Howdy! I was wondering what the selection process looks like after submitting the application. I know they have to run a credit check at some point and the deadline to hear back is September 30th, but are there any markers/milestones between then and now? Waiting is not my strong suit...
The selection process is basically a black box until September 30th. They don’t give any status updates until you receive a finalist email closer to the deadline. But yes, there are some clues that you can use to help gauge your progress.
The first clue is the credit check. There has been some consistency, but some variation as to when/what month, what it looks like on your credit history, which credit bureau is checked, and whether or not it is something that happens to everyone. There is language in the applicant manual that seems to indicate that it is a required step, but I know some scholars who claim they never saw the credit check. However, the simplest answer is likely: if you get a credit check from HRSA, your application is moving forward.
The next one, that may or may not have been unique to my year, was that after the credit check, but before my finalist email, I received a phone call from them gauging my interest where they literally asked “if you are awarded the scholarship, would you accept it?” I haven’t heard much of that in the forums over the years (or maybe people just don’t answer their phones as often anymore), so this is likely not something to rely on.
The last one is the finalist email. There are rumors of some people who receive this and end up not getting the scholarship, but those chances are extremely slim since the finalist paperwork includes a signed contract and giving banking information for them to start making deposits of the other reasonable costs (ORC) payments. So, unless you don’t do the paperwork correctly, don’t do it in time, or there is an error, if you’ve received the finalist notification, congrats! The timeline for submitting the paperwork is ridiculously short like 2 days or something, so be ready for that.
Some people speculate that “routine site maintenance” is an indication of some notifications coming out, which I saw was true my year… kind of. There are just so many site maintenance notifications that it is impossible to determine if one will be an update of some kind or if it is really just site maintenance. So there may be a correlation, but correlation doesn’t mean it is a true causation.
That’s all I can think of. Waiting is hard, but just focus on school once you start and it’ll be a nice surprise one day to wake up and find out that your entire schooling is paid for.
Good luck! And let me know if you have any more questions.
