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"For each year of financial support (up to four years), the student agrees to serve one year (minimum two years) at an NHSC-approved site in a high-need urban, rural, or frontier community across the nation." (from Scholarships)

Looks like you have to do the full 4 years of service if you're in medical school for 4 years, so it's a fairly long commitment. Some people may not like being tied down to whatever site the NHSC assigns them for that long of a period.
 
zealously said:
"For each year of financial support (up to four years), the student agrees to serve one year (minimum two years) at an NHSC-approved site in a high-need urban, rural, or frontier community across the nation." (from Scholarships)

Looks like you have to do the full 4 years of service if you're in medical school for 4 years, so it's a fairly long commitment. Some people may not like being tied down to whatever site the NHSC assigns them for that long of a period.
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If you have the NHSC pay for only two years of medical school, you only have to do two years of service. Two years of fully paid tuition, housing and stipend is still a lot of money. Also, the NHSC doesn't assign you. You get to pick where you want to work! Some of the sites are as normal as working in Washington DC or Los Angeles CA. They don't force you to go to rural sites in Iowa or Idaho etc.
 
mariposas905 said:
If you have the NHSC pay for only two years of medical school, you only have to do two years of service. Two years of fully paid tuition, housing and stipend is still a lot of money. Also, the NHSC doesn't assign you. You get to pick where you want to work! Some of the sites are as normal as working in Washington DC or Los Angeles CA. They don't force you to go to rural sites in Iowa or Idaho etc.
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Ya, you're absolutely right. NHSC is great for people who are about serving the underserved and are prepared to commit. I don't think there's necessarily anything "bad" about it. It's just that a lot of medical students aren't prepared to make that kind of commitment or don't want to.

Also remember that vast majority of med students come from money and even though they are facing giant tuition bills can pay it off and end up with about 50% of the debt they would have taking out full sticker price in loans, on average. Almost a fifth of med students graduate with 100k or less in debt, which is manageable on its own with a physicians salary without having to do programs like NhSC.
 
If you are single, unencumbered and don't mind potentially living in either a highly urbanized or highly rural area, than it is an OK option.
 
I think the biggest issue is if you decide half way through clinical rotations that you don't want to be primary care. You are limiting yourself up front. This becomes a huge issue if you match into something other than primary care and you owe far more than what you were given (I think three times the amount). Many people recommend applying after you are in residency and getting the partial loan forgiveness because you know you will be doing primary care at that point.
 
There are several issues/problems with the NHSC scholarship for anyone interested:
1. There is no posted rubric, but it appears that your application will be bounced if you don't fall within certain categories (medical program, disadvantaged background, ethnicity, residency desired, possible specialization, etc.). The rubric may also change from year to year. Furthermore, depending on projections, certain fields will get more people pulled (i.e. 2017 was a heavy dental year).
2. If you do apply and don't see a credit check/get an email by mid-July, don't hold your breath. You are most likely not going to get it.
3. You will not see any change to your portal status. Even some of the people that do get the scholarship will not see a change in status.
4. CSRs are basically pointless. They are very nice, but they cannot tell you anything if you call.
5. If you do get the scholarship, you will be limited to where you want to work (more than you thought). Each "site" gets a score based on median income in the area etc. The required score that is tied to your contract is based on the year you graduate. So, if your graduation year is tied to a projected down year, than you will have a much more limited pool of sites to draw from. NHSC does post the current year's required score on their website.
6. God help you if you try to get out of the contract. You will be sued for breach.
7. You may be better off doing the loan forgiveness because you get a little more freedom for work.

I applied for NHSC and did my homework on the program after the fact. Its a great program for anyone who is only interested in working primary care for extremely underserved areas, come from a disadvantaged background, come from a minority group (I don't like that this is a factor but race is something that is touted on award reports put out every year), probably don't have family, etc. Anyone that doesn't fit into those categories should really consider other options. I will not be applying for the scholarship again, and I advise anyone that has any doubts based on this post to do their own homework and come to their own conclusions. Good luck in school and congratulations for getting this far!
 
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