Hope Fellowship Scholarship

Our application is now closed for the 2024-2025 application cycle.

The AAMC’s 2019 workforce report found that Black and Hispanic individuals make up a combined 10.8% of the physician workforce and 13.3% of medical students, despite the fact that these communities make up a combined 31.7% of the population. Literature has consistently demonstrated the benefits of a more diverse physician workforce, particularly for addressing the significant health disparities that afflict our country.

In 2017, Bridging Admissions identified lack of access to mentorship and financial cost as barriers for URM and first-generation medical school applicants. Our mentorship program was developed to address the first barrier and we created our Hope Fellowship to help address the second need.

Fellowship Overview

Ten applicants will be selected for a stipend that will cover up to $2,500 of application related costs, in addition to receiving a dedicated mentor that will work with them throughout their medical school application process.  

Stipend recipients accepted into medical school will become Hope Fellows and receive additional support and education throughout medical school, including:

• Health Inequities Curriculum: Our Fellows will participate in a longitudinal health inequities curriculum during the first year of medical school. These sessions will be an opportunity to learn more about the literature behind health inequities, grapple with racial issues in medicine, and explore different ways to incorporate advocacy and an equity lens into your future career as a physician.

• Hope Fellow Mentor: Matriculating members of the program will be paired with a previous Hope Fellow who will support you throughout your medical school journey. This individual will be someone you can go to for questions about adjusting to medical school, career exploration, residency applications, connections to other faculty members in particular fields, and any other support you may need. As a previous Hope Fellow, this mentor will be able to relate to your experiences and serve as an advocate for you.

• Fellowship Community: It can be challenging to begin your medical school journey alone. With the Hope Fellowship, there will be programming that is focused on creating a cohesive and supportive community amongst the Hope Fellows. Our aim is for the Hope Fellowship to provide a strong foundation and networking opportunities by creating a communal cohort.

Stipend recipients who do not receive an acceptance during the 2024-2025 cycle will be provided the option of working one on one with a mentor to prepare for another application cycle in order to reapply successfully. If you are later accepted into medical school you will be welcomed to participate in the Hope Fellowship at that time.

Eligibility and Requirements

• This scholarship will provide financial awards to students for the 2024-2025 application cycle. All students applying for this scholarship must be applying to medical school in the 2024-2025 AMCAS application cycle to matriculate in 2025.

• Selected applicants must be able to demonstrate that they will be using the stipend to cover the cost of their application. Stipend costs may be applied towards primary applications, secondary applications, or interview related expenses. If students wish to utilize the stipend for other application related costs, they will need to submit a request to Bridging Admissions.

• We will select students largely based on the following criteria: financial need, fit with our organization’s mission, and challenges faced while pursuing a career in medicine.

• There are no GPA or MCAT cutoffs for this scholarship. We strongly feel that these metrics are poor proxies for an applicant’s capabilities, and there is robust evidence for socioeconomic status and racial inequality influencing performance on standardized exams. We will ask for this information in the application so that we can best support selected students, but scholarship recipients will be selected based on the criteria mentioned above.

  • Because taking the MCAT is an important step towards committing to the application cycle, this information will be required on our application. For those unable to take their MCAT prior to their application to this fellowship, we will request that you inform us of your scheduled test date.

• Applicants will be required to share the results of their application process as a condition of the stipend.

• If admitted to medical school, scholarship recipients must agree to make a good faith effort to engage with the Hope Fellowship curriculum. We understand medical school responsibilities come first, but we strongly encourage matriculated recipients to attend Fellowship events when possible.

Application Requirements and Deadline

Applications for this scholarship closed on April 14th, 2024 at 11:59pm PST.

Application Requirements:

• Three short essay questions

• CV or Resume

• Self-reported GPA/MCAT, although applicants should be prepared to provide a transcript to verify undergraduate enrollment/completion if requested

• Self-reported financial information, although applicants should be prepared to provide verification if requested

Remember: There are no statistical cutoffs for this application. We encourage all applicants to apply, regardless of your GPA or MCAT.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at bridgingadmissions@gmail.com