FAQs

1.  Does major matter?
2.  What are the curriculum requirements for local medical schools (MU, SLU, A.T. STILL, University of Iowa)?
3.  Are there Scholarships for medical school? 
4.  Is there a recommended sequential checklist of activities and curricular sequence at Truman?
5.  When should I get involved in extracurricular activities?
6.  What type of extracurricular activities should I pursue?
7. What should I write in my Personal Statement?
8.  Which preparation course is best for me (Kaplan or Princeton)?
9.  Should I pursue a structured review or study on my own?
10.  How do I apply to medical school?
11.  Who do I approach about letters of recommendation?
12. How should I prepare for the Interviews?
13.  How much is medical school likely to cost?
14.  How does Truman stack up against other schools in preparing me for medical school (acceptance rates and success rates)?
15.  What are Joint degree programs?
16.  Who is my pre-med advisor?

Are There Scholarships for Med-school?

Scholarship and Fellowship Support for Pre-Med and Medical Students

Although some scholarships and fellowships explicitly exclude support for medicine and other professional graduate programs, pre-meds, just like other students, can find sources of support available to them based on a range of qualifications. A scholarship need not have the term “pre-med” in it for a pre-med student to be eligible. When working with pre-med students it helps to ask the student about his/her career goals, research experience, and interest in public health among other things. These ideas are borrowed from many sources, among them the Association of American Medical Colleges handout on Types of Medical School Financial Aid.

AAMC: Financing Your Medical Education

Scholarships during the undergraduate years:

• Goldwater – only if the student is interested in the MD/PhD route.
• Truman, McKelvie –if the student is intent on public health or research
• NIH for those committed to biomedical research http://www.ugsp.nih.gov/home.asp?m=00

In medical school:

            Yale’s International Education and Fellowships web has a list of selected fellowships for medical studies http://www.yale.edu/yalecollege/academics/fellowships/index.html

• The medical school itself - most offer some merit awards and financial aid
• General awards – e.g. Tylenol Scholarship  http://www.tylenol.com/page.jhtml?id=tylenol/news/subptyschol.inc
• Honor society scholarships – Phi Kappa Phi
• Cultural/Ethnic-based and Underrepresented  – Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Assn., American Indian Science and Engineering Society, Augie J. Alter (Lithuanian),  Herbert W. Nickens (under-represented minority), Congressional Hispanic Caucus, National Medical Scholarships need-based for underrepresented med students in the first and second year http://www.nmfonline.org/Programs/Scholarships/NeedBased/Overview.htm 
• For females, the M.A. Cartland Shackford Medical Fellowship (based at Wellesley College http://www.wellesley.edu/CWS/students/wellfs.html  and (if over the age of 25) Business and Professional Women’s Foundation Advancement scholarship http://www.bpwusa.org/i4a/pages/Index.cfm?pageid=3381   and (if under-represented minority) the American Association of University Women selected professions award  http://www.aauw.org/education/fga//fellowships_grants/selected.cfm
• Religious-based scholarships, e.g. International Order of the King’s Daughters and Sons http://www.iokds.org/scholarship.html
• Immigration-related – Soros for New Americans http://www.pdsoros.org/
• For athletes – NCAA Scholarship
• State or county medical societies
• State-based awards for need or merit
• Professional organizations, including parental professional connections
• Other organizations, e.g. DAR small scholarships for medicine and nursing. http://www.dar.org/natsociety/edout_scholar.cfm

Service obligation scholarships

• National Health Service Corps  http://nhsc.bhpr.hrsa.gov/
• United States Armed Forces Health Professional Scholarships
• State-based awards in exchange for work in under-served areas

 Students interested in pursuing related degrees before or during their medical studies should explore Rhodes, Marshall, Fulbright, Gates Cambridge, Mitchell, NSEP, DAAD and other awards that would enable them to go abroad.

 Medical school students can find support for health-related research (not tuition for med school) from a number of sources including Howard Hughes Medical Institute http://www.hhmi.org/grants/individuals/medfellows.html  Applied training opportunities are supported from quite a few sources including the CDC http://www.cdcfoundation.org/fellowships/students.aspx  and  Schweitzer fellowships  http://www.schweitzerfellowship.org/features/lamb/  among others.

 Notes for NAFA workshop Fayetteville July 21-22, 2008

Composed by Beth Powers and Paula Goldsmid