<p>^Kat, that’s totally awesome, and I am so happy for you and your boy (and his friends!). Graduating with no med school debt would be great. </p>
<p>Just to toss another data point into the mix, my school’s largest merit-based scholarships are <$5k, we have a variety of need-based scholarships (no idea how much they’re for), we have exactly zero full-tuition scholarships, and our very friendly/helpful finaid office is always emailing us with other scholarship offers (but usually they’ll be limited to students from certain geographic areas or something). I also know a variety of students at other schools and none of us has received a renewable scholarship >$5k. (Many students choose to enter the military or into various other service agreements–I’m not counting them!)</p>
<p>My kids school has no merit aid at all. She was awarded a nice 1/2 tuition at UTSW but being debt free from UG helped make the high dollar choice possible. As a business and ranch owner FA is always iffy but we have been happy with her school’s FA. </p>
<p>And, as a warning, big merit awards are for WOW kids. Regular Joe and Jane? Count on loans.</p>
<p>"There are a lot more full tuition scholarships for med school than people think. "
-I imagine that you need 4.0/40 for these…or PhD from Harvard</p>
<p>kat,
Congrats!
"Son saw money from Temple (20K?), Dartmouth (almost full tuition), UNC (full tuition +), Cornell( full tution +), his buddy at Penn (almost full tuition) received some after turning down JH which was much less and Chicago which was full tuition, another fellow undergrad alum at Duke has also received some. NC also offers a state-based scholie which is full tution + fees + supplies +$5000 per year ( from the state not the school). In exchange student must work in the state for 5 years. "
-Awesome!! Your S. must one of those rare geniuses who could mange both graddes and high MCAT score. Well, D. got only $2k / year from one of hers and it was not worth it at all, no full tuitions. She would not mind to stay in our state for 5 or more years or forever for free Med. School. Her current Med. School adcom apologized to her pre-med advisor for no Scholarship money as they expressed hope that she would choose them but could not give any scholarships. Oh, well, at least we did not pay for UG, thanks for that.</p>
<p>My daughter was offered 10k per year at state school, but as I said, the wording was iffy. One of her top choices gave her 40k per year, but even with that the COA would have been more than her school she is attending with their great FA. Now if I could figure out how to help her pay off her massive loans…:(</p>
<p>…BTW, did not see Chicago there…Well, most here were rejected pre-interview from Chicago, let alone full tuition. Kat, your S. is way way ahead of 99.99% of applicants, cannot use his example at all. My D. woudl not be accepted to most Med. Schools that gave your S. full tuition or close to it.</p>
Well, I wouldn’t go quite this far…but there is some truth there. </p>
<p>Kat’s S’s profile was unique and appealing and certainly fit my WOW definition for a med school applicant. Tippy Top UG, D1 athletics, Big LizzyM score, etc, etc… Those things (plus many more) made those scholarship and admission results. </p>
<p>Don’t know as much about brd but I think I remember a huge LizzyM. ;)</p>
<p>So, I guess if an un-hooked applicant is sitting on a 77-78-79+ LizzyM, maybe there are more full-tuition opps. But I gotta think there just aren’t too many of those folks.</p>
<p>And for those mere mortals among us med students who don’t end up with fabulous FA offers, gotta say…state/public med schools can be a great option! </p>
<p>(Yes, I know in some states, the difference between state and private schools isn’t that much. And I know some students would shudder at the thought of going to their state school. But in general, it seems like your state’s state school will be the least expensive provided you don’t win lots of scholarships from private schools.)</p>
<p>I know at least 4 applicants sitting on a 77-78-79 LizzyM received none or very little “merit” based FA, when shooting for northeast or west coast top schools. I think one 4.0/40 kids from the south even got rejected or waitlisted by the majority of the east coat schools, including such a med school like Columbia, Harvard, JHU, Penn, etc. These schools just have too many high LizzyM applicants so these kids are not that rare enough for them to care about.</p>
<p>I guess D1 athlete plus such a LizzyM number might have done the trick!</p>
<p>Hmmm…what if Jeremy Lin were a med school applicant? Some schools must roll the carpet for him. Even though his grades are not that top, he IS rare. And it is extremely difficult for anybody to excel at both major sport and academics!</p>
<p>When I said there are a lot more full tuition scholarships, I wasn’t just referring to the tippy top schools that everyone is mentioning. Lots of mid to lower tier schools offer scholarships, and you dont need to be a superstar to land one.</p>
<p>^ An issue is that, for many applicants who have 77-78-79 LizzyM, they may not be “level-headed” enough to pursue these med schools. An analogy is that a high schooler with 2300+ SATs, 10 AP 5s and being a winner of a cometition at or above state level is rarely willing to attend a “lesser” school in terms of the “brand name”, as shallow as it may be. The end result is well too many high LizzyM scorers apply to the same small set of med schools. This may dilute the value of LizzyM when applying to these few schools.</p>
<p>The 4.0/40 applicant that I referred to above essentially scored nothing (not even admission) at top med schools in the northeast even though he had applied to plenty of those schools. I think he attended a very top med school in the midwest in the end. (At least that particular med school values his achievement from a college “from the south”, unlike the majority of northeast or west coast top med schools.)</p>
<p>Honestly was NOT attempting to brag at all, but rather divulge the info we had from son’s experience and that of his friends. He had some info to go on from his previous classmates and upper classman from his undergrad and fellow alum. It was the alum that provided him with the most info, especially where to apply and what financial aid packages COULD look like.</p>
<p>Since we are such a small group here on this pre-med forum I believe every bit of info helps. CC has given my family so much throughout the years (info is power) it is the very least we can do.</p>
<p>And the $ portion of the app ended up being the most significant for my son. But this was also true for his undergrad as well.</p>
<p>And if you knew my boy he isn’t the type to walk on water!! Seriously. He drew the question at his med school interview “Is this what you REALLY want to do?” Said with real skepticism.</p>
<p>As far as residencies he is still leaning to ER but as thrown in peds for fun. That way his office can always have lollipops, toys and he can go by his first name rather than Dr. XXXX. Dead serious.</p>
<p>This. A poster here let my daughter crash at her place before her interview, and she did the same for another interviewee this cycle at her school. It’s a nice bunch. :)</p>
<p>Hey, kat, D1 is strongly leaning towards EM also. She did her 8 weeks summer immersion practicum in a rural ER this summer. One of her praeceptors was certified in EM, Peds and Pediatric EM. Maybe your son could do that and have it all.</p>
<p>I didn’t think you were bragging at all, I thought it was kind of you to share information with everyone. I’m one who wants to hear all the facts possible and think it’s then my responsibility to do due diligence to determine how that might work in our situation.</p>
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<p>Ditto. D1 sometimes gives me a hard time about my internet friends, but has come around to recognize that they’re a helpful and well informed bunch!</p>
<p>Haven’t had any CC sleepovers, but I do have a nice stack of textbooks from a previously-regular poster which were oh so generously lent to me for free. Probably saved me $500 when all was said and done. Hey–that’s an idea–the CC text book “scholarship.” I’ll ship any of your kiddos any of my books when I’m done with them, provided they agree to share them with someone else when they’re through :)</p>
<p>ditto entomom–I didn’t think you were bragging at all kat, and I think you surely have very much to be proud of. The info is great and your son and his pals are lucky ones; I just wouldn’t want the random passerby to be under the impression that finding full rides to med school is something the “average” med student (I know I know, still an impressive human) can readily do.</p>
curm, I believe you referred to the last sentence of the last paragraph in Kristin’s post #57.</p>
<p>In terms of the difficulty of “using other people’s money to fund your own education”, how difficult would it be for med school education as compared to UG education, if we are talking about not a small amount of free money, say, more than $20k discount from “full fare” each of the 4 years? (Let’s leave out the part of also paying your living expenses for the sake of this discussion, that is, just about the reduction of tuitions and fees. This is because the FA for med school is usually not very generous, for the majority of med school students.)</p>
<p>For example, would it be the case that, less than 3% of med school students may get a deal better than the reduction of $20k per year from the tutions and fees? (assuming the tuitions and fees is, say, $45k-48k per year.)</p>
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Not you. I love the kid. And I haven’t even met him.</p>