Do scholarships help in getting a competitive residency?

[TripleDegree]

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Merit scholarships in med school, of course.

How would you rank a merit scholarship compared to USMLE, pre-clinical GPA, clinical GPAs, reference letters etc - in terms of impressing the PDs

 

[blue2000]

Merit scholarships in med school, of course.

How would you rank a merit scholarship compared to USMLE, pre-clinical GPA, clinical GPAs, reference letters etc - in terms of impressing the PDs

My take on it would that it would factor in only minimally -- i.e. if the rest of your application is mediocre, a merit scholarship isn't going to do you any good. I would rank it below clinical GPA, USMLE, letters, and specialty related extra-curriculars.

 

[kas23]

I had a merit scholarship. It probably didn't help me at all, or at least not that I know of. Filling up a blank space in the "awards" section of the ERAS application is probably all it was good for in terms of my residency application. In fact, it is best to assume that it will not help at all, that way there won't be any suprises in the future.

Scholarships are just that. They give you money to offset tuition and other expenses.

 

[doc05]

not very helpful.

 

[bigfrank]

not very helpful.

agreed. Many of these "merit" scholarships are more-or-less popularity contests. Some a$$ in my class recently got a scholarship with some dude's name attached to it and one specific criterion for receiving the award, among others, was "sensitivity." I thought, WOW, this is truly pathetic.