The OP is taking about an early assurance program–not EDP.
Early assurance is conditional acceptance given to college sophomores. If the student meets certain benchmarks for GPA/MCAT score (like they have to do for BS/MD programs) then the student has a guaranteed admission to the linked med school.
Early assurance students give up the ability to apply to other programs in return for a guaranteed admission, often with slightly lower stats than what would normally be required for regular decision admission.
For the most part merit aid is rare since med school applicants all have highly competitive CVs and there is no shortage of applicants. Med schools routinely get in excess of 8,000 applications for 150 seats. You will see admission rate in the single digits for almost every MD program in the country. So in that sense med school admissions doesn't work like undergrad admissions. You can just go down a tier and expect a merit award because the school doesn't NEED you. It has plenty of highly qualified applicants to fill its seats. (Plus USNews med schools rankings are much LESS dependent on admitted student stats than undergrad rankings are.)
As for the amount of merit offered that is going to depend on:
- how desirable the applicants is (a high stat UiM applicant from a “brand name” undergrad, for example)
- how many other acceptances the applicant holds and whether those acceptances are at higher ranked programs. (though this can be a double edged sword**)
- specific school policies w/r/t merit
** not all schools will “bid” on an applicant. Tell your local state U that you’ve got an acceptance to Harvard and they’ll likely tell you – “Enjoy your time at Harvard.” Tell your mid-ranked private U you have an acceptance at Harvard and Stanford and they may throw some $$ at you, OR they’ll say " Hope you like Palo Alto." It depends on school policies and if there is any recruitment $$ available.
Merit aid ranges all over the place from a few thousand (not uncommon) to full tuition (very rare). What seems to be fairly common for a high stats (but not nosebleed high like NYU/WashU) applicant is getting in-state tuition rates at an OOS public med school…
Both my kidlets got merit ranging from $2K- $10K (amount changed every year). Not huge, but when instate tuition is only $17K/year–it was a very nice perk.
Two things to keep in mind when trying to leverage merit:
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less than 30% of med school applicants get more than 1 acceptance. (Admission more than “just” stats–it’s about fit. About 18% of applicants w/ GPA>3.8 and MCAT >518 (96th percentile) get ZERO acceptances each year. )
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with the elimination of the multiple acceptance report last cycle under the new traffic rules, med schools can no longer see IF a student holds multiple acceptances and at which schools. This means schools are now more reluctant to offer merit as an inducement to enroll and are relying more on their waitlists to fill their seats.
BTW, except at schools that guarantee free tuition, merit aid is often NOT awarded before the student enrollment deadline. In fact, AMCAS traffic rules specifically do NOT require med schools to give a student their FA package before the enrollment deadline.