I can answer most any question you have about med school.
In general I'd say there are no scholarships. There are a few rare exceptions.
One: you could get an MD/PhD and possibly get paid a small amount and tuition covered. This is probably a costlier route than you may think as it will add many years to your degree. The lost income here would bet very costly.
Two: you could do a variety of military options and have it paid for (fully or partially depending on the route you take (reserve, join before, join before and go the the military's med school, join afterward for a jump sum). This obviously comes with the requirement that you're then committed to the armed services. Also, you generally get paid less after graduation that you would in the private sector.
3: you could go to one of the rare med schools that covers tuition (NYU I believe)
4: some small towns will pay for you to go to med school if you guarantee to come back and practice there. They may require you to be one of a few specialties
5: Indian health services may do the same as 4 but work for the IHS
6: go and take out loans and work at a non profit and have loans repaid through the public service loan forgiveness program. Risk here, the program could go away or change and not cover MD's. You may also not be able to or not want to work at a non profit after graduating residency. The deal is, work at a non profit for 10 years and make minimum payment. For most residents the place you do residency is non profit (this is basically universally true) and you make so little your minimum payment is prob 0$. So it's just a matter of getting a job after residency at a non profit and making a few years of payments (so long as the program is still there)
There may be others but these are the k es that come to mind
As stated above, tuition isn't the biggest problem, (at least not at public in state schools) It's the cost of living. Generally people find this harder that undergrad. All your same age peers are working their first jobs and you have no money to do anything so you use loans to do it (take a ski trip, go to a friends wedding, etc…).
There is really no way to work in med school so you're paying for everything
If you can live cheap and keep loans down and go to instste oubkic school you can easily keep it down enough to pay it off in a few years after you graduate residency if you're intentional. Problem is, you live cheap for a long time.
For me, I went to undergrad 4 years, med school 4 years, residency and fellowship for 6 years. I was married with 2 kids by the time I was done. At that point you're 32 and are finally able to START paying down the debt.
I was intentional and got it knocked out pretty quick by working more.
I'm glad I did it and would do it again, but a lot say otherwise.
