Question Regarding Scholarships

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

Chuchunezumis

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2012
Messages
49
Reaction score
0
Hello,

I'm considering my options and am wondering what kind of GPA/MCAT score is usually necessary to obtain a merit scholarship for podiatry school. Additionally, how much is reasonably possible? Debt is a big concern to me and I've recently met some very cool podiatrist who've motivated me to look into the specialty a bit more.

Thanks.

Members don't see this ad.
 
It would be best to contact the schools about this. Scholarship offers change and you will know a lot more about qualifications if you talk to admissions.
 
I am curious about this too. I may study up and retake the MCAT this summer to boost my score for scholarship money.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
I will say they seem to weigh the MCAT more and the older bigger schools give more out. Fwiw my 2.9gpa and 31 MCAT got me 15k at cspm 4k western and 11500 at Temple
 
Yeah each school has different formulas for scholarships, literally. CSPM for example is MCAT + 10*GPA and depending on a numbered category, you get 10k, 15k, 20k, or nothing (I received 15k). NYCPM gives a merit scholarship of up to half tuition (~14K), but can be as low as 2-4k. Temple has been pretty standard with their 11k recently. Basically, get the highest darn GPA/MCAT you can to make your financial life easier.

Totally off topic, but why was it mentioned that DMU has the cheapest tuition? They're pushing past 30k for the first year, while NYCPM is lower at 27k (to try to offset the high living cost, but still).
 
Yeah each school has different formulas for scholarships, literally. CSPM for example is MCAT + 10*GPA and depending on a numbered category, you get 10k, 15k, 20k, or nothing (I received 15k). NYCPM gives a merit scholarship of up to half tuition (~14K), but can be as low as 2-4k. Temple has been pretty standard with their 11k recently. Basically, get the highest darn GPA/MCAT you can to make your financial life easier.

Totally off topic, but why was it mentioned that DMU has the cheapest tuition? They're pushing past 30k for the first year, while NYCPM is lower at 27k (to try to offset the high living cost, but still).

The thing that's often not mentioned is whether a scholarship is renewable, and what criteria you need to satisfy to renew it after the 1st year. I know when I interviewed at CSPM, all of their scholarships were renewable, and you only needed to maintain a 3.0+ gpa to do so. So if you qualified for their max offer (which I didn't sadly), that's a potential savings of $80,000 over four years if you can just keep your gpa above 3.0. Not too shabby & a lot more attainable to keep than needing to be in the top ten percent of your class or whatnot!
 
The thing that's often not mentioned is whether a scholarship is renewable, and what criteria you need to satisfy to renew it after the 1st year. I know when I interviewed at CSPM, all of their scholarships were renewable, and you only needed to maintain a 3.0+ gpa to do so. So if you qualified for their max offer (which I didn't sadly), that's a potential savings of $80,000 over four years if you can just keep your gpa above 3.0. Not too shabby & a lot more attainable to keep than needing to be in the top ten percent of your class or whatnot!

We have to remember that saving X amount of dollars over four years due to scholarships doesn't take into account the comparison with other schools, and since you're going to pod school one way or another, that is the number you need to be looking at. For example (my calculations), the $15,000 CSPM scholarship is off of the 37k tuition + living etc, while the $4,000 merit scholarship from DMU is off 29k tuition + living etc, which ends up being a total savings over four years of 15-25K of one school over another. The $80,000 saved from scholarships is not the number you need to look at.

I have interviewed at 5 schools, and ALL claim to have renewable tuition, CSPM is 3.0GPA +, DMU is top 25%, Temple is top 10-15%, etc. The criteria are different, although it's hard to say which would be harder to obtain given the variability in schools. Bottom line, make an excel spreadsheet and add as many known costs as possible in order to determine the financial aspect of each school, and compare them effectively.
 
We have to remember that saving X amount of dollars over four years due to scholarships doesn't take into account the comparison with other schools, and since you're going to pod school one way or another, that is the number you need to be looking at. For example (my calculations), the $15,000 CSPM scholarship is off of the 37k tuition + living etc, while the $4,000 merit scholarship from DMU is off 29k tuition + living etc, which ends up being a total savings over four years of 15-25K of one school over another. The $80,000 saved from scholarships is not the number you need to look at.

I have interviewed at 5 schools, and ALL claim to have renewable tuition, CSPM is 3.0GPA +, DMU is top 25%, Temple is top 10-15%, etc. The criteria are different, although it's hard to say which would be harder to obtain given the variability in schools. Bottom line, make an excel spreadsheet and add as many known costs as possible in order to determine the financial aspect of each school, and compare them effectively.

Totally agree with your points. But there's no need for exaggeration. Here's DMU's tuition page. The official tuition alone is 30k, so how can it's tuition + living be 29k as you stated?

Agree with everything else you said though.
 
Totally agree with your points. But there's no need for exaggeration. Here's DMU's tuition page. The official tuition alone is 30k, so how can it's tuition + living be 29k as you stated?

Agree with everything else you said though.

Pardon me I'm implying 29/30k tuition + living and etc (so not including those). Including everything it's obviously around 50-60k, similar for all schools. Grammar injustice.
 
DMU's total estimated cost for first year is $53,295 I believe.
 
Top