Hi all,
I'm a MS 4 at a UC school, career changer (worked in education for 10 years), with a spouse and 2 young children. I will apply into Psych and plan to complete a Child Psych fellowship. If all goes as planned, I will be in my early 40s upon finishing the fellowship and likely will graduate with around $230k in debt.
NHSC seems appealing to me, as I plan on working with underserved communities anyway. The Students 2 Service program has the added advantage of heading off interest on loans relatively early on, but I'm concerned about what the job availability is for psychiatrists. The job search area on the NHSC website has fewer than 20 jobs available on the entire west coast, and it's unclear if any child specific (with the obvious caveat that the job landscape will change by the time I would be applying). While my family and are open to moving (either for residency or afterwards), we live in a major metropolitan area now and I'm not sure how everyone would adjust to going somewhere rural--particularly my spouse, who is a lawyer for the govt and would have to quit her job. I'm also hesitant to introduce a great deal of transience into my kids' lives--moving for residency, fellowship, NHSC job, etc--but recognize that this may be unavoidable, NHSC or not.
I gather that there are a few different loan repayment options--NHSC, CA state loan repayment, and possibly local/regional incentives (Kaiser, different hospitals, etc.). Seems like a less risky bet, but I have to admit that I'm somewhat taken with the idea of paying down the debt ASAP.
So, my questions:
1) Is there anyone with NHSC and psych job experience that may be able to weigh in on what job prospects are like? Are the opportunities few and far between and mostly rural?
2) To what extent did attempting to maintain stability for your children factor into your job decision making?
3) Did being part of NHSC hamper your salary/benefit negotiations?
4) Are there advantages/disadvantages to the NHSC that I'm missing?
Thanks in advance.
I'm a MS 4 at a UC school, career changer (worked in education for 10 years), with a spouse and 2 young children. I will apply into Psych and plan to complete a Child Psych fellowship. If all goes as planned, I will be in my early 40s upon finishing the fellowship and likely will graduate with around $230k in debt.
NHSC seems appealing to me, as I plan on working with underserved communities anyway. The Students 2 Service program has the added advantage of heading off interest on loans relatively early on, but I'm concerned about what the job availability is for psychiatrists. The job search area on the NHSC website has fewer than 20 jobs available on the entire west coast, and it's unclear if any child specific (with the obvious caveat that the job landscape will change by the time I would be applying). While my family and are open to moving (either for residency or afterwards), we live in a major metropolitan area now and I'm not sure how everyone would adjust to going somewhere rural--particularly my spouse, who is a lawyer for the govt and would have to quit her job. I'm also hesitant to introduce a great deal of transience into my kids' lives--moving for residency, fellowship, NHSC job, etc--but recognize that this may be unavoidable, NHSC or not.
I gather that there are a few different loan repayment options--NHSC, CA state loan repayment, and possibly local/regional incentives (Kaiser, different hospitals, etc.). Seems like a less risky bet, but I have to admit that I'm somewhat taken with the idea of paying down the debt ASAP.
So, my questions:
1) Is there anyone with NHSC and psych job experience that may be able to weigh in on what job prospects are like? Are the opportunities few and far between and mostly rural?
2) To what extent did attempting to maintain stability for your children factor into your job decision making?
3) Did being part of NHSC hamper your salary/benefit negotiations?
4) Are there advantages/disadvantages to the NHSC that I'm missing?
Thanks in advance.