This is basic med school financial aid 101 (med students correct me if I'm wrong):
there are a few ways to pay for med school (total cost of attendance, which is tuition + expenses, ranges between 30ish thousand and 80ish thousand, I think):
1) Merit scholarships: extremely rare, especially the full tuition or full cost of attendance ones. However, they do exist, and some schools have more of these than others. Definitely not something to count on, though. As one financial aid guy put it "getting a merit scholarship is like winning the lottery".
2) Outside scholarships: the most common ones are the military scholarship (full ride, but it requires you to serve in military medicine for a number of years after you graduate), one that requires you to work in rural or underserved areas in primary care after you graduate (I forget what that's called, some schools have their own rural medicine primary care programs that give you school-based money, too), and one that's for first-generation immigrants to the US that's very very competitive. As far as I know the military one and the rural medicine/primary care one are not very competitive, but they do require quite a commitment. Note: there might be more scholarships that I don't know about, but these are the most popular/nationwide ones.
3) Need-based grants: these come straight from the school. Now, when the time comes to apply for financial aid, you fill out FAFSA and probably some other form the school wants you to fill out, which includes your parental information as well as your own. Parental info IS taken into account for need-based stuff, regardless of whether they'll support you or not. Sucks, but that's how it is. Anyways, how much need-based money you get depends on the school's individual income cutoffs. So, the more generous schools might give you need money based on less need (meaning with your parents making more money) than others.
4) Loans, loans, loans: this is how most people pay for their med school education, at least in part. Basically speaking, the school will take its projected cost of attendance (e.g. 70,000, made up of 50,000 tuition, 20,000 cost of living), subtract either need-based grants or merit-based scholarships or outside scholarships like the military one, and then give you the rest in federal loans. If you don't demonstrate enough need for their calculations (if your parents make decent money, usually, or if you have good savings), and you didn't take any scholarships, you can have the whole cost of attendance in loans, every year.
And that's the basics of med school financial aid!
