Page 1 - MSM Scholarship Initiative

Morehouse School of Medicine Scholarship Initiative

Lighten the Debt Burden of our Diverse Student Body and Empower these Futures Leaders to Serve Those in Need

Morehouse School of Medicine seeks to create a scholarship support program that will help the 45-year-old, historically Black institution continue to
educate diverse students and help alleviate the often-crushing debt burden that can hamstring their dreams of serving those in need.
Why it matters? What it means? Who it helps?
• Students entering medical school risk accumulating • MSM could lose • For students, this will mean a smaller debt load and
debilitating levels of debt that can limit their career promising Black the freedom to go straight to the front lines and serve
choices. applicants to medical communities in need.
• As the country continues to struggle with the novel schools that offer free • For patients, this will narrow the gaping chasm
coronavirus and racial injustice, we cannot afford to tuition. This matters between the haves and have-nots, when it comes
discourage students from pursuing jobs that will make not because of MSM’s to health care and health outcomes, and provide
the most difference. bottom line but culturally competent care.
• There is an urgent need for the professionals that because of the higher • For the nation, the support will help address the
MSM is known for educating and graduating — those attrition rates at these shortage of primary-care physicians, the lack of
committed to serving the Black community and others schools. African-Americans in medicine, inequity in rural
hard-hit by issues of access, quality, and equity in • Though MSM’s tuition is lower than the national and other underserved areas, and ensure a safer and
health care. average, so too is the average household income of our healthier future for all.
students. They walk away from medical school with PROOF POINTS
PROOF POINTS higher-than-average debt and therefore may be forced • More than two in five U.S. doctors will be old enough
• While tuition at MSM is slightly lower than the to choose higher-paying jobs over those that would do to retire in the next decade, which means the nation
national average, the debt load is $227,835, vs. the the most good for underserved populations. faces a shortage of up to 139,000 doctors by 2033
national average of about $190,000. (AAMC).
• Paying off medical-school debt takes an average of PROOF POINTS • About 2.6 percent of the nation’s doctors in 2019
13 years. • Black applicants have a lower acceptance rate at identified as Black.
• Only 7.7 percent of medical students identify as medical schools (white: 44 percent; Asian: 42; Latinx, • Black physicians are more likely to work in
Black. About 13 percent of the general population 42; Black: 34). underserved communities and work on research topics
identifies as Black. • MSM is one of four HBCU institutions educating relevant to the health of Black communities.
• Primary care physicians with less than $100,000 in 20 percent of all Black medical school students across • 60 percent of the more than 7,200 federally
absolute medical debt were more likely to locate in the country from the 155 Association of American designated health-professional shortage areas are in
needy areas than those with greater debt. Physicians Medicial Colleges (AAMC) accredited schools. rural regions. Though 20 percent of Americans live in
with no debt were three times more likely. • At majority-white institutions, Black students face rural areas, just 11 percent of physicians practice in
attrition rates of 20 percent. At MSM the rate is less them (AAMC).
than 2 percent. • Black patients tend to have better outcomes when
they see Black physicians.