need blind admissions?

[tugo]

do medical schools have need blind admissions? in applying for undergrad, that was a fairly big topic, but i've been reading the sdn and have not seen anything regarding this. if i apply for finaid will that affect my chances at that school? i suspect it does, as med schools are more and more concerned with their budgets and students who can pay their own way would make it easier on them.

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[SolidGold]

Maybe I need to be more sober to understand this.

 

[tugo]

ok, lets try again...for those more inebriated than others....

do schools prefer to accept students who do not apply for finaid therefore don't need the school's money - grants, loans etc... i.e. need blind admissions.

or should i try again, in french perhaps?

 

[lola]

as far as i know schools cannot (and do not) look at your need as a factor in admissions with one exception. schools like to build diversity in their classes and like to give "disadvantaged" applicants a shot that they might not otherwise have. thus, some schools (the uc's do this) may make it slightly easier to gain an acceptance if you are financially needy.
nearly everyone applies for some kind of loan to finance medical education, so med schools would be left with only the very wealthy if they looked at this kind of stuff in determining who to admit.

 

[X]

Lola said it.

And nope this doesn't really matter too much for med school. Why? Most, I am talking a huge majority, cannot afford medical school. It's all about the loans baby.

X

 

[Ryo-Ohki]

Well, it certainly helps if your family can bribe the school with money or power. Or if you're really poor, you can be used as a pity pawn.

But no, it doesn't matter that much for the people in between.

 

[rebaj]

Seems to me that med schools must have need blind admissions, at least the rolling admissions schools. A majority of admissions decisions come in between November and March, and financial aid info doesn't start rolling until March or April - in fact, many schools don't want to review your FA until after your taxes are filed because they don't want to work off an estimate, and many people don't file until April.

So, its gotta be pretty need-blind, because if you are getting accepts early in the season, thay have no information about your need.

-R

 

[Neuronix]

Last time I checked, the medical schools encourage "disadvantaged" applicants because they promote "diversity". So if anything they are trying to select at least a portion of their classes who they KNOW don't have any money. I know some students who have been student adcoms, and at those schools financial means are not a factor. Most students will not get money from their parents for medical school, and will be getting loans/grants to pay.

 

[phar]

money don't make a difference....almost any bank(if not stafford loans) will lend money to med.students...so medical school will make 100% profit from their students, so poor/rich students does not make a difference in gaining acceptance.....if there is a medical school that wants only full cash from students/parents pocket money...let me know...i will call my lawyer and sue the school big time.

 

[Neuronix]

Originally posted by phar
so medical school will make 100% profit from their students

I don't know if you meant it this way or what, but I'll go after it. The cost of training medical school students is greater than the amount of tuition you're paying, even at expensive private schools. Schools have to get endowments, government support, etc to stay afloat. Medical schools lost the ability to make more money by admitting more students about 80 years ago.

Someone who used to be on the inside at MCPH told me that MCPH tried steadily increasing class sizes every year/couple of years when they were in financial trouble, and that didn't work out very well.

But yeah, everyone expects to recoup their loans to medical students. It doesn't always happen, but I'm sure the rate of repayment is well beyond the rate of repayment for every other type of loan.

 

[lady bug]

Even though need isn't a factor in admissions, I have read that if you are a "legacy" (i.e. son/daughter of someone who graduated from that school), it is generally a big red flag to apply for financial aid at that school. I don't know if this applies to just undergraduate admissions or what. But the idea is that if someone couldn't use their education at that institution to generate enough income to pay for his/her child's education, the school doesn't want to make the same mistake twice.