Financial aid in clinical sciences operates in a very similar fashion as basic sciences. You still have three semesters a year and your financial aid award is given to cover all three semesters. However, one very important difference is how tuition is billed and how the semesters are actually constructed. In the basic science curriculum everything is structured with a beginning date and end date. Clinical science curriculum, semesters begin and end slightly different.
In general, the semesters do have your typical start and end dates that are provided by Ross University on the academic calendar. However, It is very important to note that when doing your 3rd year core clerkships they don't line up exactly with the months. Core clerkships are at a minimum 6 weeks long and at a maximum 12 weeks long. This causes semester overlap of some clerkships.
Lets say the summer semester for Ross began on May 1st and ends on August 31st. A student begins their Medicine (internal medicine) core clerkship on July 31st, still within the summer semester. This core clerkship is 3 months long, putting the end day of the clerkship on October 20th. Now this clerkship began in the summer semester and spanned into the fall semester when the summer semester ended on August 31st. Since this occurred, this students summer semester was "extended" until the end of the clerkship. In this particular example, October 20th. Meaning that this student will not get another loan disbursement until 2 weeks prior to the start of their fall semester, which is in October now and not August. This also means that the tuition will be more expensive for this semester when compared to a previous or other semester (See below). So, the student must budget the money given to them for the current and previous semesters to cover their expenses for a longer than anticipated time.
This is how it works for all clinical science rotations and if you' do not have a 12 week rotation that begins in one semester and ends in another then you will not be affected by this issue.
Clinical Science Tuition:
The tuition for students in clinical science is billed at a rate dollars per week of clinical clerkships scheduled for the entirety of the semester. This is for both 3rd year and 4th year.
For example: At the time of creation, per Ross's website: " Tuition will be prorated per clinical at a rate of $2,026.47 per credit/week and the Educational Resource Fee at $29.67 per credit/week." If we apply these prices to the previous example and account for 2- 6 week core clerkships scheduled before the start of the 12 week clerkship we get the following numbers:
Clinical weeks= 24 for summer semester
24 X $2,026.47 = $48,635.28 in just tuition for the summer semester.
Compared to the fall semester of 18 weeks = $36,476.46 and this number could be even less if you are begining your first core rotation a month into the semester. Only have 12 weeks in your first semester brings tuition to $24,317.64 which is half of the summer semester as it is half of the clinical weeks.
The problems come when no one tells the students about this issue that is waiting for them so they can budge appropriately.
To help combat this issue ross does have a system where they will offer you an "advance credit balance".
If you have an anticipated start date on or after the third week of the semester you will be eligible to receive an Advance Credit Balance for this upcoming semester. To ensure you have access to the funding students need for educational purposes, the Office of Student Finance will be issuing advance credit balances to all eligible students using Title IV federal financial aid, institutional loans, and/or private loan funding.
The amount of your credit balance is based on the number of weeks you're enrolled for the upcoming semester. To determine the advance you can receive. Please note, this amount will be deducted from your subsequent credit balance.
Ross University also offers emergency loans for student assistance. If you need further assistance reach out to the financial aid department.