NHSC or HPSP

[hopedoc]

I was wondering if anyone had any opinions as to the pros and cons of each of the following programs, the National Health Scholarship Program or the Health Professions Scholarship Program? Thank you.

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[PCSOM2002]

The National Health Service Corps recently ran out of money and could not pay all the physicians they had employed due to government funding of many programs being held up in political bickering. I would be very cautious about either program. They will continue to be funded, but will it be enough and what is to say that in the future this will not happen again. For more detailed info., see the article in the October 23 issue of American Medical News. The link is below. http://www.ama-assn.org/sci-pubs/amnews/pick_00/prsb1023.htm

 

[Akron Ohio]

For the pro's and Con's of the HPSP see "Salary of military physicians" on this part of the site.

 

[ebola95]

Well, i was offered the NHSC Scholarship, but decided at the last min to turn it down....let's face it, we are all unsure of what we will want to do or in what field we will want to practice...so why get yourself committed to something that you may not want to do for 4 years because you didn;t want to pay for school....my advice: PROTECT YOUR RIGHT TO CHANGE YOUR MIND!...have you seen the penalties that you get for deciding to pull out of the program? it is like 4x's as much as you borrowed! i decided that since i know that i will make enough money to pay off my loans (yes, it may take a few years of bugeting and a very non-extravagant lifestyle) but it is worth my sanity and mental health to not put myself somewhere i might not want to be becasue i wanted to save a few bucks

 

[RollTide]

I really worry about some of you guys making it into medical school with your piss poor reading skills and lack of understanding of such a fundamentally simple program. The article you point to has absoulutely ZERO to do with the NHSC scholarship program, it involves the loan repayment program which involves those who take out loans during medical school and then wish to have assistance paying back those loans post-residency. The NHSC scholarship program's funding is provided in advance, and when offered the scholarship, the goverment has already provided the funding for all four years of your education. The loan repayment program involves having funding evaluated each year based on availability of funds. With the scholarship program NHSC only offers the number of scholarships ALREADY approved by our federal goverment. The person who posted the question was asking about the scholarship program not the loan repayment which you are reffering to. Although the article had ZIP to do with the SCHOLARSHIP program, you still misrepresented the content of the article. The article was saying that there were more APPLICANTS than funding available, not that the program was going broke. In fact the article stated the funding had remained the same for the past five years. The NHSC goes out of it's way to explain that there are more applicants than funding available with the loan repayment program on it's website and elsewhere.

As far as the comments regarding making a commitment to primary care in a underserved area, if I can commit to four more years of grueling education, and 3-5 years of residency with 70 hr work weeks, surely I can decide to serve the most needy of our population with some degree of certainty.

Happy New Year!!! from a happily enslaved(or should I say debt free) servant of our federal goverment.

[This message has been edited by RollTide (edited 12-29-2000).]

 

[PCSOM2002]

Roll Tide,

I was going to write a long and detailed response to your post, but then decided that it did not warrant such effort. My post was factual and did not misreprersent the NHSC. The article was for reference on the current state of one of the programs!

By the way, do not ever call into question my intellectual abilities when you do not know me,have never met me nor spoken to me!

 

[BretSebastian]

HPSP or NHSC

I was accepted for both last year. I elected to accept the HPSP for several reasons.

1. There is no tax liability on the scholarship in HPSP, but there is on NHSC.

2. Paycheck during the summer with HPSP. 45 days of paid medical training with transportation allowance.

3. If accepted to a military inservice residency program, you get a higher pay than you would from a civillian program. Upon graduation from your residency, you get paid nearly what a civillian physician gets paid.

Be advised...I only recommend the Airforce or the Army HPSP programs, as they have the strait through residency programs, where as in the Navy you are likely to be required to serve on a ship or with a Marine unit for 2 years before being allowed to attend a residency program. If someone tells you different, get it in writing! It just happened to a friend of mine.

Hope this helps!

 

[DDuncan]

There is no reason to be "Cautious" about accepting a NHSC *Scholarship* out of fear they will run out of money. A student receives a signed contract from the government stating they are funded for the specific number of years. The money problem mentioned above is for NHSC *loan repayment*, an entirely different issue.

--Derek

 

[hopedoc]

Thanks for all the replies everyone. Are they both equally competitive? I was told the HPSP was based on MCATs and grades.
Thanks!!

 

[DDuncan]

NHSC does not even ask about your grades or MCATs.
They dont care if you are a 4.0 40 MCAT, They figure if you are accepted to medical shool that you have made the cut. It is based on whether they think you have the qualities that are needed to work in and stay in an underserved area.... Retention is a big point for NHSC.
There is an application with many personal/preference style questions. This limits the pool of applicants who are then invited for an interview.

 

[hopedoc]

I'm glad to hear it is not based on MCATs or GPA's. What types of people are they looking for, do they prefer people who would rather work in rural over urban environments or vice-versa?

 

[nmehta]

When are applications available for the NHSC? The website doesn't say, and when requesting more info the system crashes. I called a month ago and they said January.