Asking for Scholarship Money

[LizardBoy]

Hello all,

To maintain anonymity, I will not be naming the schools I have been admitted to in this post.

I’ve recently been accepted off the waitlist at my state school. However, I prefer nearly every aspect of the OOS school I was accepted to over my IS school. As you can imagine, the difference in cost is large. Is it possible to request scholarship money from the OOS school by detailing my situation and how I want to be there? Is this practice frowned upon and, if not, does it ever actually work?

Thank you all. I realize the fortunate position I’m in.

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[Rachapkis]

The odds that your request will help are slim because everyone would like scholarship money and it's a sellers market (i.e., medical schools have so many more applicants than spots). That said, making the request will not hurt you.

 

[Nugester]

Probably won't work but doesn't hurt to ask.

 

[scorpion2020]

I asked to match my in state school after already receiving a small scholarship from my out of state school . They more than doubled the scholarship and now I’m looking at apartments out of state .

 

[MDapplicant578124]

Won't hurt to send the email! Cite the difference in COA and politely ask if there are any scholarships you qualify for

 

[Goro]

Hello all,

To maintain anonymity, I will not be naming the schools I have been admitted to in this post.

I’ve recently been accepted off the waitlist at my state school. However, I prefer nearly every aspect of the OOS school I was accepted to over my IS school. As you can imagine, the difference in cost is large. Is it possible to request scholarship money from the OOS school by detailing my situation and how I want to be there? Is this practice frowned upon and, if not, does it ever actually work?

Thank you all. I realize the fortunate position I’m in.

Silly me, I thought that one applies for scholarship money?

 

[LizardBoy]

Silly me, I thought that one applies for scholarship money?

That's what I anticipated based on the previous threads I had read, just wanted to make sure.

 

[KnightDoc]

Silly me, I thought that one applies for scholarship money?

Yes, silly you!!!

While these are called "scholarships," they are really tuition discounts, and seem to be pretty widely used to address concerns about the obnoxiously high cost of tuition, particularly at private schools, and particularly to attract and keep highly desirable candidates who receive attractive offers from other schools. After all, as you well know, medical school is a pretty big business, and, as costs escalate, people are becoming increasingly more savvy in negotiating price. It's a seller's market until schools identify the relatively small subset of highly attractive candidates, at which point a lucky few candidates with multiple offers actually have some leverage.

In fact, this phenomenon really goes to the heart of the so-called rules that PTE schools attempt to impose on people by stopping them from holding As after 4/30 at schools that actively encourage them to do so while they put together "scholarships" to lure them away from PTE schools. Multiple people have posted about this in the past week. Schools trying to intimidate candidates into not participating is the very anti competitive conduct AAMC was afraid of when they did away with the MAR.

Live and learn!!

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

Biggest surprise (if true) is UCLA offering Geffen scholarship on 04/30 to someone with another T10 admission.

 

[deleted688779]

Biggest surprise (if true) is UCLA offering Geffen scholarship on 04/30 to someone with another T10 admission.

If I read correctly, there was one AFTER 4/30.

 

[Blueprint Med School]

Hello all,

To maintain anonymity, I will not be naming the schools I have been admitted to in this post.

I’ve recently been accepted off the waitlist at my state school. However, I prefer nearly every aspect of the OOS school I was accepted to over my IS school. As you can imagine, the difference in cost is large. Is it possible to request scholarship money from the OOS school by detailing my situation and how I want to be there? Is this practice frowned upon and, if not, does it ever actually work?

Thank you all. I realize the fortunate position I’m in.

Will it work? Who knows. Does only the open hand get fed? Most certainly!

David D MD - USMLE and MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

 

[KnightDoc]

Biggest surprise (if true) is UCLA offering Geffen scholarship on 04/30 to someone with another T10 admission.

Why wouldn't it be true? Is it so unbelievable to think someone with that scholarship PTEd somewhere else, thereby making a scholarship available?

 

[deleted972488]

It does not hurt to ask. Some schools are more receptive to this than others, but the worst thing they can do is say no.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

Why wouldn't it be true? Is it so unbelievable to think someone with that scholarship PTEd somewhere else, thereby making a scholarship available?

Don't they typically offer scholarships to more candidates than the number of scholarships they have (based on their historical conversion rate) just like admissions? At least that's the case with UG.

 

[KnightDoc]

Don't they typically offer scholarships to more candidates than the number of scholarships they have (based on their historical conversion rate) just like admissions? At least that's the case with UG.

I'm certainly no expert -- hopefully @PapayaJambalaya can shed some light, but, no, for a full COA scholarship I'd assume they wouldn't screw around and hope more people don't accept than they are able to fund when it's just as easy to limit it to the number they have and then redistribute later, which is what I always thought they did. The fact they offered one at the end of the cycle kind of proves it, doesn't it?

It's easier to offer more As than the number of seats, because the law of large numbers makes it more difficult to screw up (a lot more room for error), but with only 40 scholarships it's more difficult to know with certainty what number greater than 40 will not lead to trouble down the road. Much easier to just give 40, and then redistribute as people turn down the As, which is what I thought had been happening all along as people were reporting receiving the scholarship at various times throughout the cycle, sometimes with their A and sometimes after.