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Adding to this list,
- UCLA full tuition or full COA scholarships
- Iowa half tuition merit-based scholarships
2021-2022 Low SES Support Thread
- Thread starter BioPsychotic
- Start date
Thanks so much guys! I would always get the answer that there was like no chance of getting any money from schools (granted most of those schools are like the best of the best). Hoping you guys are doing ok and have a great holiday season
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Most (~75%) of medical students come from families in the top two quintiles of household income. So for most, need-based aid is non existent.Thanks so much guys! I would always get the answer that there was like no chance of getting any money from schools (granted most of those schools are like the best of the best). Hoping you guys are doing ok and have a great holiday season
It doesn’t really translate for those of us living that Pell Grant life. Crossing my fingers that everyone in this thread gets a big fat med school scholarship.
KanekiS1E12
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At the Northwestern interview and Mayo interview they said they cap all need based aid at full tuition scholarships (and I believe UChicago said something similar IIRC). Also I believe this is the same for Harvard but haven’t directly spoken to their fin aid team yet. This is extremely of interest to me, as my efc is 000 +/- 0. Where did you get this info? Or am I misreading this and “full need” doesn’t mean full COA need based scholarships/ grants? I know Stanford and Columbia are fully debt free based on estimated need and this includes COL, so something important to note.
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Sorry, full need as in full tuition.
Harvard has the Reach Scholarship that covers all of tuition and part of living expenses based on efc.
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Hey guys! Glad something like this exists. I come from a low-income, first gen household with a single parent. I filled out my FAFSA in October using my mom’s 2020 tax documents but my mom quit her job and hasn’t had an income from working since July 2021. Should I let schools know that there has been that change in her income? Unsure if it affects the SAR and how much they think I can contribute/scholarship possibility. If so, how should I go about informing them?
Another question is once scholarship info comes back, I have been told you can negotiate with your top choice if you get more money elsewhere. Anyone have insight into this as I know I’m not super comfortable negotiating prices
Another question is once scholarship info comes back, I have been told you can negotiate with your top choice if you get more money elsewhere. Anyone have insight into this as I know I’m not super comfortable negotiating prices
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Some schools have an additional form for “extenuating circumstances” that you can fill out to inform them of your current situation! If they don’t have one, I reached out directly to some admissions offices to ask them if there was a way I could inform them of my situation.
You may also need to fill out parental info waiver forms for your biological father. This could be an institutional specific form or like the CSS waiver form. I had to do this since I also come from a single parent household.
Once you get financial aid packages back, you can reach out to your top choice accepted school. Inform them that they are your top choice, but you are concerned about finances. Show them your financial aid package from another school and ask them if they can match cost of attendance!
Thank you for the help! Appreciate it
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Note many of these are private schools. Your average public school tends to have less developed fundraising and scholarship infrastructure so keep that in mind. See if there are county medical societies and hospital foundations are in your area and see if they have scholarship opportunities. Many of these are not particularly well known and especially if you are local, you could find some opportunities there.
David D, MD - USMLE and MCAT Tutor
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Low SES first gen. Graduated HS in 2010. Always wanted to be a physician, but basically just needed to grow up to make it through undergrad. Got academically dismissed in 2012. Got a job as a CNA 3 years later, honestly thought I'd just stay there because I loved it. Through time I started to feel I wasn't making as much of a difference as I could. Went back to school ~2018 . I tried to find research in the bio department but they didn't want me, I felt like used goods, and to be fair I was. Really enjoyed my organic chemistry 1 substitute professor when the main professor was sick. So I made sure to have that professor in Ochem 2. COVID hit, everything went online, entire class was sinking slowly as only like 5 of us had a B. I made a shared live mega-document where we all collaborated, ended up acing the second half of Ochem 2. This intrigued the professor enough for him to allow me on his research team. And he must have written one hell of a LOR because I got into my state school which is a T25. My LizzyM score is 57, 10 points below what the school averages.
I definitely leaned into the story for my app. There was no chance I could run from being academically dismissed so I embraced it. Definitely glad to be in similar company here! The only reason I was even able to apply was because COVID caused us to get relief checks and because it moved interviews online. Still thousands in the hole, and just got back on track with my credit card and quick-cash.. though I'm probably going to have to max them both out again moving this July. Wouldn't trade it for the world though, I've been poor all my life, but I've never been to med school.
Stoked to hear they are further changing the F.A.P. so that people over 26 no longer have to include their parents info, but the SJT is now $120 where it was free for us this cycle. Excited to see how everyone does.
I definitely leaned into the story for my app. There was no chance I could run from being academically dismissed so I embraced it. Definitely glad to be in similar company here! The only reason I was even able to apply was because COVID caused us to get relief checks and because it moved interviews online. Still thousands in the hole, and just got back on track with my credit card and quick-cash.. though I'm probably going to have to max them both out again moving this July. Wouldn't trade it for the world though, I've been poor all my life, but I've never been to med school.
Stoked to hear they are further changing the F.A.P. so that people over 26 no longer have to include their parents info, but the SJT is now $120 where it was free for us this cycle. Excited to see how everyone does.
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Congrats on the success this cycle!! I’ll forever believe that resiliency is what got you into the door and into medical school. Here’s to advocating for more change in the AAMC to help those of lower SES reach their dreams of becoming a physician.
Inbutanxious
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Hi all! First time seeing this thread and really sad that I only found out about it now.
I'm a first GEN, low SES (<25000), URM immigrant, who had health complications during my college years. It has been a long journey from getting myself through college while applying for scholarships and working multiple jobs to pay for my tuition and medical bills to gathering money for this application cycle (the fee waiver helped) to finally receiving my acceptance a month ago. I think compared to my friends, who have parents with 100k income, it was different in our motivation and backup options. I went into the application cycle with my "best" application and with a mindset that I'm going to try my best and fingers crossed it got me where I want to be. However, I noticed that my friends were joining the application cycle with the mindset of "I'm going to test the water and see." It is their own decision, but I do feel the gap with them because I can't understand why someone would throw $$ to test out a costly and highly mentally taxing application process. Someone else mentioned this earlier, but I also found it hard for me to celebrate my A due to financial reasons. I'm applying for the MD school's scholarships and am about to check out if there are local or private scholarships that help low SES individuals with the application process/affording medical school. I will share here if I find anything!
I'm not sure if this is the appropriate thread for this, but I definitely want to use my experience to help fellow low SES/first GEN applicants in the future. The fee waiver helps, but I think learning how to navigate the portal and input the information correctly in the system is a barrier itself. I also didn't know how to ask for LOR and had limited pre-health support at my undergrad, so I'm happy to share my tips with anyone else.
I hope everyone is doing well regardless of where you are with the application cycle! We can do this!
I'm a first GEN, low SES (<25000), URM immigrant, who had health complications during my college years. It has been a long journey from getting myself through college while applying for scholarships and working multiple jobs to pay for my tuition and medical bills to gathering money for this application cycle (the fee waiver helped) to finally receiving my acceptance a month ago. I think compared to my friends, who have parents with 100k income, it was different in our motivation and backup options. I went into the application cycle with my "best" application and with a mindset that I'm going to try my best and fingers crossed it got me where I want to be. However, I noticed that my friends were joining the application cycle with the mindset of "I'm going to test the water and see." It is their own decision, but I do feel the gap with them because I can't understand why someone would throw $$ to test out a costly and highly mentally taxing application process. Someone else mentioned this earlier, but I also found it hard for me to celebrate my A due to financial reasons. I'm applying for the MD school's scholarships and am about to check out if there are local or private scholarships that help low SES individuals with the application process/affording medical school. I will share here if I find anything!
I'm not sure if this is the appropriate thread for this, but I definitely want to use my experience to help fellow low SES/first GEN applicants in the future. The fee waiver helps, but I think learning how to navigate the portal and input the information correctly in the system is a barrier itself. I also didn't know how to ask for LOR and had limited pre-health support at my undergrad, so I'm happy to share my tips with anyone else.
I hope everyone is doing well regardless of where you are with the application cycle! We can do this!
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Hello friend, CONGRATS on the acceptance!! Beyond happy for you. Here are some webpages that have external scholarships that medical students can apply for (apologies there are definitely some repeats):
https://medschool.ucla.edu/workfiles/Site-Apply/FinAidScholarship/PenniesScholarship2021.pdf
Scholarships
Scholarships from Outside Agencies
https://financial-aid.medicine.arizona.edu/types-aid/external-scholarship
https://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/hms-med-ed/files/external_scholarships_md_edited_1.27.17.pdf
Happy to bounce thoughts around on how we can all work together to help future low SES, first-gen students!
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Hi friends, I hope that y'all are doing well and having success at this point in the cycle.
This week's been a rough week because I have been denied consideration for need-based financial aid at 3 different private schools that I have been fortunate to be accepted at. TLDR I have never had contact with one of my biological parents, but private schools are requiring me to provide documentation to prove that my non-custodial parent is not in my life. Unfortunately, statements from family members are not considered, and my waiver requests/appeals have been denied. This has been incredibly frustrating for me because we come from a family with a household income <$20k and a person that has never been in my life is disqualifying me from financial aid.
Is anyone in a similar situation and have advice about how to proceed?
This week's been a rough week because I have been denied consideration for need-based financial aid at 3 different private schools that I have been fortunate to be accepted at. TLDR I have never had contact with one of my biological parents, but private schools are requiring me to provide documentation to prove that my non-custodial parent is not in my life. Unfortunately, statements from family members are not considered, and my waiver requests/appeals have been denied. This has been incredibly frustrating for me because we come from a family with a household income <$20k and a person that has never been in my life is disqualifying me from financial aid.
Is anyone in a similar situation and have advice about how to proceed?
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Most schools specify what type of documentation they require to prove estrangement. Have you talked to the respective financial aid offices to see what they need? Sometimes it’s something as simple as tax forms from your custodial parent showing they exclusively claimed you as a dependent, other times it’s court records about divorce/child support/abuse, other times it can be a simple letter from a doctor or teacher who knows your situation that can verify you had no support from the noncustodial parent.
I have friends doing this now and it seems to be straightforward, just ask the school what they need as proof. I did this in undergrad and it wasn’t an issue. The estranged parent has since died so now I needed to obtain and provide the death certificate to medical schools. I’ve found most financial aid officers to be pretty sensitive and helpful, so I highly recommend working closely with them.
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Thanks @Dobermann for the response! That's great to hear that this process has been relatively smooth for you and your friends. I'll go ahead and give that a try.
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yesssssssss god i can't wait to do this some day (fingers crossed). I already have plans of hitting up pre-med advisors and asking them to send me lowSES/URM/non-trad students who need shadowing. And I'm going to make sure to tell them they can email me any number of years after the fact to update a rec letter for them. 5 years, 10 years, idc. I will send that thru to amcas SO fast
