What's a good scholarship amount?

[Camy99]

What would you all say is a "good" scholarship amount? As in, one to actually be impressed by (I know any money is impressive, but when you're going to be 200K+ in debt anyways, amounts start to matter). Would you say at least 25% coverage? Or at least 20K, for example?

Just wondering 🙂 I haven't started a new thread in ages, scary.

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[darkjedi]

any

scholarship money is pretty limited in medical school, with the vast majority of schools having very limited money to really offer for merit scholarships.

were it not for rich parents, a very large chunk of the medical school population would be paying for school entirely with loans.

 

[laundry]

...as opposed to a bad amount?

 

[BABSstudent]

What would you all say is a "good" scholarship amount? As in, one to actually be impressed by (I know any money is impressive, but when you're going to be 200K+ in debt anyways, amounts start to matter). Would you say at least 25% coverage? Or at least 20K, for example?

Just wondering 🙂 I haven't started a new thread in ages, scary.

I would be happy with any amount. It isn't like medical schools have an infinite amount of dollars to give out.

My school doesn't even give out full rides. They would rather give everyone close to the same amount to reduce the cost for everyone. Apparently we all get close to $9,000 in grants and scholarships combined.

 

[Narmerguy]

What would you all say is a "good" scholarship amount? As in, one to actually be impressed by (I know any money is impressive, but when you're going to be 200K+ in debt anyways, amounts start to matter). Would you say at least 25% coverage? Or at least 20K, for example?

Just wondering 🙂 I haven't started a new thread in ages, scary.

You acknowledge that any amount is impressive, so that's a good start.

I would say that this really depends on your financial needs and what you mean by "good". Is 10k a year "good" for a school that offers up to 40k a year? Or what about 10k a year for a school that very rarely gives any aid?

Practically speaking, "good" can only be determined by you and what amount you need a school to cost for you to reasonably attend. If they give you enough money such that they fit within your finances, then it's good money. But if you mean "good" as in, how should it be externally perceived? That's hard to say, and depends on the different scholarships the schools offer and the quantity of them they typically give out. I think the latter interpretation is less useful in making serious decisions on which school to attend.

 

[TheWeeIceMan]

> 0

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

What would you all say is a "good" scholarship amount? As in, one to actually be impressed by (I know any money is impressive, but when you're going to be 200K+ in debt anyways, amounts start to matter). Would you say at least 25% coverage? Or at least 20K, for example?

Just wondering 🙂 I haven't started a new thread in ages, scary.

Do you mean for other people to be impressed by or for you to be impressed by and sway you to pick that school?

 

[Camy99]

Do you mean for other people to be impressed by or for you to be impressed by and sway you to pick that school?

The second one.
I actually thought that every school offered some amount, depending on the COA (that's why I asked by percentages).
I also partially asked because I recently got a scholarship but wasn't sure if it was something worth jumping for joy over (I thought there was an average amount that most received) since at the end of the day I'll probably still hit 200K of debt.

Good to know! 🙂 Thanks, I hope my question didn't sound full of itself :/ I was genuinely curious...

 

[nychila]

You're probably looking for a quantitative figure here, and no one has really helped you in that area, so I will attempt to give you my opinion: For a total loan of 200k-300k, I would say 50k or above in scholarships for the four years is very significant and 25k or above is nice. If you're already that much in loans, Anything less than 25k is only about 10% of your total debt, so it won't matter as much in the end. But remember that very few schools actually give out scholars of any kind, whether it be merit or need-based, and of course my numbers above are very dependent on many factors.

 

[Camy99]

You're probably looking for a quantitative figure here, and no one has really helped you in that area, so I will attempt to give you my opinion: For a total loan of 200k-300k, I would say 50k or above in scholarships for the four years is very significant and 25k or above is nice. If you're already that much in loans, Anything less than 25k is only about 10% of your total debt, so it won't matter as much in the end. But remember that very few schools actually give out scholars of any kind, whether it be merit or need-based, and of course my numbers above are very dependent on many factors.

Thank you! This is the kind of answer I was looking for. Btw, when you say 25k or 50k do you mean per year, or total? These are usually awarded per year, correct? (Clearly I fell asleep during all the fin. aid. talks >.<)

 

[nychila]

Thank you! This is the kind of answer I was looking for. Btw, when you say 25k or 50k do you mean per year, or total? These are usually awarded per year, correct? (Clearly I fell asleep during all the fin. aid. talks >.<)

I meant total for the 4 years. 50k is about a fifth to a quarter of your total cost, which starts to become significant, while 25k is about only one-tenth of your total cost, which doesn't seem to mean too much if you look at the bigger picture.

In the end, any scholarship in good, because most people get none, and of those who get any, it's usually not that much.