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If you plan to become a medical assistant then you need to know what scholarship opportunities are out there. You do not want to miss the opportunity to enter this exciting and ever-growing field simply because you do not have the funds to get into a program. With medical assistant scholarships you can also stand a higher chance of going to the better programs. Here is an account of some of the scholarships that are available.
FAFSA
The best place to start looking for a scholarship or grant to fund your medical assistant schooling is through the government. Surprisingly, the government is more than willing to help you if you need the help. Go first to www.fafsa.ed.gov in order to start the process and then click on the big orange icon which says “Start Here”. Follow the instructions and steps until you have completed your application. It is very important that you are honest on your application as it will determine the kind of response that you get from FAFSA. Based on the answers you give to the questions, FAFSA will inform you for the scholarship options that are open to you. Lying on the application to get more scholarship options will not really help as the scholarship find itself will do a check on you to find out if you are really eligible for the scholarship or not. It is very important that you start with this step. Several of the government scholarships listed below can only be applied for through FAFSA, so you may as well begin there right from the word go. If you are serious about becoming a medical assistant then this is the only place for you to start looking. It will not take much of your time and the long term benefits are great.
Pell Grant
One of the scholarships that you could get by completing the FAFSA is the Federal Pell Grant. There are a number of important facts about the Pell Grant that you should keep in mind when deciding whether or not to apply for this grants that can be sued for your medical assistant training:
- This is not a loan, so don’t worry – you will never have to pay it back.
- The maximum Pell grant for the 2011-12 award year (July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2012) is $5,550.
- There are several things which determine how much you will get from the Pell Grant, including financial need, costs to attend school, status as a full-time or part-time student, and plans to attend school for a full academic year or less.
This is not a grant that is specifically aimed at students who would like to become medical assistants, but it is generally available to anyone who fulfills the necessary requirements. Eligibility requirements, as mentioned above are determined by:
- Student’s income (and assets if the student is independent)
- The parents’ income and assets (if the student is dependent)
- The family’s household size
- The number of family members (excluding parents) attending post-secondary institution
Stafford Loans (Student Loans)
Although not strictly a scholarship Stafford loans are great ideas for medical assistant students who need help in paying for their studies as they are given at fixed repayment rates making them far cheaper to repay than most standard student loans that are available out there. The benefits are that you get are 1) a low fixed interest rate, 2) increased borrowing limits, 3) no payments necessary while you are still enrolled in school, and 4) acceptance for the loan is not based on credit. To be eligible for these loans you will need to submit a FAFSA form. This is an unavoidable requirement if you want financial aid form this sector. Secondly you need to have the appropriate financial need for the money. This will be determined by the school that you wish to attend, and, if you do have a great need for the money in order to study, the chances are high that your loan will be approved. You need to be enrolled at least part-time at the school you want to attend, or you must plan to enroll at some point in the near future. For a serious student, these requirements are easy to meet.
PLUS Loans (Parent Loans)
This is a loan that parents can get to help them pay for the college expenses of their children. In order to qualify for the loan the following conditions must be met:
- The student must be a dependent undergraduate student.
- The student must be enrolled at least half time.
- The student must be enrolled in an eligible program.
- The student must be enrolled at an eligible school.
These are the kinds of loans that you need to start applying for if you have exhausted all of your other options. If your child has been unsuccessful at getting scholarships and if there are really no grants available for your child to benefit from then these are the kinds of loans that you need to consider taking out. The eligibility requirements are easy enough for a dedicated student to meet, which is why many people are successful when they apply for this type of loan. If you would like to find out more about this type of loan that medical assistant students can benefit from, please go to this website. The worst that can happen is that they will say no to your application.
Alice Newell Joslyn Medical Fund
There are a number of scholarships available, but few of them target specifically Latino students in the way that the Alice Newell Joslyn Medical Fund Scholarship does. The following are the main features of the scholarship:
- The scholarship is aimed at Latino students who need help getting into a medical assistant program.
- Students are required to pursue a medical assistant credential or attend a college or university to achieve a Bachelor of Science or graduate degree in the health industry.
- The awards that are given out by this fund range from about $500 to $2000 each and every year.
- Applicants who plan to apply for this scholarship need to either live in San Diego, California or they must currently be attending high school or college there.
It is certainly a scholarship that is well worth looking into. The least you can do is try, and the worst that the scholarship fund can do is to turn you down. At least you will not spend your life wondering whether or not you could have received your qualification. There is more information about this scholarship online. If you want to find out more, please go to http://becafoundation.org/.
JCAHPO Program Scholarships
These are scholarships which are offered by the Education and Research Foundation division of the Joint Commission on Allied Health Personnel in Ophthalmology (JCAHPO) and that are aimed specifically at students who are interested in ophthalmic care. Ophthalmic care specifically relates to the eye and its diseases. It is possible to be a medical assistant in this line of work. There are two important points to keep in mind when considering this scholarship:
- The award that you will receive if you get this scholarship is $500.
- Students must be chosen by their school to apply for the scholarship.
These are perhaps the most important factors in helping you determine whether or not this is the scholarship for you. Proper research is needed when looking into any scholarship. You may qualify for a scholarship and then later find that it does not, in fact cover the things that you need it to cover. Consequently you need to be smart when applying and ensure that you apply for only those scholarships that are actually going to get you somewhere. For more information about this scholarship, please take the time to visit the website of the scholarship at http://jcahpo.org/.
JAS/Oral-B Education Scholarship Program
This is a medical assistant scholarship that is specifically aimed at dental assistants. The scholarship is named after the founder of the American Dental Assistant Association. The founder’s name was Juliette A. Southard. A profession as a dental assistant s one that is well worth pursuing and with this scholarship you will be able to make a great success of the career. There are a number of things that you need to remember when it comes to this particular scholarship:
- In order to apply for this dental assistant scholarship you must be an ADAA member
- In order to apply for this dental assistant scholarship hold a high school diploma, OR
- In order to apply for this dental assistant scholarship GED OR
- In order to apply for this dental assistant scholarship be 18 years of age
- If you are granted the scholarship you will be eligible for an award of $750
- More information can be found at DentalAssistant.org
This is an important option to keep in mind. Often students who want to become medical assistants do not think about the dentistry path, but it is an option that you should not forget about, especially as there are scholarships in place to help you.
Maxine Williams Scholarship
This is a scholarship that offers $1000 reward to the eligible candidate to assist him or her with his or her studies in the medical assistant field. There are of course a number of guidelines that you will have to fulfill in order to be eligible to receive the award:
- In order to be eligible for this scholarship you need to be enrolled at a school that has been properly and irrefutably accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Programs.
- In addition the applicant for the scholarship needs to have completed at least a year of tuition at that school before they are eligible to even apply for the scholarship – simply being enrolled at the school is not enough.
- In order to apply for the scholarship the student needs to go through the financial aid administrator of his or her school, and each school may well have a different procedure to endure. This means that you should find out as soon as possible what the specific procedure for your school is.
- In order to be eligible for this scholarship you will need to maintain a GOA of at least 3.0.
School Medical Assistant Scholarships And Other Financial Assistance
The above mentioned scholarships are all great options for you to keep in mind, but don’t forget that there are also plenty of other options available. The most important thing for you to do is to speak to the financial aid administrator at your school. This is because schools often offer their own private financial aid options to their own students and often the only way to find out about these options is by asking. In addition you will be able to find out about other scholarships offered by the government through your school’s financial aid department. It is essential that you investigate these options through your school. We say this because a lot of the scholarships that you may want to get form the government, such as the Pell Grant, cannot be applied for in person. The school that you are attending must make the application on your behalf, and the only way to achieve this is by going to your school’s financial aid department in order to make it clear that you need financial aid so that they can start putting the measure in place that are necessary for getting the scholarships that you need.
As you can see, there are a lot of options to choose from, which for some people makes the task of getting a scholarship a little overwhelming. Remember, the least that you can do is try and the worst that they can do is say no. There is nothing to lose by looking into medical assistant scholarships as there are many to choose from, and if you don’t get one you are no worse off than you were before you applied for it.