Essay On Health Profession Scholarship

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The Truth Behind the Health Professions Scholarship Program: Dollars, Duty, and Death For undergraduate students looking to pursue a career in medicine, medical school can be a daunting financial endeavor. The Health Professions Scholarship Program is a military scholarship offered by the Army, Navy, and Air Force that covers all tuition and fees for one to four years at any accredited medical school or other qualifying professional program. The scholarship also gives the student a stipend for living expenses. In return for the aide, students incur an obligation to the military; students must serve one year of active duty and one year of Inactive Ready Reserve for each year they receive the scholarship. The student will also have to apply …show more content…

As explained on doctorshadow.com, “Choosing any specialty or sub-specialty that enables a physician to earn more than $400,000 per year would make the Health Professions Scholarship Program costly.” For high-paid sub-specialties, taking the HPSP scholarship can actually be financially disadvantageous. These specialties make enough money in a year to eliminate their medical school debt after a significantly short amount of time. Consider that the HPSP can potentially save students as much as $420,000 while in medical school. This amount seems drastically less formidable to an orthopedic surgeon earning an average of nearly $500,000 a year than to a family physician making around $130,000 (doctorshadow.com). Another exception where the HPSP is not profitable is when a student can graduate from medical school with a minimal amount of debt. Students that graduate with less than $100,000 will make enough money early in their career to easily offset their loans, voiding the most appealing aspect of the HPSP. Without medical school debt to account for, the other financial benefits of the scholarship can not compete with civilian salaries (doctorshadow.com,

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