You are WAY too far away from applying to med school to be stressing out about it. If you feel compelled to worry about anything, it should be UG and keeping a high GPA.
Chill out! Youâre long away from applying to medical school. Worry about getting into college first. Then worry about the rest of this stuff laterâŠ
Big money med school scholarships are uncommon unless youâre a tippy-toppy student AND you bring something special to the class (like diversity or unusual achievementsâthink Rhodes or Goldwater Scholar, Olympic medal winner, Met Opera soloist, etcâor you have multiple acceptances at a half dozen top 10 med schools)
There are 2 medical schools that offer full tuition scholarships to all studentsâCleveland Clinic which accepts just 32 students/year and Mayo Clinic which accepts 40 students/year. (Momworriedâs son goes to one of those.)
Most other scholarships tend to be for small amounts --a few thousand dollars. Some med schools have endowed scholarships for student going into specific specialties (principally primary care fields) or who meet certain demographic requirements. (Resident of X county who plans to practice primary care in X county after graduation. Single parent over age 35. First generation Hispanic student whose parents emigrated from Paraguay. Son or daughter of Teamsterâs Union member.)
As for Pennsylvania. PA has no true public medical schools, only private ones. Pitt, Temple and Penn State are weird public-private hybrids. The med schools are actually private but the state of PA subsidizes the tuition for any in-state students who enroll. So because the schools are privateâand not funded primarily by the PA legislatureâthereâs no state mandate for any of those schools to prefer in-state applicants. So donât waste your energy grumbling about Pittâitâs the PA state legislature that you ought to direct your ire toward.
If you donât like the odds of getting into a med school in PA, you can always move after you graduate from college to state that offers better in-state preference/odds, live independently for a year or 5 to establish residency (residency requirements vary widely by state) and then apply to med school.
@WayOutWestMom haha thanks a lot!!! I actually have Florida residency as well but none of the Florida med schools are super helpful for instate students except fsu.
For medical school admission purposes, you can only have residency in one state. AMCAS requires you to indicate ONE state of residency at the time you apply and you cannot change it later. Then after admission, each public med school has its own specific residency requirements you have to meet to qualify for in-state tuition.
Actually all of Floridaâs public med schools do offer moderately strong to strong in-state preference (75% or more of the student body are in-state). Miami is a public-private hybrid and gives admission preference to Florida residents. (Since ~50% of its student body are Florida residents, this suggests there is indeed an in-state preference or its student body would more geographically diverse.)
The problem with Florida residency is that FL produces a HUGE number of med school applicants (over 3300 last year) and there simply arenât enough in-state seats (only 675) to accommodate them. TX and NY each produces about the same number of med school applicants as FL, but TX and NY have significantly more med school seats (1141 and 968, respectively).
@WayOutWestMom yeah I assumed so but by the time I am applying to med school my residency will most likely be Florida 100% but right now itâs too confusing. Thank you for the help.
My daughters BFF and roommate got a full tuition scholarship to Tulane. They awarded it AFTER she matriculated!!! She about fell out of her chair. She had been accepted to 3-4 schools, including her home state. Her stats were the same as my daughterâs (who is at our state flagship⊠with no scholarship), however she is first generation college grad and has been on her own since she was 16. She absolutely deserves the scholarship. So even though itâs rare, there are opportunities out there. Also, there are scholarships that young men and women can apply to when they are in Med school. The loan part is daunting, but necessary. My oldest is taking out money as needed, which is nice that her school lets her do it that way! She loves it, and will be home next week from her first semester!
This thread has been pretty quiet lately in regards to IIs and acceptances. I know that Dec can be rather quiet, but it just seems like, overall, this thread has been rather quiet for awhile.
See post # 84 for background. Son had third interview and second acceptance this week.
@eastcoascrazy congrats!
Just to add some additional info on scholarships - Some of the schools I am aware of which give out large scholarships:
- Penn - about 30+ full tuition scholarships
- Chicago - Has several varying scholarships, some considered very generous
- Vanderbilt - has many 75% off tuition scholarships
- UCLA - Geffen scholarships (30 or more) - these cover full cost of attendence
- Washington University - Several full tuitions and varying levels of additional scholarships
In addition, there are several schools which cover financial need (Harvard, Stanford, Yale etc) but these are a little more tricky since they expect you to cover unit cost followed by parental contribution. So unlike undergrad, they expect the students to borrow upto 30k first, determine what the parents can pay on top of that and then cover the rest.
PSA for all those who have med school acceptances.
You will need to have proof that all your vaccinations are up to date before orientation. This means you need to gather your immunization records and update your immunizations if needed. You must have a current flu shot.
You will need titers for MMR, HepB, and varicella (chickenpox). Even if you have been previously vaccinated for these diseases, your immunity could have worn off or could never have developed properly in the first place.
You want to start on this ASAP because if your titers for HepB donât prove you have a sufficient antibody response, it takes up to 6 months to repeat the Hep B sequence.
Without current proof of immunity, you can be denied your seat in med school.
Thanks for that! If you had chicken pox as a kid, does that mean you need a titer for that?
D got a late interview. Wasnât planning on accepting anymore but she likes this school and surprised that she got an interview.
Should she update admissions peeps about Phi Beta Kappa invitation? Do they care as in maybe a little tiny scholarship?
Concerning chicken pox: D got the chicken pox at 6 months, no vaccine, so she had to get a titer. The med schools she was accepted to sent information on what titers/ immunizations/ lab tests they required.
The first question isâdoes the school even accept update letters? Many donât. (And sending one when the policy say no updates --not a good idea.)
FA isnât going to be influenced by PBK since thatâs not something med schools particualrly care about.
And yes, if you had actual chickenpox, youâll need titers to prove immunity. (Both Ds had chickenpox and they both had to submit titers to their school as proof of their immunity.)
Got an email today from D and FSIL telling me they officially have jobs! Now the wait till Friday to find out where they matched.
How hard is it to go back to California for residency after going to an east coast medical school?
My D is a CA resident. She got accepted to UCSD but is leaning toward going to a top 3 (USNews ranking) non-CA school. She really want to go back to CA for residency. Currently, her top 2 choices for specialty are anesthesiology and ophthalmology. Of course she may change it later.
I do understand that for competitive specialty, residency depends a lot on step scores, LORs, research⊠Hopefully she will be doing OK for her steps score even though there may not be a very strong correlation between her SAT score (2360), MCAT score (525(new)~41-42(old)) to step scores.
Anyway, I appreciate any input in what you think would give her a better chance for residency in CA: UCSD or the east coast school?
Thanks in advance
nvm
Anesthesia and Ophthalmology are such different specialties. Matching for Anesthesia will not be that difficult from UCSD or any other top Medical school. Ophthalmology will be much more difficult and would depend a bit on the strength of the Ophthalmology department of your east coast medical school. UCSD has a decent Ophthalmology program. Hopkins is top notch, Harvard is good, Duke is excellent. Penn is decent. Obviously she may change her mind as many often do. She also does not have to do a residency in California to get a job in California.