Medical Schools and Scholarships
Started by bailey42
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They do give them out. Some based on need, some on academics. In the instance of The Cleveland Clinic Lerners Program you could say research since you are required to do a 5th year of all research in turn for tuitionless med school.
Scholarships can be full or partial depending on the school. Some schools give out scholarships to everyone (Mayo Clinic,Cleveland Clinic and somewhere in Florida?), but most school don't have very many to give.
As a general rule, academic scholarships are extremely hard to get in med school. Don't count on getting one even if you have a 4.0 and a top 1% MCAT score with tons of EC's to back your numbers up.
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While you can get some amount of money from most schools based on need, know that on average, folks are coming out of med school with an average debt of $160k, and some are breaking $200k. And this is climbing each year. It's an expensive ordeal. And a big part of why folks going into medicine are no longer netting as much as the prior generation did.
This thread has some info the staff put together regarding funding for med school.
Also know that this average is brought down rather dramatically by all the people who can afford (or have parents who can afford) to pay for tuition as it rolls around and graduate with no debt at all.
bailey...
good you are asking these questions now.
It's true that it's hard to get any kind of academic scholarship at most med schools...some do give a few, but it's kind of luck whether you get one or not, since pretty much all students have a stellar academic record. Once you are in school, there are various organizations that may give out small scholarships (American Medical Assocation, state medical society, American Medical Women's Organization, etc.) but most students get through on 100% loans and whatever they and their parents scraped together before starting med school.
IMHO, the most important thing you can do is NOT GET INTO DEBT. Especially DO NOT GET IN TO CREDIT CARD DEBT. Also, try to borrow as little as you can for undergrad, although I know getting through undergrad with zero debt isn't possible for all students.
good you are asking these questions now.
It's true that it's hard to get any kind of academic scholarship at most med schools...some do give a few, but it's kind of luck whether you get one or not, since pretty much all students have a stellar academic record. Once you are in school, there are various organizations that may give out small scholarships (American Medical Assocation, state medical society, American Medical Women's Organization, etc.) but most students get through on 100% loans and whatever they and their parents scraped together before starting med school.
IMHO, the most important thing you can do is NOT GET INTO DEBT. Especially DO NOT GET IN TO CREDIT CARD DEBT. Also, try to borrow as little as you can for undergrad, although I know getting through undergrad with zero debt isn't possible for all students.
This is a really important point--especially if it's not something necessary. I realize some people have to put books on credit cards, but pay them off as soon as possible. Even low interest rate credit cards have a fairly high interest rate. It is absolutely silly to go into credit card debt for clothes, eating out, and other non-essentials.
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Some schools give out many merit scholarships, but most schools give primarily financial aid, as others mentioned. I know that U of Michigan is famous for their merits scholarships. Often, a highly desireable candidate will be offered a merit scholarship or tuition waiver, but this is in the case of students that will most likely go elsewhere. Basically, these students are faced with the choice of going to their safety or another lower tier school (by their list of who is most desireable) over one of their top choices. Personally, I feel that being free of debt is not worth not going to the school of your choice, unless maybe the other school is your second place best.
Many schools have decent financial packages. Mine does not hand out merit-based scholarships. They calculate it this way for each of the 4 years of med school: everyone is expected to pay $20,000 by taking out a loan (partially interest-free and partially low-interest). They calculate how much your family can afford to contribute per year. Then they cover the rest.
