Our first med school challenge!

This week has been absolutely crazy! A roller coaster to say the least. Everyday we get excited about something, and then we run into a speed bump. We can't stay too excited around here too long...

We have found out our first med school challenge - Student loans for cost of living can not be used as proof of income.

During this month we had 3 things to do: sublet our apartment out for the last 2 months of our lease, find a house in Ft. Worth, and find a job.

1. Sublet our apartment - this task had to be done before all the others. We have saved financially to have to pay 2 months rent (our apartment here and our new rent in Ft. Worth) for the month of July. It was important to us to move weeks before med school started so that we would be able to get acquainted with the new town and have some fun before medschool books was all he saw. In March and April we posted on Craigs List to sublet for June and July and got no bites. We finally decided to post May, June, and July and see if we get any bites for people who want to move in the end of May. We got some bites alright! Four people called/emailed in the first four hours and we are still receiving emails and phone calls. But everyone who called was asking if they could move in the last week of April?! That would be fine minus the fact that we would be homeless for weeks! We did weigh our options before we turned them all away - living with parents/inlaws until a home in Ft. Worth was ready. Next speed bump - both of our parents (who currently live in/near the same town as us) are in the process of selling their houses and buying new ones. Yes, all three of us are moving within weeks of eachother. Talk about bad timing. Then, God gave us some random guy from Wisconsin who wanted to move in the very last week May. He was happy he found a place and we were happy with the timeline. Yay!

2. Finding a new home - Our last blog was about buying or renting. And this is where we found out about our first medschool challenge. We talked to a loan officer and they found out that we would not be able to buy a home unless I (the non-student) could prove 3 months of previous income. Well, that is not going to work out because I have to quit and find a new job. Normal families move because of a spouse finding a new job and can/will provide income. In our case, we are moving because a spouse is becoming a student again. Good information. Now we know for the future. So moving right along...
We found a house to rent that was within our budget. The only downfall is the distance from the school. This was at first our number one priority. But we quickly learned that we were forgetting other obvious priorities - like safety. Our budget was reasonable, however the campus is downtown and within a cultural district. So all the houses we were looking at were over budget or in a rougher area. Kid you not, my husband said he didn't even feel safe leaving Boss (our dog) there, let alone his wife.

We finally found a house within budget in a great safe area that immediately felt like home. We didn't have our realtor with us since we were just paroozing after orientation on Saturday, so we weren't able to see the inside. We came home, told our realtor we were interested, it was still available, and we drove back up there last minute on Wednesday using our vacation work time to meet our realtor. We liked it. It fit. The end. We came back home to fill out the application. Next speed bump - the house was not listed with the application like the realtor had said. We were in contact with the realtor and he emailed us "Hm, that must mean it's not available anymore. I'll get with the realtor tomorrow and let you know." Seriously? It was available this morning and I wasted a vacation day for this. Awesome. So the agent said there was a mistake and it IS available (whoo!) and he gave us the application. We filled it out and good to go. Now here's the next speed bump: the application processor asked us if my job will be continued in Ft. Worth. Uh, no! - I'm in the process of quitting and job searching. So, buying OR renting - student loans is not proof of income. Good to know.

3. Job Search/Proof of income - We have been saving up a lot of money to really enjoy the month of June and get settled into the place we will call home for the next 4-8 years. It was important to me to spend time putting together and nesting our new home. One thing I learned from these past few apartments is if I know I am moving in 12 months, I will put off decorating and unpacking. To give you an idea, there are still a few boxes we never unpacked here. So, I juggled around the idea How do I start looking for a job but say I can't start for another 3 months or Find a job and then ask for 2 weeks off? We decided I wasn't going to crunch down on job searching until we got there. This will allow me to breathe a little bit and reduce some stress.
Then my boss at work informed me that she is trying to create a new position for me in their Dallas office. What an honor! Jumping right in, there is one thing wrong with the job - distance from Ft. Worth to Dallas is an hour job with no traffic, with gas prices going up and i'll probably have to buy a new car becasue mine is on it's last few years (which i'm not that upset about). My thought process - it's not like I have anything too exciting to rush home to - my husband isn't sitting at home awaiting my return. He's going to be studying and I'll still probably beat him home. This position has to be approved by our VP, HR dept, and our client so it is nowhere near 100%. But cross your fingers because the drive would be worth it in this economy and I wasn't looking forward to job searching and going through the learning curve again.


So back to our current situation... our application on our home to rent. So the application asks us if we are continuing our jobs in our move. So I say yes, (it's a possibility). Next speed bump: She replies asking me to get that in writing from my company. Crap! I tell her it is still being approved by HR.  So now we are left with having a co-signer. This, I have learned, is something we will need to get used to during med-school. From my research, if you are in med-school you have to co-sign everything. Just think of those single (non-married) med school where all they have is loans and no 'spouse's income'. If they would rent an apartment or buy a new car, they still need a co-signer.

What a week, right!?! I find myself saying I just want to close my eyes and wake up and it's June. We can't wait!


Our advise so far - make sure your spouse has a job BEFORE looking for a place to live and/or have a designated co-signer for you throughout ALL of medschool.