Did you get a full ride from financial aid or how much aid did you get
There are precious few full free rides to medical school. Most students pay with loans, loans and more loans.
What made you think you might be eligible for a free ride in Med school?
There are a few medical schools that are offering free tuition for everyone. NYU is one of them…but their acceptance rate is likely to be in the single digits.
I received full tuition merit scholarship to the school I will be attending. Received full ride merit to another school, and another offered roughly half tuition need based scholarship.
WashU, Penn, Mayo, Michigan and UChicago are known for being very generous with merit aid—I believe starting this year WashU is able to provide at least half the class with full tuition scholarships, with most of the rest able to receive partial scholarships. NYU and Cleveland Clinic are free tuition for everyone. UCLA also has the Geffen scholarship, which is a full ride awarded to a sizeable percentage of their class. Several state schools offer big scholarships to high stat acceptees as well.
@WayOutWestMom could you please comment.
I’m going to stick with my original answer. The vast majority of medical school students pay with loans, loans and more loans.
While there are some generous medical schools, those are also super competitive for admission. (NYU, Mayo, UCLA all have admission rates around 2%)
Some state med schools do offer merit to a a tiny number of highly qualified applicants–typically those who hold multiple acceptances to top med schools or who otherwise fulfill a need the school has identified (like high stat UIM applicants).
Many med schools are transitioning away from merit based aid (which strongly favors upper SES applicants) to need based aid for SES disadvantaged, rural and first gen medical students.
What @thumper1 said is true–by far the vast majority of med students finance their education through loans, loans and more loans.
My oldest has had Loans, Loans, Loans at our state flagship. She did get awarded a nice scholarship for her 4th year (actually 3 of them) but that was whisked away with residency interviews, LOL. My “almost” daughter got a 4 year full tuition scholarship to her med school, at a private school. She is first generation college student and has been on her own since 16. Her stats are average, but her story is not. I expect there are as many answers to your question as there are applicants, but for most, the scholarship/aid piece of the puzzle are not the deciding factor for most applicants! Also, FYI, my almost daughter was awarded her scholarship AFTER she sent in her matriculation.
OP, are you a high school senior or a college senior?
I believe @oscar2345 is a high school student.