need-based scholarships

[gogetter898]

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when a school says they only offer need-based scholarships in lieu of merit scholarships, who qualifies? i feel like everyone has a "need" with how high med school cost of attendance is so is it based on poverty line factors? If I fall above the poverty line due to parental income do i not qualify for need-based scholarships at all?

 

[mmchick]

when a school says they only offer need-based scholarships in lieu of merit scholarships, who qualifies? i feel like everyone has a "need" with how high med school cost of attendance is so is it based on poverty line factors? If I fall above the poverty line due to parental income do i not qualify for need-based scholarships at all?

Not 100% sure about all of this, but from my understanding, these are the schools you have to input parental income information in FAFSA / have to file FAFSA with those schools indicated so that they can see your EFC (estimated family contribution). Of course, we can argue the issues with this (i.g. just because your parents make a ton of money doesn't mean they're going to support their 26 year old adult kid who is in professional school), but I believe that is how "need-based" scholarship is determined - if your EFC is really low based on your personal/familial income.

 

[gogetter898]

Not 100% sure about all of this, but from my understanding, these are the schools you have to input parental income information in FAFSA / have to file FAFSA with those schools indicated so that they can see your EFC (estimated family contribution). Of course, we can argue the issues with this (i.g. just because your parents make a ton of money doesn't mean they're going to support their 26 year old adult kid who is in professional school), but I believe that is how "need-based" scholarship is determined - if your EFC is really low based on your personal/familial income.

so even if my parents have steady income but will not be providing for me during medical school so their contribution would technically b zero, i still wouldn't qualify as need-based? Who does qualify as need-based - is there a cut-off or metric like there was for fee assistance or does it vary by school?

trying to decide if filling out scholarship apps is worth it if they're all need-based

 

[deleted1076141]

so even if my parents have steady income but will not be providing for me during medical school so their contribution would technically b zero, i still wouldn't qualify as need-based? Who does qualify as need-based - is there a cut-off or metric like there was for fee assistance or does it vary by school?

trying to decide if filling out scholarship apps is worth it if they're all need-based

That’s generally the case, yeah. Your parent income won’t affect your eligibility for federal loans, but it will affect your eligibility for need based institutional aid

 

[gogetter898]

That’s generally the case, yeah. Your parent income won’t affect your eligibility for federal loans, but it will affect your eligibility for need based institutional aid

do a lot of people qualify for need-based scholarships? Just bc cost of attendance for medical schools is so high?

 

[OfMiceAndWomen]

so even if my parents have steady income but will not be providing for me during medical school so their contribution would technically b zero, i still wouldn't qualify as need-based? Who does qualify as need-based - is there a cut-off or metric like there was for fee assistance or does it vary by school?

trying to decide if filling out scholarship apps is worth it if they're all need-based

It depends on the school how EFC is calculated and then how need-based aid is awarded based on EFC. Each school has its own way of calculating EFC (and no one will tell you what it is lol). There's usually no hard cut-off, because they consider assets as well as income.

I may be wrong, but I think that schools like Harvard & Yale have zero parent contribution for parents' income of ~100-120k or under with "typical assets". This also doesn't take into account student contribution, so if the student has any kind of income or asset, that will also be part of EFC.

If you're not sure you qualify for need-based aid, it wouldn't hurt to fill out scholarship applications. You could be pleasantly surprised, or it would just confirm what you already expected.