<p>I'm thinking ahead, I haven't even reached Undergrad yet (I'm going to college this fall), but I'd like to know what I may have to work up to, to guarantee a relatively debt-free education (from UG to Med School). I'd like to be a Pediatric Surgeon in the future which I know will require quite a few years of education (and money). I understand that money awarded in Med School is dependent on your performance in your Undergraduate Studies. So I'd like to know if there is any such thing as "full ride scholarships" based on merit or need-based aid. I'm looking at top colleges in the future, hopefully Harvard, UPenn, or Stanford.</p>
<p>First of all, your goal should not necessarily be to get into a top medical school like Harvard or Penn, but just to get INTO medical school. I advise undergrads at an Ivy League school and a lot of these incredibly driven and ambitious students get rejected from medical school. Medical school is incredibly competitive, even your public medical schools. But the thing is, medical schools are “flat” as far as ranking goes. That is to say, even though US News and other outlets will attempt to rank US medical schools, this is kind of pointless as virtually every US medical school is great - they all give good medical educations. On top of that, do you know where your primary care doctor went to med school? Most people don’t. Honestly, it doesn’t matter whether you went to Harvard med or your state’s flagship medical school, you’ll still be licensed to practice medicine afterwards and your salary is unlikely to be very affected by where you went. But public med school students probably come out with far less debt, since public medical schools are usually a lot cheaper than expensive privates. So don’t discount your home state’s medical schools.</p>
<p>Now for your question : There aren’t many, mainly because medical students can expect to make relatively hefty salaries ($150K-$400K+ depending on specialty) and to be able to repay such loans.</p>
<p>One is the Health Professional Scholarship Program, which is run by three branches of the US military (Army, Navy, Air Force). The military pays your medical school fees (tuition and fees) in addition to paying you a monthly stipend (right now it is $2,088 a month; it will probably be more when you graduated). During some school breaks, you attend training for which you are paid active duty pay as a second lieutenant in the Army and Air Force, and an ensign in the Navy. In return, after you graduate you serve for four years as a military physician (less than that if you got fewer years of the scholarship). There are some other pros and cons, as well as differences between how the scholarship functions between the different services, and the scholarship fluctuates in competitiveness depending on the needs of the military in different times.</p>
<p>The National Health Service Corps has a similar scholarship. They’ll cover up to four years of medical school (or dental school, nurse practitioner studies or physician assistant studies) and give you a monthly stipend for those years. In return, you have to practice at a NHSC-approved clinic/hospital/provider for 4 years (one year for every year of the scholarship, minimum two years). All of the approved areas are in high-need urban or suburban areas. These scholarships are extremely competitive.</p>
<p>Both the military and the NHSC do loan repayment programs in exchange for service - you can get either agency to repay your loans after you complete medical school if you weren’t able to obtain a scholarship.</p>
<p>Some medical schools offer a limited number of merit-based scholarships - Vanderbilt, for example, has 8.</p>
<p>Thanks for the indepth explanation of Med School and possible scholarships. I’ll make sure to keep that in mind. Any other responses?</p>
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<p>Wrong! </p>
<p>First, there is very, very little merit aid available for medical school. (And none at all at the med schools you’ve mentioned.) </p>
<p>And what merit aid that is awarded looks are many factors besides your undergrad grades. (MCAT scores, research publications, ECs, national awards & recognitions, minority status are among the things that get considered.)</p>
<p>Many scholarships awarded at the school level have very specific requirements (ex. third year medical student interested in women’s health issues who plans to work in rural county Z after graduation.) And these scholarships are good for only 1 year and are typically for a small amount–a few thousand dollars at most.</p>
<p>There is very, very little need-based grant aid for med school. There are approx 5 or 6 US medical schools that give large need-based grants to students–and the student gets grants only after a family contribution has been paid and the student has taken out X amount of baseline loans each year.</p>
<p>Private medical schools will require your parental financial information and calculate a family contribution–even if your parent aren’t going to contribute to your med school education and even if you’ve been out of the house and living independently after your undergrad. Depending upon the school, this info may be required for students as old as 35 when first matriculating. If you’re married, med schools will ask for both spousal financial info AND parental financial info. </p>
<p>Public medical schools will ask for family financial info if you apply for a scholarship and most public med schools will consider the family’s ability to pay when awarding even small scholarships. </p>
<p>Most med students finance their education through federal loans.</p>
<p>Excessive debt is a serious problem for new physicians and it’s an issue of concern for AMCAS, the AMA and other physician advocacy organizations.</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/152968/data/debtfactcard.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/152968/data/debtfactcard.pdf</a></p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/services/first/first_factsheets/249340/applicantsandstudents.html[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/services/first/first_factsheets/249340/applicantsandstudents.html</a></p>
<p>PH-- Be aware that except for the military option that Juliette talks about, all other service-based loan forgiveness programs and the NHSC are for primary care physicians only. Surgery is NOT a primary care field. </p>
<p>Primary care fields are: psychiatry, pediatrics, family practice, OB/GYN and general internal medicine.</p>
<p>With the military option your choice of residency will be shaped by the needs of the medical corp of the branch of the military you join. If the Army (or Navy or Air Force) doesn’t need any pediatric surgeons, you will not be able be offered a ped surgery residency and will have to choose some other field.</p>
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<p>You also need to prepare for the costs of applying to medical school.</p>
<p>At a minimum, you will need to pay:</p>
<p>▪ MCAT ($235 per test sitting)
MCAT prep materials and/or prep class (prep classes are $2000 and up; prep books cost $35+ each and you will need several)
official transcripts–one copy from every college you’ve ever attended
AMCAS primary application ($160 for the first school, $35 for each additional school with most applicants applying to 12-20 schools in order to assure they get at least 1 interview)
secondary application fees ($25-$125 per school)
travel expenses for interviews (including plane/train/bus/taxi/shuttle fares, plus meals, lodging and incidentals)
appropriate interview clothing (suit with dress shoes, for both genders)
criminal background investigation fees (mandatory for all accepted students. Typically $65-$125)
another round of official transcripts after graduation showing that you have indeed graduated </p>
<p>There will likely be other expenses along the way, in addition to the above.</p>
<p>AMCAS has very limited FA for students who are eligible for a full Pell grant. It reduces the MCAT to $85 per sitting and waives the all costs for first 12 AMCAS primaries.</p>
<p>There is no other aid that will cover your other costs.</p>
<p>A few points to add…</p>
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<p>Yes, definitely don’t just apply to top med schools. Also, statistically speaking more than half of incoming freshmen premeds will not be premed anymore by the time it comes to apply to med school, and it’s not only because of bad grades in intro classes. Some people simply change their interests.</p>
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<p>Yes, generally true as long as you are from an U.S. MD med school. Keep in mind that you still have to get into a residency program following and med school and train for another 3-8 years before you practice, and your chances of matching residency drop a bit if you went to a DO school, especially for the more competitive specialties. They are even by far worse if you end up going to a Caribbean or other international med school. And some of the more competitive residency programs and specialties will take account the “prestige” or ranking of your med school.</p>
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<p>Not so much anymore, as physician salaries in the last 20 years haven’t kept up with inflation, and most people believe they will drop even more steeply as a long term result of the 2010 ACA, especially the salaries of high-paying specialties. Also, don’t expect to automatically enter a high-paying specialty after med school as those can be very competitive and people may change their interests once they do clinical rotations during their third year in med school. For example, if you went into pediatrics making about $140k to start but took out the full COA of a private med school costing $75k per year x 4 years = $300k, there’s no way you’ll be able to pay that off in 10 years without living like a resident after you have already completed your residency.</p>
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<p>While as mentioned full COA scholarships are very hard to come by outside military options, full tuition scholarships are offered more often. For example, MD/PhD programs offer it to all their students plus a stipend during your 4 years you do your PhD (if you wanna spend the extra 4 years doing a PhD and stay in academic medicine down the line), some special programs such as the Cleveland Clinic (at Case Western) will offer full tuition scholarships, and some mid-high to mid ranked public and private med schools will offer a few full tuition scholarships to their top students (so as to often draw them away from their Ivy acceptance school). There also a few private scholarship programs (like the Tylenol Future Care Scholarship) but those only cover a fraction of the cost. There are also partial scholarships (say in the form of $10k per year) for anyone who signs an agreement to go into primary care or practice in a medically underserved area (if you don’t go into one those fields the scholarship must be repaid as a loan), and also income-based loan repayment plans for those entering into public service.</p>
<p>Long story short, scholarships are generally available to either the best of the best med school students or only to those who want to pursue specialties or sectors in medicine that pay less, such as academic medicine, primary care, practice underserved areas or the military. (You probably won’t see a scholarship for those who want to enter into private practice or go into radiology…)</p>
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<p>Yes, be prepared to come up with another $4000 to $9000 on your own or with your family in addition to your school’s COA during your junior or senior year to cover the whole process. Your school certainly won’t help you here.</p>
<p>For example, MD/PhD programs offer it to all their students plus a stipend during your 4 years you do your PhD (if you wanna spend the extra 4 years doing a PhD and stay</p>
<p>Getting accepted to MD/PhD programs is even harder than getting into med school. Often a much higher MCAT is needed (along with a high GPA).</p>
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<p>Regarding NHSC, I just looked at the designated shortage areas for our state and many are rural.</p>
<p>Darnit, that sentence was supposed to be “high-need urban or RURAL areas.” My fingers were getting away from me. NHSC-funded doctors most likely will NOT be living in suburban areas while they are working off their assistance.</p>
<p>And when I said “relatively hefty” I meant “hefty” compared to the rest of the US population. A salary of $150K still puts one in the top bracket of US earners, although it certainly is not enough to pay off medical school debt at somewhere like Harvard. That’s another good reason to go to your state flagship’s public medical college.</p>
<p>Thanks, just wondering because I thought that was the program I had looked at previously for D1. Her concern was the inability to have much, if any, control over where you practiced. She’s interested in underserved urban communities and would probably not do very well in a rural setting.</p>
<p>Harvard Medical school’s financial aid is need-based only. Depending on your FAFSA EFC and the info provided on the Need Access form Harvard’s package could be much better than a med school that does not meet need. Harvard uses a basic unit loan package and then awards institutional funds for the remaining unmet need. Info includes student, parent(s) and possible spouse’s financial info.</p>
<p>Cornell, Dartmouth, Penn, Columbia, Yale and Harvard all use the unit loan policy. Compare vs say Temple where COA is $75K per year and all loans. They do offer some merit scholie’s but no where near what Harvard will offer those with low EFCs.</p>
<p>Kat</p>