The University uses cost of attendance (COA) figures to calculate your financial aid eligibility. Actual costs may differ by individual based on one's personal choices around living expenses (such as housing or rent).  

The total amount of financial aid offered to a student, including all scholarships and grants, cannot exceed the cost of attendance at the University of Minnesota for that financial aid year. Financial aid offers (e.g., loans, work-study, scholarships, or grants) may be reduced for students whose total aid exceeds the cost of attendance. External sources of funding (scholarships, for example) count as a resource toward the cost of attendance funding limit.  

Cost of attendance is based on six expenses categories. 

• Direct costs (billed by the University each semester)

  • Tuition and required fees

• Indirect costs (vary for each individual student)

  • Books/course materials/supplies/equipment

  • Food and housing

  • Transportation

  • Professional license/exam expenses

  • Personal/miscellaneous

  • Loan fees: This figure is paid upon disbursement of the loan to the federal agency for the processing of each loan you receive. It is a percentage of the loan amount, which will reduce the amount of money you receive to pay for your educational expenses. You are required to repay the full amount of the loan, including the fee. Example: If you borrow $10,000, the net amount disbursed to your University student account to pay your expenses after loan fees is $9895.

Cost of attendance figures/budget are published on the University One Stop Student Services website. Scroll down to "Medical School" and then choose your year in school and residency status.

If you have expenses that are not taken into account in the standard budget, please connect with a Medical School Financial Aid counselor. You may be advised to submit a Cost of Attendance Appeal form (see Forms). Your budget will be reviewed and your financial aid eligibility may be re-evaluated. 

In May 2026, we shared the below link to the Entering Class Budgeting Tip Sheet. The months leading up to the start of medical school are a perfect time to assess your regular monthly expenses (rent, food, transportation, subscriptions/technology, etc.) and compare those to resources (income) available from your personal savings, family support, and/or financial aid when you become a medical student.

The Medical School Cost of Attendance (COA) provides an estimate of the costs we expect the average, single medical student to incur for the fall, spring, and summer semesters. After considering direct costs of tuition/fees, compare your personal budget or monthly living expenses to the average financial aid resources offered to determine what amount of financial aid you may need to borrow to meet your monthly expenses.

THE BASICS OF BUDGETING

   TOTAL INCOME (SAVINGS/FINANCIAL AID RESOURCES)

(- less) TOTAL EXPENSES (TUITION/FEES, PERSONAL MONTHLY EXPENSES)

(= equals)    DISCRETIONARY INCOME (LEFT OVER FOR NON-ESSENTIAL EXPENSES)

Discretionary income should not be negative. If it is, that means you have more expenses than financial resources and will not be able to pay your bills.

Being prepared with an estimated monthly budget will help you make wise decisions about borrowing student loans and responding to financial aid offers this summer. Starting now to manage indebtedness will reap benefits in the future.

• Review the Entering Class Budgeting Tip Sheet.

• Watch this brief video from Federal Student Aid about budgeting.

• Read AAMC articles:

  • Transitioning to Medical School: Financial Tips

  • Budgeting as a First-year Medical Student

  • Budgeting Basics and Tips

• Review One Stop Student Services budgeting and spending resources.

• Review Medical School Financial Aid website on budget planning.

Budgeting Pro Tips for First-year Medical Students 

• Borrow only what you need (according to your budget); don't assume you need to borrow 100% of the financial aid offered to you.

• Remember you will have 10 months of financial aid offered to cover 12 months of expenses for the first year of medical school. Financial aid for personal expenses cannot be offered in July/August between Years 1 and 2 when you are not actively enrolled.

• Indirect costs of Food & Housing, Books & Supplies, Transportation, Professional License/Exam, and Personal/Miscellaneous expenses should be less than $2,787 per month for 12 months.

• Consider using a budgeting tool such as Credit Karma, NerdWallet, Excel, Google Sheets, or bank statements.

• If you plan to borrow student loans for your medical education, take advantage of a required one-on-one financial literacy/debt management meeting with a financial aid counselor. Prior to your meeting with a financial aid counselor, please review these materials and have your budget prepared.

  • For financial aid information, tips, and resources, use the Applying for Financial Aid section under Financial Aid Tasks of the Entering Class Next Steps: Accepted Students website for Twin Cities, St. Cloud, or Duluth.

  • Review Admitted Student Day financial aid presentation slides if you were not in attendance. Twin Cities / St. Cloud (applicable for Duluth, too)

  • Review the AAMC "Money Management for Medical School Students" presentation slides. 

    • This presentation provides information to help entering medical students borrow wisely and understand money management during medical school. 

  • Watch "Medical School Financial Aid Orientation 2026" prior to Monday, August 17th.  Presentation slides available here.

  • Complete Outstanding Educational Debt Online Form (by Monday, August 17, 2026) using your University of Minnesota email account to log in. Please note: ALL students are required to complete this form, even those who do not have any outstanding educational debt or who do not expect to borrow student loans for medical school.

Students are notified via their University email when financial aid offers are ready for their review and response in the MyU portal.   

• Review the Financial Aid Steps for reviewing/responding to financial aid offers in the MyU portal from this One Stop Student Services webpage.

  • When borrowing loans for the first time in medical school, students will need to complete online loan promissory notes and loan entrance counseling documents. You will be directed to complete these via the Financial Aid Steps (Step 4) in the MyU portal.

    • The Step 3 circle under Financial Aid Steps may never show up green, because you always have the option of reporting aid from other sources, like if you were to receive an outside scholarship, for example. You do not need to report anything if you have no additional aid. Simply not filling out the form to report additional aid indicates that you did not receive any. 

    • The best way to rest assured that you are finished with the Financial Aid Steps is to keep checking your To Do List through the Student Center that you will find on the right-hand side of the MyU portal. Once there is nothing left for you to do in your To Do List, you are done, and the Step 4 circle will eventually turn green. Then you will be on Step 5, and that is the Disbursement of funds. Once you are at that step, there is nothing else for you to do either. Step 5 will not show up green until the actual disbursement of funds has occurred, which will happen with the initial financial aid disbursement date of Monday, August 24th in the late evening.  

  • Be aware that financial aid offers cover all semesters of Year 1 of medical school (fall, spring, and summer). You are asked to plan and respond to financial aid offers for all 3 semesters. If you decline or reduce a semester's (e.g., Summer semester 2027) financial aid offers (federal loan funding), they will not automatically be re-offered to you. You will need to contact the Medical School Financial Aid Office before the loan term ends and any loan request deadlines occur, in order to have declined or reduced loans reinstated. If you decline the institutional University Trust Fund Loan or UTFL offer, you may not and cannot ask to have this loan reinstated.

    • It is important when reviewing your financial aid offers to understand in which semester(s) each financial aid line item is being offered, in order to avoid over-borrowing in one semester and under-borrowing in a subsequent semester.

    • The Medical School Financial Aid Office (MSFAO) will notify you via newsletters and other email communications as to when the loan term ends and the loan request deadlines occur. For Year 1 students, in general, Fall loan term ends early December, Spring loan term ends mid-April, and Summer loan term ends mid-June.

• Read AAMC article: 

  • Understanding Your Financial Aid Offer

• Review our June Tip Sheet about Student Loans.

• Watch for our July Tip Sheet about Responding to Your Financial Aid Notice (FAN).

Reviewing tuition/fee charges

• The best and easiest way to determine how much you need to pay and when it is due is by going to the My Finances tab in MyU. There you will see the “Amount Due" and the due date. Students are billed via email from One Stop Student Services for any outstanding tuition/fee charges for each semester some weeks after the semester begins.

  • You can find a complete list of the billing and payment due dates for the semester on One Stop Student Services Academic Calendar. 

  • Please note that fall semester tuition/fee charges are typically not assessed until mid-August; therefore, they may not be visible in the MyU portal until after that time.

•  If you do not pay the amount in full by the due date, you are subject to a $40 late fee and a hold placed on your student record. The hold will prevent you from being registered for classes in future semesters, making charges to your University student account (e.g., from the University Bookstores), and getting transcripts or diplomas. 

• To pay in installments, you may be able to enroll in One Stop Student Services payment plan for the fall and spring semesters. A $20 charge per semester will be added to your balance when you enroll. 

Making payments out of pocket for tuition/fees

• Students are issued an email billing statement weeks after the start of each semester.  

• How to pay

Submitting scholarship checks from outside organizations

Please include the following information with each scholarship check:

• Student's full legal name

• Student's 7-digit University ID number. If the student's University ID number is not available, please include home address or the last 4 digits of their Social Security number.

• Scholarship donor's name, address, and phone number

• Letter from donor with any scholarship stipulations. If the full scholarship is intended for a particular term, please include it on the donor's letter or the memo section of the check (e.g., "Fall only," "Check 1/2," etc.).

• If the check is made out to both the student and the University, the student must visit One Stop Student Services in person to endorse the check. 

Please send scholarship checks to:

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Office of Student Finance, Fiscal Unit
160 Williamson Hall
231 Pillsbury Dr. SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Do not send scholarship checks to a Medical School Financial Aid Office mailing address.

Submitting payment from a 529 plan

• Details are found here. 

If all Financial Aid Steps in the MyU portal are complete, you are enrolled and registered in courses for the semester, and there are no holds on your student record, you should receive your financial aid disbursement to your University student account at the start of the semester. When this happens, you will be sent a message from One Stop Student Services to your UMN email address indicating that your financial aid has been disbursed.

If your accepted financial aid for the semester exceeds the University charges, you will have a credit balance (excess) on your student account. Sign up for Direct Deposit to receive your credit balance refund electronically in your bank/financial institution (checking or savings) account. If your accepted financial aid does not cover the balance owed on your student account, you will receive a billing statement from One Stop Student Services via email a few weeks after financial aid disbursement for the amount due.

If you complete the financial aid process after the start of the semester, you may receive your funds in approximately seven to ten business days.

Enrollment requirements: 

In order to receive your full financial aid disbursement every semester, you must be registered for at least 6 credits, which is full-time, in coursework applicable to the M.D. degree. This applies to students of all years. Some scholarship programs and the Primary Care Loan (only 3rd- and 4th-year medical students are considered for this type of loan) also require full-time enrollment.

Year 1 students: Entering students are advised to start the school year with some money, in case financial aid is not disbursed on time. It is strongly recommended that you pay September rent prior to receiving fall financial aid. Also, it helps to have some extra money available for buying books the first week of fall semester. Please note that financial aid does not cover moving expenses. This cost cannot be included in the student budget because the expenses are incurred before you are a matriculated/enrolled student at the start of the academic year. 

2026-27 Medical School Financial Aid Disbursement Schedule*

Fall Semester: August 24, 2026

Spring Semester: January 4, 2027

Summer Semester: May 3, 2027

*During the late evening of each scheduled disbursement date, that semester's financial aid begins to disburse to pay your University student account charges. Any credit balance amount will be refunded via Direct Deposit and should be received in your bank checking or savings account approximately 5-7 days later.

Review your financial aid disbursement each semester: 

At the start of each semester, you are advised to review your University charges and financial aid disbursements. Clicking on the “Account Activity” button on the My Finances tab in MyU will show you a summary of all your financial transactions, such as tuition, fees, and other campus charges, as well as credits (payments) from financial aid disbursements. 

Revise financial aid:

Please contact the Medical School Financial Aid Office (MSFAO) if you have questions about revising your financial aid. To make any changes to your loans, email the Medical School Financial Aid Office at msfao@umn.edu. In your email, describe the change you would like to make, noting the type of loan and for which semester. Make sure your email is sent from your official U of MN email account and that the email includes your 7-digit UMN student ID number. 

Some examples include but are not limited to:

• Request an additional loan above your already fully accepted financial aid (e.g., University-sponsored student health insurance, one-time computer purchase = make sure you connect with MSFAO staff before making this purchase, child care expenses)

• Increase your loan amount (if you did not originally accept the full amount)

• Reduce your already accepted loan amount

• Decline/cancel a loan after you have already accepted it