Merit Based Aid in Med School

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bmoredoc

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As with most people I come from a middle class family and therefore suffer from need based financial aid programs. I am always reading on here about people receiving scholarships and such. 1. How common is it for schools to give out merit based aid? 2. What schools give out the most merit based aid? 3. Do instate schools like University of Maryland Medical School give out merit based aid?

Thank you any insight is appreciated

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As far as finding the specific schools that give good merit aid, it's best to search on this one buddy. The information is out there, but fairly scattered and not all condensed into one thread.

However, before even doing that, you need to have some really incredible stats to win a merit scholarship at the medical school level. There's not many out there, and of what is, a lot of them are set aside to lure stellar URM students. Of those that are left, there's an incredible amount of competition (not just MCAT/GPA, but awesome ECs).

Realistically, it's best to not expect them except from the schools that give out tons of money. In addition to the list dpsPanda already started, Mayo offers lots of scholarships as well. I also think Emory used to have a pretty hefty scholarship (but not tons of scholarships the way UChicago and Mayo are).
 
I agree with Namer above in that you shouldn't expect scholarships. That's a pretty bad way of going about things, and you'll more than likely end up disappointed. That said, I've noticed schools ranked in the 5-25 range tend to have significant merit scholarships; not all of them, of course, but many of them do. I know that there are also some state schools that offer scholarships (e.g., UTSW), but who knows how common they are.
 
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Harvard - none
Stanford - none
Yale - none
Hopkins - at least one?
Columbia - at least one
Duke - at least one
Mount Sinai - at least two, at least one goes to an URM
Northwestern - a handful
Penn - 12 full-tuition scholarships
WashU - up to 12-16 full-tuition, plus 1-3 for women only.
UChicago - 10-20 full-tuition
Vanderbilt - a ton (like 20? no idea. but lots.) full-tuition and half-tuition scholarships
 
I think it just depends on how much a school wants to recruit you, for instance if your stats arent stellar but you are way above the average of that school they will be much more likely to give you a scholarship than at someplace where everyone has the same numbers as you. I received a pretty good merit scholarship with very average stats because I wanted to attend a school where the average applicant has below average stats (because of location and some unrelated factors). I am not URM and I did get into several other schools but chose to attend the one that gave me the merit aid. You need to be convincing at the interview that you are not just applying there as a back up and that you would actually attend if accepted (and this should be true of course).
 
Harvard - none
Stanford - none
Yale - none
Hopkins - at least one?
Columbia - at least one
Duke - at least one
Mount Sinai - at least two, at least one goes to an URM
Northwestern - a handful
Penn - 12 full-tuition scholarships
WashU - up to 12-16 full-tuition, plus 1-3 for women only.
UChicago - 10-20 full-tuition
Vanderbilt - a ton (like 20? no idea. but lots.) full-tuition and half-tuition scholarships

Great list. However I've seen Stanford award a full tuition scholarship.
 
Harvard - none
Stanford - none
Yale - none
Hopkins - at least one?
Columbia - at least one
Duke - at least one
Mount Sinai - at least two, at least one goes to an URM
Northwestern - a handful
Penn - 12 full-tuition scholarships
WashU - up to 12-16 full-tuition, plus 1-3 for women only.
UChicago - 10-20 full-tuition
Vanderbilt - a ton (like 20? no idea. but lots.) full-tuition and half-tuition scholarships

good job, UTSW gives at least 1 (i got 1 with my acceptance)
 
Harvard - none
Stanford - none
Yale - none
Hopkins - at least one?
Columbia - at least one
Duke - at least one
Mount Sinai - at least two, at least one goes to an URM
Northwestern - a handful
Penn - 12 full-tuition scholarships
WashU - up to 12-16 full-tuition, plus 1-3 for women only.
UChicago - 10-20 full-tuition
Vanderbilt - a ton (like 20? no idea. but lots.) full-tuition and half-tuition scholarships

I think Penn gives out 24 of them nowadays..
 
U Miami Miller gives ~40 scholarships ranging from 5k to 25k per year (renewable for four years)
 
Thank you for the responses this is some great information. The fact that people on here are getting scholarships gives me hope for some good financial aid.
 
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