How to attain scholarships:

[BloodnGuts]

Medical students who have successfully obtained scholarships- What do you feel was the secret to your success?

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[Bartelby]

Financial need at a good school. I have some pretty substantial scholarships but they are based on my demonstrated need (calculated using my parent's income) and the fact that I got admitted, not on something like me being exceptional relative to my peers. I got smaller merit based scholarships at a lower ranked school, but if you can demonstrate need at a good school you may end up with the best scholarships. If you are looking for strictly merit based scholarships contact the medical school's financial aid department for a listing of scholarships that either students have won in the past or that would be worthwhile for you to try to win, but my impression of those is that they are very competitive and generally a drop in the bucket (things like $2-4k/year).

 

[DrBowtie]

High MCAT (36+), High GPA (3.95+), Good ECs if you are non URM. Threshold lowers if you are since there is more recruiting money set aside.

 

[rbnsafsadgf]

Financial need at a good school.

seconded. go to a rich (usually good) school.

 

[welcometomedsch]

I received a scholarship as an m2. It had nothing to due with grades, mostly ECs, just an essay.

Apply, and you'll never know. Only a couple people applied.

 

[TobiasFunkeMDFACS]

apply to new medical schools. UCF gave it's entire charter class full rides.

 

[Gunneria]

are there not private scholarships you can apply to?

 

[Gryhu]

I think it's important to find scholarships that have guarantees to carry over to the following years (given that you maintain a certain grade). A school giving you $20k a year with a guarantee, in my opinion, is better than a school giving you $40k your first year without any guarantee for the following years.

That is, in a nutshell, the most important point that I've learned during financial aid sessions at schools I've interviewed at.

 

[ArcGurren]

Yeah good luck finding scholarships in medical school. Most of the ones I've seen have been specifically for minority students.

 

[Raryn]

1. Come from a poor family (note: being poor yourself is not enough)
2. Be a minority

Given that I failed at 1 and 2 at birth, no scholarships for me.

 

[bad virus]

Ok,

so someone put it on the mark. I come from a super poor family (7 kids and income of less than 15-20k a year) l and have worked full time from late high school till now helping my dad out with the bills. I also did well in undergrad and high school in terms of grades/standardized tests so every time I wrote the tear jerker essay about my struggle (which is nothing compared to what kids in Iraq go through) I got a scholarship.

Also, what some one else said about the merit scholar ships, i've applied to a bunch of those and got a bunch but they are like a drop in the bucket compared to the institutional scholarships. For example, one was 7200 and another was 2500 etc . . .

Just keep up the good grades and come from a poor family and you should be able to land a scholarship.