Federal Graduate Borrowing Limit is $200,000
- Let's Say Your Total Masters Program Cost: $40,000
- That Means You Now Have Federal Graduate Borrowing Remaining of: $160,000
- You Go On To Medical School, With the Average Medical School Costing: $300,000 - $400,000
- In This Scenario You Would Have $140,000-$240,00 To Cover On Your Own (Either through private loans, personal savings, family assistance, scholarships etc.)
- Important to consider projected debt after BOTH degrees
How Can I Actually Pay For This?
Even after careful considerations on the need for an additional degree, the reality is that many applicants do need additional coursework to enhance their academic record or complete pre-requisite coursework. Our core belief is that you should preserve federal loan eligibility for professional school (MD/DO/PA) by minimizing how much federal aid you use before you get there.
- Understand Your Credit / Personal Financial Picture! With the likely gap in funding of what federal aid can provide, and cover the total cost of professional school, private loans are a new reality for students. Ensuring you are in a position where you qualify for private loans is top priority and it starts with understanding your credit score, how to build good credit, and staying financially healthy.
- ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Financial Wellness has great resources on understanding this!
- Per federal regulations, you can obtain a free copy of your credit report from each agency once every 12 months, available at .
- Adjust Expectations on Timeline. It can be hard to come to terms with a longer timeline, but giving yourself additional years of employment to save can help off-set costs. Reminder that professional schools do not discriminate against gap years!
- Consider Program Type. Consider a DIY post-bacc, where you aren't enrolled in a formal program but taking courses individually. Assess if program utilizes undergraduate federal aid or graduate federal aid, if you haven't utilized any of your undergraduate availability, it can sometimes be advantageous to prioritize programs that pull from that aid source.
- Use Employment As a Strategy. You can considering a program where you can work alongside. You can also investigate employers that offer tuition benefits, and strategically align your employment and timeline to aid in covering the cost of your desired program.
- Get Organized. Utilize our Post-Bacc & SMPs (Specialized Masters Programs) Tracking Sheet to help investigate, record and compare the overall structure and funding options for each program. Masters program may provide graduate assistantships, teaching assistantships, research assistantships that can help to cover the tuition costs.
- Comprehensive NAAHP Database - Coming Soon!
- Target Programs That Have Funding. While fully funded and even partially funded programs are rare, there are programs that exist that can offer options:
- Program is sponsored by this institution and no cost to students, please note there is strict eligibility criteria for admissions
- 10-Month Biomedical Sciences (BMS) program to enhance academic record. Up to $15,000 scholarship available.
- : Program awards full-tuition scholarship for each accepted student, please note there is strict eligibility criteria for admissions
- : "There are a limited number of scholarships for the program, including academic and diversity-based scholarships."
- "students may be eligible for a variety of scholarships. Students can also apply for and receive funding through the Federal Work Study Program. For more information, visit the and pages."
- : A program designed for career-changes and eligible for New York's Tuition Assistance Program (a form of financial aid for low-income population)
- HPA is continuously monitoring and updating this list when we learn about these program options!