Med School Scholarships

[CAgal]

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I think I'm a little confused about the medical school scholarship process. Do scholarship offers primarily come from schools to which you've been admitted/ do you have to apply to these or are they just granted? Additionally, how common is it to seek external scholarship opportunities to fund medical school? Aka should I be doing something at this time in the process to obtain scholarships for the 2019-2020 school year?

Final decisions regarding matriculation have to be made by the end of next month and I assumed I would have all financial aid and scholarship information by the time I had to make this decision - is this typically true or do financial packages continue to get sorted out up until matriculation?

Essentially I'm just confused as to how this part of the application process works and am wondering what exactly I should be doing right now regarding scholarships.

Thanks for the help!

 

[puahate]

From my research most scholarships people get are from thier school. Some can be negotiated during the application season once you have an acceptance. There are also need based and merit based scholarships from your school that can be considered.

External scholarships that I have seen range from the national to state level. Your school might have obscure scholarships for "students from [state] going into [this school]". There might be scholarships from your state itself. You would have to Google it on your own and are hard to find might not exist.

You always have the big national scholarships too. AAMC offers some, the Soros foundation has one and there are other scholarships. These are the visible kind and the most competitive.

You have the service oriented scholarships from the military or NHSC but they require you to pay back with your time after your training.

 

[puahate]

If i were you. Start negotiating and bringing up scholarships with your school while also looking for state level scholarships

 

[NakMuay33]

I’m jumping in here and hoping to track this convo. Maybe some folks can jump in with information on student loans (public vs. private) and how to get out of this process not absolutely drowning in debt. I’m just starting research into student loans.

 

[premeddestiny]

I’m jumping in here and hoping to track this convo. Maybe some folks can jump in with information on student loans (public vs. private) and how to get out of this process not absolutely drowning in debt. I’m just starting research into student loans.

From reading around here:

1) Being in 300k or more debt isn’t as bad as dental school (where you must also use loans for dental residencies in addition to 4 years of dental school) or law school (saturated job market with low chance of +100K salaried jobs)

2) Live way below your means from now to a few years out of residency until you pay off most of your loans, but also put some money in to increase your quality of life.

3) Refinance your fed loans into a private loan with lower interest rates unless you’re banking on Public Servic Forgiveness Loan

4) Apparently take out the max loans on start and return any unused loans within 120 days without fees or interest

 

[NakMuay33]

From reading around here:

1) Being in 300k or more debt isn’t as bad as dental school (where you must also use loans for dental residencies in addition to 4 years of dental school) or law school (saturated job market with low chance of +100K salaried jobs)

2) Live way below your means from now to a few years out of residency until you pay off most of your loans, but also put some money in to increase your quality of life.

3) Refinance your fed loans into a private loan with lower interest rates unless you’re banking on Public Servic Forgiveness Loan

4) Apparently take out the max loans on start and return any unused loans within 120 days without fees or interest

Thank you! You rock!

What is the reason for #4?

 

[differentiating]

Final decisions regarding matriculation have to be made by the end of next month and I assumed I would have all financial aid and scholarship information by the time I had to make this decision - is this typically true or do financial packages continue to get sorted out up until matriculation?

Not necessarily. Schools don’t have to release this information, so not all will have financial aid offers ready prior to your decision.

In general, unless you qualify for need-based aid or have wealthy parents who’ll foot the bill, you should expect to rely mainly on loans to fund your medical education. There are obviously exceptions, but the majority of students don’t get Geffens.

 

[premeddestiny]

Thank you! You rock!

What is the reason for #4?

Depends on the terms of the loan, if you find you have excess loan $$$ lying around, you can return the excess back less the disbursement fee of the amount (usually 1%). It’s helpful if you find you have a lot of loan money left over. Additionally, if you save up some during M1-M3, you have some money from student loans to pay for residency interviews/relocating so you don’t have to take out an additional loan.

 

[CAgal]

If i were you. Start negotiating and bringing up scholarships with your school while also looking for state level scholarships

Gotcha. I have already received a merit based scholarship offer from one school to which I've been accepted - let's call it school A. If school B's aid is all need based, do you think they would be susceptible to considering matching the scholarship offered by school A? I also most likely qualify for some need based aid if that matters at all.

 

[cantankerous]

Gotcha. I have already received a merit based scholarship offer from one school to which I've been accepted - let's call it school A. If school B's aid is all need based, do you think they would be susceptible to considering matching the scholarship offered by school A? I also most likely qualify for some need based aid if that matters at all.

Oh please do, someone in the waiting list would really take that seat at school B without question.

 

[CAgal]

Oh please do, someone in the waiting list would really take that seat at school B without question.

My wording may have been confusing. As of now, I am planning on matriculating to school B. I am wondering if it is reasonable for school B to match my scholarship from school A, despite all of school B's aid being need based. As @puahate mentioned earlier, it is reasonable to negotiate scholarships with schools - I am wondering if I have a chance at school B matching my merit based scholarship from school A, despite school B only awarding need based aid.

 

[M&L]

I am still waiting on financial packets .., anyone knows when they come out ?

 

[differentiating]

My wording may have been confusing. As of now, I am planning on matriculating to school B. I am wondering if it is reasonable for school B to match my scholarship from school A, despite all of school B's aid being need based. As @puahate mentioned earlier, it is reasonable to negotiate scholarships with schools - I am wondering if I have a chance at school B matching my merit based scholarship from school A, despite school B only awarding need based aid.

From your wording, I think the odds of school B matching a merit scholarship when they don’t offer merit scholarships are slim to none. But I suppose it doesn’t hurt to ask.

 

[awcatt]

From reading around here:

1) Being in 300k or more debt isn’t as bad as dental school (where you must also use loans for dental residencies in addition to 4 years of dental school) or law school (saturated job market with low chance of +100K salaried jobs)

2) Live way below your means from now to a few years out of residency until you pay off most of your loans, but also put some money in to increase your quality of life.

3) Refinance your fed loans into a private loan with lower interest rates unless you’re banking on Public Servic Forgiveness Loan

4) Apparently take out the max loans on start and return any unused loans within 120 days without fees or interest

Be very careful about refinancing with a private institution. While you should have pretty solid job security as a doc with a decent salary, private institutions are much less lenient when life circumstances come up and you need to defer or change payment on a loan.