NHSC APPLICATION 2015/2016

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You can always call Credco and find out who ran the check! 🙂
 
Finalist emails just came out today. Look forward to it in your emails.
 
Finalist!!! DMD Applicant. Submitted on deadline. Credit check on 6/11.

Praise God!!!
 
Got my finalist email as well! So excited. Good luck to everyone else!

MD applicant and got credit check 6/11.
 
Finalist. So does this mean we get the scholarship?
 
I also received my Credit Check on 6/11 and am a DMD student.
By choosing to be considered, it is still not contractually binding, correct? So even if I choose to be considered to the award, I have not signed any contract yet that states I will do it or binds me to their terms?
Thank you and good luck everyone!
 
Finalist = means you got it. Congratulations pat yourself on the back. Fill out the info and the money/scholarship is yours.
 
Yeah its not contractually binding until you get it signed
 
Does anyone know if they send out more than one round of finalist emails? Got my credit checked in June but did not get an email today...probably not a good sign 🙁
 
They send it MANY more rounds, this is just 1 of many. We only have 10 days to complete the paperwork then next ones up get it.
 
How many people that got a finalist award today also had that roles tab in their profile??
 
Are finalist emails rolling? Or were they all sent at the same time today?
 
Hello all! Finalist emails were sent out today! Best of luck to everyone on this journey!
 
Never had the roles tab, got the award and still don't have the roles tab. Guess it really was a fluke, all that thinking for nothing.. lol
 
Got the finalist email!! I got my credit check on 6/11, but never got the roles tab so I thought my chances were shot. Couldn't be any happier to receive the email today. 🙂 Good luck everyone!
 
No finalist email, but my account now has the roles tab. Hopefully that turns out to be a good sign if they end up having more finalists.
 
Got the finalist email this afternoon. Finger crossed for good news.

I don't have the roles tab.
 
I got an email today!!!!
Credit Check 6/11, MD Yr 3, Roles tab but it had the Loan Repayment in it!
Best wishes to all!
 
Flashes23 said:
Finalist = means you got it. Congratulations pat yourself on the back. Fill out the info and the money/scholarship is yours.
Click to expand...

If you don't mind me asking, how do you know that the finalist email means you recieved the scholarship?
 
Congrats to all the finalists so far!!

DO applicant, credit checked on 6/11. No email so far 🙁...do they send 1 batch of emails? The next batch will be for next runner-up if not everyone accepts the scholarship?
 
I'm trying to figure out the same thing. I had my credit checked but no email yet. So do we have to wait 10 days or do they email again tomorrow?
 
Yoda DO said:
If you don't mind me asking, how do you know that the finalist email means you recieved the scholarship?
Click to expand...

Ive called and asked, and so have numerous students in the last 3 years of past forums. You can look through them its been confirmed over and over and over again lol.
 
Congratulations to all the new NHSC Scholars!

I spoke with the BHW representative about the finalist process. I received a 6/11 credit check but no finalist email. Here are some key points:

1. Finalist emails were sent out individually. It was not a mass finalist email. I asked the representative if they would be more finalist emails sent out in the initial round. She stated that she didn't know. My gut tells me if we don't receive an email today, we were not in the initial finalist round. In past forums, it appears that every finalist was notified on the same day. However, things may have changed.

2. As previously stated, every year there are people who for various reasons decline the scholarship. The BHW representative informed me that there will be a 2nd round of finalist emails sent. How many? She didn't know. So, stay encouraged! There will be at least a few more finalist selected in the coming weeks!!

3. Not to discourage anybody (because I am in the waiting game too), I asked if we were not selected could we speak with someone who reviewed our application for constructive feedback/criticism. She stated that if not selected, the portal should provide you with a reason of why your application was not selected. I am first time applicant, I can't verify this statement. However, if I am not chosen as scholar, I will reapply and call back in for some type of feedback If not selected, we will be notified by September 30th.

On a personal note: I am 2nd time successful applicant to medical school. Stay encouraged, I am prove of second chances proving successful!!!! I am so ok with buy 1 year of medical school, get 3 years for free. Incoming M1.

Again, congrats to all the new scholars!!!!!
 
Last edited:
lnngu said:
Make of it whatever you wish, but none of the scholars I know came from a disadvantaged background. I did not either.

Ps: I'm currently serving out my commitment, and thus far, the scholarship has been a blessing
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I'm curious - when you go the NHSC route, do you get brought on at a significantly lower pay than you would if you were, say, an associate dentist at a private practice? I'm trying to understand the economics of it - getting an education paid for is obviously a tremendous benefit, but I'm trying to understand if it's similar to the military in terms of taking much, much less pay out of the gate. Any chance you'd be willing to share your situation?
 
staapes57 said:
I'm curious - when you go the NHSC route, do you get brought on at a significantly lower pay than you would if you were, say, an associate dentist at a private practice? I'm trying to understand the economics of it - getting an education paid for is obviously a tremendous benefit, but I'm trying to understand if it's similar to the military in terms of taking much, much less pay out of the gate. Any chance you'd be willing to share your situation?
Click to expand...



The NHSC scholarship along with military scholarship is the biggest bang for your buck if you don't wanna specialize. Let me break down my situation for you like my fin aid counselor did yesterday. The scholarship pays about 95k a year for 3 years (Im already a 2nd year so I will be getting the scholarship for 3 years). She had an avg salary she's been gathering of all students that work for NHSC post graduation from our univ (dental program only) and its around 114k. So for 3 years of working I get (95k X 3) in school loan payments and stipends plus (114k X 3)in salary. Im not even going to count saved interest which is HUGE(30-60K probably) , nor will I count 401k, paid vacations, free malpractice etc.. that equals about 630k for 3 years of working. So over 210k a year income, not too shabby for someone out of school that. Im sure you could do better than that in the most ideal of private practice situations, but its highly unlikely. Thats the convo I had with my fin aid counselor, thought i'd share.
 
staapes57 said:
I'm curious - when you go the NHSC route, do you get brought on at a significantly lower pay than you would if you were, say, an associate dentist at a private practice? I'm trying to understand the economics of it - getting an education paid for is obviously a tremendous benefit, but I'm trying to understand if it's similar to the military in terms of taking much, much less pay out of the gate. Any chance you'd be willing to share your situation?
Click to expand...

From what I know, you're not taking a huge pay cut by any mean working for NHSC. It's very similar to finding a job after dental school. Considering the average graduate makes around 100k (or even less if you work in the city), you'll be making comparable salary with NHSC.

@Flashes23 brought up some very good points. Once you start adding up the saved interest and other benefits, there really is no comparison.
 
According to my calculations, the financial advantages of the NHSC Scholarship are enormous. For most people going to an out-of-state/private school, tuition + living expenses will probably be around $95,000/yr.

So $95,000/yr x 4 years + interest accruing on that money for the 4 years will be roughly a $450,000 in student loan debt on graduation day.

Next, you factor in payback:

Let's say you try to pay down that $450k tab over 4 years, matching the payback for the NHSC scholarship (keep in mind you'll be paying down your student loan debt with POST TAX income) that puts your student loan payments at about $11,000/month.

The average associate position out of dental school pays around $120,000 - $135,000 gross which is about $93,000 - $103,000, after state and federal income tax, this is before you factor in cost of medical insurance, malpractice etc. that will probably come out of your own pocket depending on where you work.

This income would barely touch your student loan debt over 4 years, even with aggressive payments.

From the numbers I've been running, you would need to be making about $210,000 gross (good luck!) right out of school as an associate to be able to be able to make your $11,000 student loan payments over 4 years and make enough to keep yourself alive (food, rent, clothing). After your $11,000 loan payment you'd have about $2,000/month to live on, or in other words you'd be taking home about $24,000/yr for 4 years out of dental school.

Or you could make about $115,000 gross + benefits out of dental school for 4 years with zero debt.

These are estimates, but I think you get the idea.

So yeah, I'd say it's a pretty good deal.
 
I didn't receive a credit check or finalist email. I'm sure it's safe to assume I won't be receiving the scholarship this year. However, I am really just curious to know what they are looking for. I am an incoming dental student (w/o disadvantaged status) and actually have a lot of experience working in underserved communities...mission trips abroad, free clinics, health policy work in underserved areas, etc...I thought my essays were fairly decent/my undergrad gpa was 3.2 (a bit low) but I thought the NHSC values experience a lot...

Any thoughts from finalists? Could you share some of your experience?
 
Does anyone know how long it takes from the point finalist emails are sent out/accepted by applicants that a final acceptance is received and tuition etc. is reimbursed to your school?
 
Mascota said:
Does anyone know how long it takes from the point finalist emails are sent out/accepted by applicants that a final acceptance is received and tuition etc. is reimbursed to your school?
Click to expand...



You will get it countersigned around Aug 20, and you will get the payment late October early November
 
Hello guys,

So I received the finalist letter and decided to accept. My question is of I were to decide that I wanna specialize can I opt out of the scholarship or would I have to fulfill my contract and then go back to school for a couple years? Which thinking about it I would not mind doing
 
I don't think you can opt of out scholarship once you accept it. I think you would have to pay back 3 times the amt they give you. In terms of specializing, you could only do that after your repayment period. Some specialties gpr or aegd you might be able to do before, but anything else you should have thought about before accepting unless you plan on going back to school after your service.
 
I believe the only specialty you can do with NHSC is pediatric. Other than that you have to go back to school after fulfilling your contract
 
mds7 said:
I don't think you can opt of out scholarship once you accept it. I think you would have to pay back 3 times the amt they give you. In terms of specializing, you could only do that after your repayment period. Some specialties gpr or aegd you might be able to do before, but anything else you should have thought about before accepting unless you plan on going back to school after your service.
Click to expand...
That's not true - you can opt out. There are cutoff dates for when you have to notify them that you'd like to discontinue your contract, but you can do it.

In their PDF outlining the program, under the question, "Can my NHSC SP contract be terminated?" the following answer is given:

1) The HHS Secretary or designee may terminate an NHSC SP contract for a school year if, on or before June 1 of the school year, the scholar does the following:
a. Submits a written request to the NHSC SP through the Customer Service Portal to terminate the contract for that school year; AND
b. Repays all amounts paid to, or on behalf of, the scholar for that school year.

If a scholar meets these requirements and the Secretary terminates the contract, no service obligation will be incurred under the contract that was successfully terminated. If a scholar does not meet these requirements, he/she will still have a service obligation for the full or partial year of support received under the contract. The requirements above apply to requests for terminating the initial/first contract as well as any optional contract(s). After June 1, 2016, NHSC SP contracts covering the 2015-2016 school year cannot be terminated.

2)The HHS Secretary or designee may terminate an Optional Contract for a subsequent school year (or years) if the scholar does the following by June 1 of the
subsequent school year:
a. Submits a written request to the NHSC SP through the Customer Service Portal to terminate the contract for the subsequent school year (or years); AND
b. Repays all amounts paid to the scholar, or on behalf of, the scholar for that school year.

If a scholar meets these requirements and the Secretary terminates the contract, no service obligation will be incurred for the terminated contract year. If a scholar does not meet these requirements, he/she will still have a service obligation for the full or partial year of support received under the contract.
For example, a medical student signs contracts for 4 school years of scholarship support through her date of graduation. During the third school year, she goes on
a leave of absence from October 1 through June 30. If by June 1 of the third school year the scholar submits a written request to terminate her third year contract AND repays all amounts paid to her or on her behalf under the third-year contract, the NHSC SP will terminate her third year contract, eliminating any service
obligation for the third school year of support and making her eligible to receive scholarship support for 2 more school years subject to the availability of funds. If, however, she elects to retain the scholarship support received from July 1 through October 1, she would owe a year of service for the partial third year of support received and would be eligible to receive only one additional school year of scholarship support. When an NHSC SP contract covering a particular school year is terminated, the service obligation incurred by the scholar under a prior contract year (or years) remains binding.

3) Prior school year contracts may not be terminated after June 1 of the school year to which the contract pertains

The link for the PDF is here: http://www.nhsc.hrsa.gov/downloads/spapplicationguide.pdf
 
Jttran said:
I believe the only specialty you can do with NHSC is pediatric. Other than that you have to go back to school after fulfilling your contract
Click to expand...
The list of currently approved dental specialties (which you can choose to do by delaying your service commitment) are:

1-year GPD
1-year AEGD
2-year Pediatric Dentistry
2-year Public Health Dentistry

You cannot specialize in something other than their currently approved specialties. I believe they change them or at least review and assess whether they need to be changed on a yearly basis, so in 4/5 years, the list of approved specialties could be entirely different. However, if you think about it, those 4 specialties are the only ones that tie in really well with the service orientation of the organization, so I doubt they'll change except to potentially include some of the new 2-year GPD/AEGDs that are starting to surface.
 
Anyone start receiving countersignatures? That's all I care about at this point!! Or does anyone know if a second round of finalist emails were sent?
 
libra_risingg said:
Anyone start receiving countersignatures? That's all I care about at this point!! Or does anyone know if a second round of finalist emails were sent?
Click to expand...
Still waiting on the countersignature!
 
staapes57 said:
I'm curious - when you go the NHSC route, do you get brought on at a significantly lower pay than you would if you were, say, an associate dentist at a private practice? I'm trying to understand the economics of it - getting an education paid for is obviously a tremendous benefit, but I'm trying to understand if it's similar to the military in terms of taking much, much less pay out of the gate. Any chance you'd be willing to share your situation?
Click to expand...

No. As far as I know, I was offered roughly the same salary as my non scholar colleagues.
 
Hey All! The NHSC website is scheduled to be down for maintenance this Saturday, August 15 from 7AM - 5PM EST. Apparently this happened last year and once the site was back up and running, participants' portals had been updated!
 
No change after update, but not surprising since it's the weekend. Hopefully there will be an update during the week next week.
 
What change were you guys expecting? Last year they got counter signed on the 21st of Aug and the site didn't go down for maintenance until the 23rd of Aug.
 
Flashes23 said:
What change were you guys expecting? Last year they got counter signed on the 21st of Aug and the site didn't go down for maintenance until the 23rd of Aug.
Click to expand...
Probably a status change on our portal. Right now, some of us have the "Accepted Award - Under Final Review" status.
 
It doesn't have any correlation with the site going down for maintenance is my point, it'll probably happen 20-21st like every other year.
 
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