advice on national health service corps scholarship application

Jack Daniel said:

Two down, and probably another ice cube's chance for me....

Now the waiting game begins.

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When you reapply, what do you do, try to beat the bubble-test and switch all your answers?

corpsmanUP said:

It is hard to fathom that you really don't need this type of support as a med student, but you really don't! I was a NHSC scholar and got sick and tired of the way they changed their rules, changed policy, were sneeky about annual renewal of contracts with "additional forms" needing signed when their policy changed. They were the typical bureaucratic nightmare of an organization to deal with. I ended up bailing and paying a hefty penalty, but it was worth it. Don't gamble your future away for the price of medical education. I am starting my 2nd year of residency in a few months and groups are already offering to pay off my loans to join them. I had another buddy on the scholarship and he stayed on it. He had lowball offers coming from sites because they knew they had him in a corner. He seriously got offers in family medicine as low as 50K per year. He eventually took one for 90K in a ghetto essentially. Most of the sites on the list are outdated (call them and see for yourself). You need to seriously reconsider this scholarship.

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Thanks for sharing your experience...

Goosestuff-
Nope, I just answer the questions as I really think. Since I'm not really sure what "they" are looking for as a response, I figure the best answer is my real answer. Good luck to you if you applied.

CorpsmanUP-
Thanks, too, for your points.

corpsmanUP said:

It is hard to fathom that you really don't need this type of support as a med student, but you really don't! I was a NHSC scholar and got sick and tired of the way they changed their rules, changed policy, were sneeky about annual renewal of contracts with "additional forms" needing signed when their policy changed. They were the typical bureaucratic nightmare of an organization to deal with. I ended up bailing and paying a hefty penalty, but it was worth it. Don't gamble your future away for the price of medical education. I am starting my 2nd year of residency in a few months and groups are already offering to pay off my loans to join them. I had another buddy on the scholarship and he stayed on it. He had lowball offers coming from sites because they knew they had him in a corner. He seriously got offers in family medicine as low as 50K per year. He eventually took one for 90K in a ghetto essentially. Most of the sites on the list are outdated (call them and see for yourself). You need to seriously reconsider this scholarship.

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hey all, thanks for that corpsman. i really wanted to do this scholarship program. i am really nervous about all the money that attending medical school involves. i have heard through the grapevine that when you are done with residency that some hospitals/practices will offer sign-on bonuses to help with student loans. is this true>? and to what extent? does this happen for DOs as well as MDs? do you have to specialize? i called aout the scholarship and the lady at HRSA said that you could be relocated to fufill your commitment. i just feel like it is too good to be true.

Mars and Venus said:

hey all, thanks for that corpsman. i really wanted to do this scholarship program. i am really nervous about all the money that attending medical school involves. i have heard through the grapevine that when you are done with residency that some hospitals/practices will offer sign-on bonuses to help with student loans. is this true>? and to what extent? does this happen for DOs as well as MDs? do you have to specialize? i called aout the scholarship and the lady at HRSA said that you could be relocated to fufill your commitment. i just feel like it is too good to be true.

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there are lots of ways to repay your student loans. i am not planning on specializing, and so i have really been asking around. i want to go into family practice, and some of the 4th years have found places that have given them great bonuses for going into their family med rotation since some areas are in such a need. just because they don't qualify in the government program doesn't mean they aren't looking for people. i have heard that the key to getting good money from a lot of them is to "play" them off one another...hold out for the best deal you can possibly get.

i am concerned that the NHSC is not interviewing people this year. i did reapply, but i am not sure that i want to work for an organization that is choosing scholars based on a bubble sheet. (my understanding from the people i have talked to is that they are choosing you based on your background-and there's no real way to change that).

just believe that it will all work out in the end-how many doctors do you know living on the streets or scavenging the garbage for food? you may not be a rich-but if you wanted to make millions you should have gone into investment banking anyway!!! i'd worry more about making it through med school than paying off loans...

Excellent thinking Dancer! I am a DO, and there are no differences in the bonus offers for me versus my MD colleagues in residency.

I guess there will be less activity on this year's thread b/c there are no interviews. August/September seems forever away.

My fantasy is that the interviews were canceled to make more money for more scholarships...if only.

goosestuff said:

I guess there will be less activity on this year's thread b/c there are no interviews. August/September seems forever away.

My fantasy is that the interviews were canceled to make more money for more scholarships...if only.

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I heard they are trying to get more people to go into the loan repayment. But that honestly doesn't pay as well...

I got my complete card back..anyone else get any notification..when will we find out anything?

exigente chica said:

I got my complete card back..anyone else get any notification..when will we find out anything?

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Hi EC,
Just wanted to send you a shout out; CONGRATS on VCOM!!! You'll be missed at NSU-COM.🙁 Good luck with NHSC!!!

sasevan said:

Hi EC,
Just wanted to send you a shout out; CONGRATS on VCOM!!! You'll be missed at NSU-COM.🙁 Good luck with NHSC!!!

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Aww hun, thanks soo much..I bet we would have been awesome classmates too..ditto..maybe I will see you at a confrence or on the beach during break..I do live there...but I am super excited about VCOM..I loved it.

Stay in touch..😍

Good luck to all the NHSC applicants this cycle! I know that not having the interview kinda sucks but hang in there........the program is so amazing and the new scholars conference in the fall is also pretty cool!

Hang in there....if anyone has questions or concerns, just ask......

Voltron77😴

Mr. Jess said:

Am I reading this correctly? It looks like the NHSC won't be doing interviews this year. If that's true, it makes me nervous that I'll be selected solely on that bubble sheet!

From http://nhsc.bhpr.hrsa.gov/applications/ :

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GAWH!! What the $#%#!!! Honestly, I've been avoiding this forum b/c I didnt want to see ppl posting that they'd received an interview if I hadnt. Figured it would just unnecessarily increase my stress level. But I finally muster the courage to take a peak and this is what I find. Since FEBRUARY ppl have known about this no interview thing?!?! How were we suppose to know about this other than checking the website?? You'd think they'd have the decency to TELL ppl something this important. I think thats a pretty basic request. SOB!! Ive been putting off buying a plane ticket to South America for this summer b/c I was worried about it interferring with my interview! 😡 😡 😡
Guess I'll go buy that ticket now (now that its hundreds of $$s more expensive b/c ive waited 😡 )

Has anyone heard anything yet? I know this early is just the no's...but I am getting anxious...😕

smrtmom1 said:

Has anyone heard anything yet? I know this early is just the no's...but I am getting anxious...😕

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I'd be surprised if anyone hears anything until September!

Yes_I_DO said:

GAWH!! What the $#%#!!! Honestly, I've been avoiding this forum b/c I didnt want to see ppl posting that they'd received an interview if I hadnt. Figured it would just unnecessarily increase my stress level. But I finally muster the courage to take a peak and this is what I find. Since FEBRUARY ppl have known about this no interview thing?!?! How were we suppose to know about this other than checking the website?? You'd think they'd have the decency to TELL ppl something this important. I think thats a pretty basic request. SOB!! Ive been putting off buying a plane ticket to South America for this summer b/c I was worried about it interferring with my interview! 😡 😡 😡
Guess I'll go buy that ticket now (now that its hundreds of $$s more expensive b/c ive waited 😡 )

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Not that anybody cares, but I looked back at my post and realized how angry it was, lol. Im much more calm now. I did buy my ticket and wouldnt you know, its was actually 100s of $$ cheaper!! Freak price fluctuation that I wouldnt have known about had I purchased it earlier. Whoopie for me! Sorry for all the negativity earlier 😳

Jack Daniel said:

I'd be surprised if anyone hears anything until September!

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I understand where you are comming from, but DON'T SAY THAT!!!😱 🙄
I was really looking forward to NOT getting a letter in May, and GETTING a letter saying YES in August. Man I hate Big Brother sometimes...😎

smrtmom1 said:

I understand where you are comming from, but DON'T SAY THAT!!!😱 🙄
I was really looking forward to NOT getting a letter in May, and GETTING a letter saying YES in August. Man I hate Big Brother sometimes...😎

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As a current NHSC scholar, you probably won't hear anything until August or September so enjoy the next few months and hope for the best. Best of luck to you.

Anyone get anything yet?

Not me, not yet...😕 😳

NHSC website said:

Awardees and individuals selected as alternates will be notified by letter as early as August 1. Alternates will be notified of selection when awardees decline. Individuals whose application scores did not fall within the competitive range to be considered as an awardee or alternate will be notified in May.

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May is more than halfway over...

goosestuff said:

May is more than halfway over...

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Knowing the nhsc, no one will hear anything for a while. I have stopped counting on the May thing...sadly.

smrtmom1 said:

Knowing the nhsc, no one will hear anything for a while. I have stopped counting on the May thing...sadly.

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Why would you want to hear anything in May. That would mean you didn't get it. At this point, no news is good news.

jfitzpat said:

Why would you want to hear anything in May. That would mean you didn't get it. At this point, no news is good news.

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Exactly!

Love the 'tar Jfiztpat - I have one that hangs on my wall that my friend wouldburned for me!

jfitzpat said:

Why would you want to hear anything in May. That would mean you didn't get it. At this point, no news is good news.

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I don't want to hear anything in May, but I was hoping to hear if other people did, so I will know that if I DON'T hear anything, and others did....then I am either a yes or an alternate. As long as no one has heard anything, then there is just the unknown staring back at me on my computer screen...😎

smrtmom1 said:

I don't want to hear anything in May, but I was hoping to hear if other people did, so I will know that if I DON'T hear anything, and others did....then I am either a yes or an alternate. As long as no one has heard anything, then there is just the unknown staring back at me on my computer screen...😎

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Just be careful about getting your hopes up with that logic. The application only says that if your scores are not high enough to be CONSIDERED for the scholarship, you will be notified in May. This is much different than saying that everyone who makes it through the first cut will be an alternate or awardee.

As far as I can tell, they never tell you the REAL dates you'll hear by. And they wouldn't tell us anything last year at any point in time. I am going to carry on all summer as if I don't have it. I like good suprises, not bad ones.

Dancing Doctor said:

As far as I can tell, they never tell you the REAL dates you'll hear by. And they wouldn't tell us anything last year at any point in time. I am going to carry on all summer as if I don't have it. I like good suprises, not bad ones.

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I think I will follow your lead...better to be expecting nothing and get something then the other way around..😉

So everyone may be aware- I called the NHSC office earlier this month and was informed that finding out in May if one does not get the scholarship/alternate as stated in the website is incorrect. In August-September you should be notified if you get the scholarship, are an alternate, or are rejected. Anyone may call the office and ask themselves.
Peace.

kmict56 said:

So everyone may be aware- I called the NHSC office earlier this month and was informed that finding out in May if one does not get the scholarship/alternate as stated in the website is incorrect. In August-September you should be notified if you get the scholarship, are an alternate, or are rejected. Anyone may call the office and ask themselves.
Peace.

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Good to know - thanks for the info.

Yes, thank you very much. Just means 3-4 more months of waiting...not like I haven't already been waiting over a year (applied last year too).

smrtmom1 said:

Yes, thank you very much. Just means 3-4 more months of waiting...not like I haven't already been waiting over a year (applied last year too).

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Good Luck this year!!

Hello, Everyone! I received the NHSC scholarship last year. I interviewed in May and didn't receive my award acceptance letter until sometime in September when I was already 3-4 weeks into medical school! So, be patient because it takes a while! Good luck to all of you!🙂

I just got rejected today. I had Disadvantaged Background Status too...I'm bummed.Good luck to the rest of you.b

Also rejected today, so they must be rolling them out. Kind of expected for me, so I had already decided on the Navy. It would have been nice to get it and make someone's day getting them off the waiting list though...

beavisredwood said:

I just got rejected today. I had Disadvantaged Background Status too...I'm bummed.Good luck to the rest of you.b

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I am very sorry to hear that. I am also now very frightened. I have not yet received a rejection letter, but I live in the country, so my mail is sometimes slow. I also had disadvantaged background status. They must be giving even fewer scholarships this year than ever. Man I hate waiting.😳

Add me to the rejected list. Got my letter yesterday. I may apply next year. I dont know how they selecting people from just a scantron bubble sheet but good luck to those still applying!! My letter said they received over 1000 application for 100 or so spots

I received my rejection letter today, too. 😡 I thought this entire process was so ridiculous, I'm sending them a letter of frustration:

Dear Acting Chief Shorter:

Today I received a rejection letter for the NHSC scholarship signed by you. I can appreciate that the competition was very high this year, as it was the last time I applied. While I was certainly disappointed about not being awarded the scholarship, I was very annoyed with the wording of the letter:

"The process for choosing participants for our program is a rigorous one that considers a number of factors, including the applicant's level of commitment to primary care and to improving the health of medically underserved communities."

How can you say the process of completing a relatively short questionnaire is rigorous? Furthermore, how can your program even come close to measuring my level of commitment to primary care?

In addition to other qualifications, I am currently enrolled in a school that graduates nearly 60% of each year's class into primary care residencies and I fully intend to be one of them.

I do not pretend to know how the NHSC program selects its recipients, but I do know it is neither rigorous nor does it accurately determine the applicant's level of commitment.

I propose you update future rejection letters to better reflect the reality of the program's situation:

Thank you for your interest. Fortunately we received 1,345 applications this year but we only award a ridiculously small number that really does not justify the time you spent applying. Unfortunately, your name was not drawn in our randomized selection process. Please try again next year.

If I were to have received a letter similar to the above, at least my commitment to primary care medicine and to the medically underserved would not have been insulted.

Regards,

Jack Daniel

That was a great read Jack...thank you for posting. I can only hope that the pencil pushers actually read it. So far no rejection letter for me, but I am NOT going to get my hopes up. As I said, I live in the country, and my mail service is pretty slow. ANyone else hear anything? Anyone hear good news yet?

no rejection letter here either and I do not live in the country! But I will not hold my breath, they still make rejections up to late August. Good luck to all!

Good letter jack. I agree. I may try again next year.

anybody else hear anything?

Not yet! Still hoping to hear in late August (with a yes!)

I haven't gotten anything yet, but I'm not holding my breath...

GREENWOOD, Miss. - A national shortage of doctors is hitting poor places the hardest, and efforts to bring in foreign physicians to fill the gap are running into a knot of restrictions from the war on terror and the immigration debate.

Doctors recruited from places such as India, the Philippines and sub-Saharan Africa to work in underserved areas like the Mississippi Delta and the lonesome West already face an arduous and expensive gauntlet of agencies, professional tests and background checks to secure work papers and permanent residency.

Those restrictions have only tightened in the years since 9-11, and now many believe the process will become more difficult after the attempted terrorist bombings in Britain that have been linked to foreign doctors.

"The consensus seems to be that if you have a first name like Mohammed, you can forget it," Dr. Sanjay Chaube, a much-needed internist in Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Bay St. Louis, Miss., and one of more than 40,000 Indian doctors in the U.S. He is working in this country under what is known as a J-1 visa waiver.

The government estimates that more than 35 million Americans live in underserved areas, and it would take 16,000 doctors to immediately fill that need, according to the American Medical Association. And the gap is expected to widen dramatically over the next several years, reaching 24,000 in 2020 by one government estimate. A 2005 study in the journal Health Affairs said it could hit an astonishing 200,000 by then, based on a rising population and an aging work force.

"And that will mostly be felt in rural America," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. He added: "We're facing a real crisis."

America's rural and inner-city poor already are suffering the most. For example, there are 280 doctors for every 100,000 people in the U.S. But there are only 103 for every 100,000 in the 18-county area of the Mississippi Delta, according to the Mississippi State University Social Science Research Center. And the Delta has some of the nation's highest rates of infant mortality, heart disease and other serious illnesses.

Steps are slowly being taken by individual states and universities to enroll more students in medical school. But it takes years to educate a doctor. And even then, many professionals are unconvinced those steps alone will make much difference.

To help relieve the misery in the Delta, Appalachia and other parts of the country in dire need of physicians, the government lets foreign doctors into the country under J-1 visa waivers, dispensed through a variety of state and federal programs.

J-1 visa waivers allow foreign doctors to work in underserved areas for three to five years, with a shot at eventually obtaining permanent residency.

Over each of the past three years, about 1,000 practicing physicians have come to the U.S. on J-1 visa waivers. Many of them are from unstable or undeveloped countries and come here in search of better training, working conditions and pay.

Yet, since 9-11, the federal government has made it more difficult to qualify for the special visas and to obtain permanent residency. The tests are harder, the legal fees are higher, and the rules have been changed by the Department of Health and Human Services in such a way that fewer counties and clinics are designated "underserved" and thus eligible to obtain J-1 doctors.

As a result, some foreigners are choosing to leave after their commitment is up, or are not applying to come to the U.S. at all.

The number of physicians in training with J-1 visa waivers has fallen by almost half over the past decade, from 11,600 in academic year 1996-97 to fewer than 6,200 in 2004-05, according to the Government Accountability Office. And federal and state requests for J-1s for doctors dropped from 1,374 in 1995 to 1,012 in 2005.

Medical professionals and others have put much of the blame on HHS.

Before 9-11, the Department of Agriculture operated a program that brought more than 1,000 doctors a year to the United States, but it was shut down after 9-11. HHS then took charge of a new program in 2003 with tighter rules, and has approved just 61 J-1 visas since.

But the HHS said the numbers dropped because of a lack of interest among doctors.

"We just aren't getting that many applications because the pool is smaller and the tendency is to go to the states because the rules about what they can do are much broader," said Stephen R. Smith, senior adviser to the Health Resources and Services Administration's administrator at HHS.

The vast majority of J-1s are being issued instead under a 13-year-old program sponsored by Conrad. The Conrad State 30, as it is now called, authorizes 30 J-1s per state per year. But the program will expire unless reauthorized by Congress in 2008.

Some foreign doctors are giving up on the American dream.

Husband-and-wife Drs. Rohit Panchal and Vaishali Shah were heralded on a billboard in Greenwood when they arrived. As a pulmonologist with critical care training and an internist, they treat a patient population with some of the highest rates of lung cancer, diabetes and other grave illnesses.

They find the work rewarding, but when their commitment ends they are considering returning to India instead of trying to obtain permanent residency.

"It's too long and tedious a process. It's too tiring," Panchal said during a break from rounds in the Greenwood Leflore Hospital.

The federal government cannot be blamed for everything, said Dr. Sampatkumar Shivangi, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Jackson, Miss., who is president-elect of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin.

He once tried unsuccessfully to help a J-1 physician find a position with a rural Mississippi clinic.

"Some of the physicians in that community didn't want a physician to come and practice there because it would take away patients," Shivangi said.

Here

Very interesting article, goose. I was having a convo just the other day about this. I have always believed that America's outsourcing its health care of the poor to the doctors from the "unstable and underdeveloped" nations, and still, it's difficult even for them to obtain J-1 status! Although we usually talk about immigration and work in the context of farm workers, day-to-day construction jobs, etc. Perhaps the idea of "doing the jobs that Americans do not want to do" extends even to health care. That's what one may take away from that article. But, I believe that there are many in America who would want to do these jobs if given the opportunity, as evidenced by this thread.

It shouldn't have to be so competitive to do service to this country in treating its underserved. Still, we have to deal with the reality that health professionals will not find much of a draw in high enough numbers to this line of work without incentives that could compete with the jobs American professionals "want "to do.

😳I know it is not August yet -- but I am getting very anxious!!

Has anyone else here heard anything yet???😕

I'm still waiting for any kind of communication from them.... Hopefully we hear something by the end of the week, Aug 1st is when notifications come out, so by the 3rd someone should know something... good luck to all!!!!

Hi everyone,

So I was getting worried that I hadn't heard anything from the NHSC so I called today. They said they sent out mailings to those who were not selected. She said if I haven't gotten anything that it likely means that I will be selected for the scholarship or as an alternate.

Sadly she said they cannot tell you anything on the phone about your individual application - but that if I hadn't heard anything yet that I should hear in the next few weeks (but that it would not be a rejection).

Sounds a little too good to be true - but i thought i'd pass on the information.

ratiolab said:

Hi everyone,

So I was getting worried that I hadn't heard anything from the NHSC so I called today. They said they sent out mailings to those who were not selected. She said if I haven't gotten anything that it likely means that I will be selected for the scholarship or as an alternate.

Sadly she said they cannot tell you anything on the phone about your individual application - but that if I hadn't heard anything yet that I should hear in the next few weeks (but that it would not be a rejection).

Sounds a little too good to be true - but i thought i'd pass on the information.

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Definitely too good to be true... Nothing like a carrot to keep me going.

goosestuff said:

Definitely too good to be true... Nothing like a carrot to keep me going.

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Well, if true, that's great news for those sans rejection letter.

I'd like to say, however, that this method of sending out all the rejections first, then waiting a loooooooong time, then sending out the "accepteds" is a tiny bit bizaare.