kenyabill Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 I'll be starting PA school this upcoming May in a program that runs for 27 months. For all you who are in the process of applying to the NHSC scholarship or who have applied in the past, I have stumbled upon a big problem. It states that all eligible PA schools must start between the dates of July and September (I believe) in order for the applicants to receive scholarships. This presents a difficult issue to all applicants with start dates before July (like mine in May). Today, I spoke with a NHSC help-line representative and he explained that NHSC only receives its funding from the federal government for this range of dates. He said that, as of right now, students attending schools that have a start date not within that range will not qualify for ANY scholarship through NHSC. No loopholes or management approval. However, he said that this problem has been presented numerous times during the past week or so that the scholarship has been open and the NHSC plans on meeting within the next week or 2 (very vague I know..especially b/c the scholarships are due on May 8th) to determine if PA schools with other start dates will be eligible. Has anyone else experienced this problem currently or in the past? Through my past research, I have to yet to find anything about this..but it's very unfortunate if many students are not able to apply. If I had known this before, It could have swayed my choice on which program to attend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaston Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 It's an unfortunate circumstance, but don't get too frustrated just yet. You selected the program based on what you wanted, what if you had chosen another program simply because of the start date and then your NHSC scholarship application had been rejected? Keep in mind, the NHSC is seeing THOUSANDS of applications now, for only a handful of scholarships. There is no guarantee that you would have been awarded it anyway. Keep in mind that even if you can't qualify for the scholarship you can always apply for a job at an approved NHSC site after graduation, then apply for loan repayment. I was initially rejected for the scholarship but have since graduated and landed a great job at an NHSC site with a very high rating, which means almost guaranteed money. The odds are much better for me at this point than they were when I applied for the scholarship. Also, I had more freedom to choose my site, if you are a scholar you are locked into taking a job with a site at or above certain rating. But, with loan repayment you do run the risk of taking a job, signing a contract and then not being awarded the loan repayment. So, your options are still open. Even if you don't qualify for the scholarship you can still get loan repayment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eliseis Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 People from my program (which starts in May) have been talking about the same thing. From what I understand, everyone who talks to the helpline gets a different answer...someone was told to put the start date of the fall semester instead and if they got the scholarship, they would receive back pay for the summer semester, then someone else heard to just guess the date and another heard that if the actual start date wasn't accurate than your application would be thrown out. All of that is frustrating cause people just seem to be throwing out info and "facts" even though they don't know the actual protocol. That said, I do believe a faculty member in my program is on the NHSC board and is bringing up the issue in the next few days. If I hear anything else I will let you know! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted April 5, 2012 Administrator Share Posted April 5, 2012 My program starts in May, and one of my peers received an NHSC scholarship 2 cycles ago. I have no idea how she filled out her application, but PM me with your email address and I'll pass it along to her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjohnson3604 Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Um... It said that last year, and we still applied (they just had to fix a glitch in the computer system). My program starts in August, received my award notification in September, and retroactive pay from the start of their fiscal year (JUly). I did see on my NHSC Facebook notification that they shut the site down for a while today for a system error. Hoping this helps, and that everyone still applies... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenyabill Posted April 6, 2012 Author Share Posted April 6, 2012 Thanks everyone for the input. It seems ridiculous to me that so many applicants will be excluded just because their program has a different start date. I have a positive outlook that NHSC will be able to make the changes neccessary for everyone to apply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterallsummer Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Yeah their help line is full of people who seem to not really know much about the program. Call and ask them if you can just put it as starting in July. If they say okay then go for it. I mean, call and offer that as a solution, instead of just saying "what should I do?". Also worst case scenario there is loan repayment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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