BamaFlip, you're far too complementary
I don't really know too much about the need-based scholarships, but just about everything else said about the merit scholarships is true. They are $5000/yr split into two payments (one in late August I think and the other in January). Here are the requirements for eligiblity copied from our website:
"Merit-based awards are offered to incoming first year medical students based on meeting two of three requirements:
-A 3.75 overall undergraduate GPA
-30 or above on the (first time to take the) MCAT exam
-A 9 or above committee rating by the Admissions
Committee of the medical school you will attend.
After these requirements are met, 15 students from UASOM and 6 students from USACOM (University of South Alabama College of Medicine) are interviewed by the Board. No application is needed for the merit-based award. All students accepted to medical school are automatically considered. Eleven awards are made in the amount of $5,000 per year; awards are renewable if a student remains in the top 20% of his or her class."
The 9 or above has to do with your interview, I believe. So, theoretically, if you had a good GPA and a great interview your MCAT score wouldn't matter. I think most of the actual recipients, though, meet all three requirements. You don't have to apply for the merit scholarships; they contact you if they want to interview you. Last year's interview were conducted at UASOM in Volker Hall.
The interviews are also kind of weird, because you have your normal med school interviewers (professors, clinicians, etc.) and then you also have state politicians present in the room. My interview had three interviewers in it. Two of them were sitting in chairs next to me while the third, Mr. X (a politician I believe, but possibly a mafia kingpin) was sitting away from us behind a desk. I say "assume" because when I introduced myself, the third never gave me his name. Mr. X did not speak during the interview until the very end, when he decided to interrupt one of the other interviewers in mid sentence to say, "So, if you get the scholarship, are you going to come here?" Then the interview was over. I felt like I was supposed to kiss his ring as I left...