Where can i get a scholarship for Med-school?

Question

i just really want to pursue medicine after i graduated from BS Biology. i hope i can find scholarships that can finance that aspiration. i came from an underprivileged family and right now , i am a scholar of the Philippine government. please help me..

Answer 1

Personally, I don't recommend any scholarship application from Fastweb or other resources. Trust me, I have been searching for 5 years and have received nothing! (and I have a GPA 3.96).

The BEST thing to do is to go to your Financial Aid office or check out your school's website for scholarship opportunities. They will provide you with all the available scholarship. This year alone, I applied both semesters to scholarship and won 2 scholarships (1 per semester)!

Please, check out your financial aid. They will gladly assist you.

Here is some info on scholarships:

These usually have the best terms, but are in very short supply. Interest is either very low or not charged at all. Federal Perkins loans fall in this category as well because the medical school can give these out at its own digression. The school gives these preferentially to students with greatest financial need.

Often these institutional loans and scholarships are based on financial need or academic merit or something like that. Some medical schools have small scholarships available that also fit in this institutional aid category. Of course, with scholarships, there is no payback, because they are not loans.

The amounts awarded in this category are usually small in comparison to the whole cost of attendance, ranging from $1000 to $5000 or so per year, but they have the best conditions with low interest, etc. So, this is a great source, but only makes a small contribution to your overall aid package. Note that these are part of the package of financing your "cost of attendance" and not extra money beyond that.

Note that there are many dubious "scholarship finding" enterprises which will charge you money to search for scholarships or file for federal aid and other such things. Most of these are scams designed to take your money, without delivering anything of value to you. All financial aid info and help is available for free through the government, the financial aid office and banks. So, don't buy into a scam!

You should really look into loans:

Subsidized  (Stafford Loans)

For subsidized loans, the US government pays the interest for you while you are in medical school and during other deferral periods, so these loans are the "best deal" you can get. However, only a portion of our loan packages is comprised of these types of loans (and you cannot get more).

The other portion of the loan package is made up of unsubsidized loans on which interest (and interest on interest - compounding interest) accumulates from day 1 when the loan amount is paid out to you. A good portion of your loan money is of this type (you really have no choice in this).

Both of these loans are deferred (you don't have to make payments while in medical school) until after graduation and the interest rate is capped - it can never exceed some 8.25% or so during the life of the loan. Note that you can make interest-only payments on the unsubsidized loans while in medical school to prevent accumulation of interest - but you don't have to - and most people don't. These loans also qualify for further deferral during residency, so that no payments need to be made during residency training, either.

Pretty much everyone qualifies for these loans (although there are income and asset limits which can reduce eligibility) and everyone is treated equally for qualifying. Note that these are part of the package of financing your "cost of attendance" and not extra money beyond that.

Also, the yearly limit for these loans is $8,500 in subsidized and $30,000 in unsubsidized aid. So, if your student budget exceeds $38,500 per year, these extra costs have to be covered by other sources of financial aid. In addition to the yearly limits of $38,500, there is also a lifetime limit of $189,125 which cannot be exceeded as a grand total for your student career.