 You go through PA school without stressing nearly as much about money, which makes you perform better and it's just it's a better experience for everybody involved. So that's the benefits. What are the costs? What do you have to do? Hey guys, my name is Boris. I'm a position assistant and this is... I'm Elijah. I'm an incoming first year student serving over in Rutgers in the fall semester. PA student? Yeah, PA student. Yeah, this is Elijah. He's going to be a PA student. I'm a practicing PA. Today, what we're going to be talking about is position assistant school loan repayment options. PA school is expensive. Undergrad even right now is really expensive. So almost nobody's getting out without loans. And I don't know what the average is, but it's not unheard of to see people with a hundred, two hundred. I've even heard like $300,000 in loans, which is a mortgage. I don't know how people are getting out with that much debt, but it's a scary amount of debt. And if you want to avoid it, definitely watch this video. Check out these two options that Elijah's going to discuss. So the first option is... So here we have the NHSC, which is short for the National Health Service Corps. Essentially, it's a scholarship program that you can apply to. Oh, are you just sharing the screen? Yeah. It's a scholarship program that you can apply to while you're a student. And they do have a loan repayment option for as post graduates, but we'll touch up on that a little later. We'll primarily talk about this scholarship program. So with this scholarship program, you would serve essentially the same number of years that you would ask for that tuition assistance. And they would cover your full tuition costs, your cost of attendance, your cost of living. And I believe that you get around a $1,500 stipend every month. I know that changes from year to year. But typically for the past several years, it's been around 1,500 every month. And you can use that for transportation, for groceries, or any other miscellaneous things that you may or may not have. So a lot of people get the loan repayment and the scholarship program kind of mixed up and jumbled. So the scholarship program works, like I said, while you're a student and you would no longer be able to apply to it once you're a postgraduate, once you graduate from PA school. So this is something you should consider as a pre-PA student, as an applicant, or even as a current student. Because PA schools typically are around two years long, with mine being around three years long. And in my situation, I missed the first year. But that's not a worry at all. You can still apply as a second year and get your second and third year covered if your PA school, if your program does tend to run a little bit longer. So they'll cover each subsequent year after the year that you've applied and been accepted. So if you started from year one of PA school, then they'll cover up to year two, year three, however long your program is, and you would serve for that one-to-one ratio amount of years. So if you ask for tuition assistance for three years, then you would serve a total of three years afterwards. So real quick, so this is a scholarship program that you apply for before you even begin PA school. So not after you graduate, but before you even begin. How early do you have to apply to get, let's say I want my first year of PA school covered, like I want to be covered right away from my very first day. How early do I have to apply? So it's kind of tricky because the deadline is around April, right? And interviews don't typically happen until after CASPO opens. And CASPO opens sometime late April to early May. So this is kind of an odd situation that you have here because it's kind of like you have to do the research on the scholarship program prior to actually applying to PA school. So there's a lot of different struggles that you're going to have to go through just to do research on this and at the same time apply to your programs. But you can start applying as early as when the application opens, which I believe is at the beginning of the year and the deadline is in April. So even before getting any interviews or even before prior to starting your PA school apps, I believe that if you're interested in this scholarship that you should apply prior to that deadline, because your application would just be pending until you receive an actual acceptance from a program. So it's not like the NHSC won't look at your application. They'll consider your application, you know, everything that you have so far. And once you get that acceptance, then they'll start helping you pay for your first year and every subsequent year you are enrolled in PA school. That's pretty awesome. So if you really do want your like all of your PA school paid for from day one and get that stipend and all that good stuff, you have to be kind of extra organized and apply for this early before you even apply to PA school. So like the most organized applicants, they apply right when CASPA opens kind of at the end of April, April 25th, I think it was this year. So the most organized students who want to do that and then also do this program, they probably already have their application for this and in like January. So they're thinking like years ahead. So they're like applying for this program January, then as soon as the CASPA opens in April, they got their application submitted, everything squared away. And then, you know, those people are probably the ones getting the interview spots kind of early summer, early fall. So yeah, if you do want this, if you do want to be covered while you're a student from day one, you want to be looking into this program before you even apply to PA school. So January, February timeframe is when you want to be looking at this. Sound about right? Yep. You hit the dot on everything. And so the benefits as we just talked about cost and benefit, we'll talk about the costs in a minute, but the benefits are your tuition, is it fully covered or is it partially covered? Is there like a cap? I believe it's fully covered. So the bill will be sent from your school to NHSC or HRSA, sorry, which is the program running it. And they would directly pay your school, but that $1,500 that's been goes directly to your bank account. Oh, wow. That's one heck of a deal, man. Because it's awesome. That's like such a good deal. Because the other alternative we'll talk more about in a second, but the other alternative is you apply for it after you're out of PA school. And it's basically just like a normal job. It's the same kind of like to your commitment, but you get like 25 grand a year towards loan repayment. You don't get full tuition, which we know is way more than 25 grand. You don't get the travel, you don't get all that stuff. So this is definitely the most bang for your buck is doing this while you're still a PA student. And just to add up on what Boris said, it's 25,000 a year, yes, but you would have to serve a minimum of two years. So you would get 50,000 or two years of service as a postgraduate. So you would have to be a practicing PA already in primary care. Right. So yeah, I mean, this is definitely the way to go if possible. So that's the benefits. You know, you graduate debt free, at least from your PA school, you get a travel stipend, you get a housing stipend kind of a deal, whatever the 1500 bucks is. So you'd like, you go through PA school without stressing nearly as much about money, which makes you perform better. And it's just, it's a better experience for everybody involved. So that's the benefits. What are the costs? What do you have to do? So essentially, the way I like to see it as like a one to one transaction. So you give one year, you ask for one year, you give one year while you're a PA practicing in primary care. So I believe they do a minimum of two years with a maximum of four. But, you know, typically PA schools are around two to three years. So for example, if I were to start in my second year, right, because I missed my first year deadline, I would have my second year in my third year paid for, and I would only have to serve for those last two years. So I missed out on coverage for my first year completely. And I, but I would have my second and third year covered. And the only, you know, thing that I would have to do in return is to practice in primary care at a HPSA designated site, which typically means that you're serving in communities that are medically underserved, that have a high Medicare, Medicaid population, typically people who have like, you know, who need free insurance. So basically what Elijah means by serving is once you graduate PA school, because you were given assistance for tuition and for everything for one year or two years or three years, whatever you choose, you have to give that time back. And kind of like in the military video I did, which you can see right here, you basically agree to work in a certain kind of role. Sometimes you can choose the location, sometimes they have to choose for you, but usually you can choose the location or at least the city that you're in. And you're working in primary care in an underserved population usually. So kind of high Medicare, Medicaid usage. A lot of times in my personal experience from people who have done this, there's a lot of refugee populations, a lot of low income, rural, I don't know if you just saw the poster, but like areas with high opioid abuse, just like populations that are, for lack of a better word, a little bit more difficult to work with. And I wouldn't necessarily say even more difficult. It's just like some people really enjoy working with populations like that. Some people do not. But those are the populations that are most desperately seeking primary care and most, you know, lacking it because fewer people want to work one in primary care and two with those populations. So this is the government kind of incentivizing, trying to help those people out, trying to get providers to help those people out. So you could be one of those people, you know, and it's definitely a very noble calling. I mean, people who have had just the worst hand given to them in life that need care just as much as anybody else, you get to provide that to them. The cost is why, you know, why a lot of people aren't choosing to do that without an incentive program like this. These people are kind of difficult to work with. A lot of times it's, you know, English has a second language. So you have to deliver care, which is already hard enough, but you have to do it through a translator service, through one of their friends or family members translating. It's just, it adds at least one, if not two or three more layers of complexity and difficulty on an already difficult and stressful job. So that's why these incentive programs exist is because without them, unfortunately, a lot of people would not choose to help these populations who do need our help. It's just, you know, as the provider, it is more difficult to help these folks. Spoken from experience, you know, doing a rotation in one of these centers, I did myself. And also just like people like this do come into my urgent care, who don't speak English, who might have socioeconomic struggles, psychological struggles that just add layers of complexity. So helping these folks is definitely noble, but it is more difficult. So those are the kind of people you'd be working with in your two or three years in this program. Sorry if that was long-winded, but I wanted to give like a full circle of why, like these are the benefits you get in this program. And then these are the costs. This is what Elijah means by, that's fine. This is what Elijah means by serving is because you're serving those years. You're not choosing your job, you're not choosing your specialty, you're not choosing exactly where you want to work. You're going to be doing one of these roles that the government really needs you to do. Right. And just to kind of add on what Boris said, the encompassing umbrella is primary care, but there's different branches, even to primary care. There's family medicine, there's psych, there's mental health. I believe for physicians at like MDs and DOs, there's OB-GYN, which is something that you can consider if you're a med student, but specifically for PAs, for us, it's family medicine, psych. I believe that's it. Family medicine and psych are typically the areas you would practice in, at least for this scholarship. And it would have to be at a HPSA or a HIPSA designated site. So the NHSE, you know, kind of has their own scoring system as to how medically underserved an area is, depending on how many providers work in that area versus how many people actually need or what the, what the demand is for medical care is in that area. And they kind of have to score that they based it on. And they have that list on their website as to what sites you can practice in. And you can, I believe you can do your own research just to where you believe there's a medically underserved area and you'd have to submit like some sort of forms and talk to like, but this is years down the road. You know, this is when you're actually practicing already. Absolutely. And yeah, we'll put the information, we'll put the link for that website down below in the information. So you can certainly do your own research. And the people that would know the most about your current situation, how you can apply where you can work, that kind of thing would be a recruiter who Elijah's already spoken with. So can you just say a few words on how to get in touch with a recruiter? Yeah, so I just went on to their site. It's going to be, if you go into the type in NHSE scholarship program, just scroll all the way to the bottom. You'll see in big letters, HRSA and the phone number under it. So HRSA is the health resources and services administration. That's the whole kind of those are the people that are running this whole program. So you just give them a call, you know, just go through the motions of the automatic menu system. And they're actually really, really helpful and really nice. And they have all the info for you. I spent like half an hour to an hour talking to them, and they answered pretty much all of my questions. That's awesome. It's this one right here, Elijah, right? Yep. That's exactly at the 1-800 number. 1-800-221-9393. Amazing number to remember. It's like when you see a commercial or you hear a commercial and they like repeat it 10 times and then you can't help like memorize the number. So we'll do it again. If you're interested in one of these scholarships, 1-800-221-9393. All right. So yeah, so you can definitely call the talk to a recruiter and you can certainly do your own research. But yeah. So that's how you can be considered for one of these programs. And then just real quick, we were talking about the option where you can basically get everything paid for while you're in school and you have to apply super early, which lets me promote people that probably won't be what they'll end up doing. They'll probably end up considering this kind of thing after school. And that's also an option. It's not as lucrative, but it's still a very good option. And that would be basically the loan repayment branch of this, where you can get up to $25,000 a year for two years and then you can re-up. So you can get up to $100K and your loans repaid. And basically what you do, the service is the same. It's two years and you can re-up for two more years, working at one of these medically underserved designated sites. So the work is exactly the same. The only difference is you get like a normal PA salary, $90,000, $110,000, whatever it might be for primary care. You work a normal primary care schedule, but on top of your salary, tax-free, they pay off $25,000 a year of loans. Am I lying about that? Is it tax-free? I don't know about the tax-free, but I do know that it is an option for post graduates. And if you're a scholar recipient during school, this is something you can consider even after school. So if you have an extensive amount of loans, you can also apply for the loan repayment program after, where you just have to add that for those extra years on top of the bank that you've already been accruing. So let's say I am an undergraduate. Let's say it's senior year, first semester, and I want to start PA school in the fall after I graduate from whatever university. So let's say I'm super squared away, I'm really organized, I've got my hours, I've got a 4.0 GPA, I've got my letters already written, I'm ready to apply as soon as CASPA opens. The moment January 1st hits, I get on this website, I call the number, and I apply for this program. So let's say my PA school is two years, like mine was, two years, LaMoyne College. And so let's say I'm accepted, I do this program, everything is paid for, all my classmates are freaking out about when's my student loan going to hit, how do I pay for rent, and I'm just sitting there like, it's all paid for. And so that was good. I graduate top of my class, I got plenty of job offers, but I'm doing this program. So I do two years because, yeah, two years, because I committed for two years at a, I don't know, an underserved primary care clinic. And then I've committed, I've done my commitment. But unfortunately, I still have some undergraduate loans, let's say, I don't know, 50,000 worth, I can re-op and do the, I can re-op and do the tuition repayment program and stay at that same facility or go to another one for two more years and get that undergraduate debt cleaned up too. All the while still making a decent salary, $90,000. So pretty sweet deal. Yeah, it's a, it's a really solid deal. And you don't necessarily even have to be a previous scholar, like recipient, you can, like someone like who's fresh post-grad and just started looking into this, you can apply for that loan repayment program. So you don't have to be a scholar, but there is a way to transition from being a scholar to entering that loan repayment program. So you have options. So they're very like lenient and it's, it's a lot of money to consider. I mean, $50,000. What is that like two cars, like two Toyota Corollas? It depends on the car. Yeah. So it's definitely a good option. And like I said, you're doing very, very good work. It's hard for you. But it makes you a really good provider to like have to worry about the medicine and also have that layer of difficulty. So an easier, a different population to work with might make things easier down the line. You get to be a really solid provider, really good communicator. So it's going to be good for you to start your career this way. And then after that, the world is yours. You can do what you want, surgery, ER, urgent care. I don't know. You can still work as any kind of PA that you want after you've done your commitment. Speaking of working as any PA that you want, we got two minutes left before Zoom kicks us out. So let's very quickly discuss alternatives to this. So let's say, you know, you don't do this, you come out of PA school with $100,000 in debt, you know, like most people, maybe more. Is it worth it to do this, which will pay you this like loan repayment, but kind of cap you had a pretty low salary, primary care job, or is it better to start your career in something like dermatology, where once you get fast, you get expedient and you get efficient at your job, you could be making 200. I wouldn't say easy, but you could be making 200 a year. And then you already have that skill set from day one, you know, so, or like, let's say ER, you know, you get very good at ER medicine a year or two years in, you're much more proficient. And then you're making 150 instead of the 90. And now you also have that skill set. So you're making 150 every year from that on, instead of your skill set being primary care, which will never be 150. You know, it'll always be like 90, 100, 110. So that's something to consider. Yeah, there's a lot of factors to consider, whether like, depending on how much loans you have, how fast you want to hit those loans, because interest does start accruing the minute you take out those loans. So there's that to consider. So if you do consider the NHSC, you know, you basically won't accrue any interest on them, because it's already getting paid for, like, right off the bat versus taking like a grant plus loan or a private loan. So yeah, there's that option. And like Boris said, this is why, like, even as a pay student in my first year, I'm still kind of debating as to whether or not I want to do this scholar program or the loan repayment program versus actually practicing in the specialty that I want to, because we've had plenty of discussions about this and conversations with regards to, you know, practicing in a specialty that you want to practice in and already earning, you know, a higher salaries compared to someone in family medicine and, you know, down the years, later down the road, you eventually like it all eventually starts to even out of events, right? Like loan repayment, like you finish off those loans. But let's say like you practice in a specialty where you're that you want to do, right? So you're kind of like encumbered by all those loans, but eventually everything sets to even off in the future. It just kind of depends on what specialty you practice in. I'd say if you're already like interested in doing family medicine off the get go, I say why not? Why not do something like this? Why not take advantage of something that's along the realms of what you want to already be doing, you know, since you already know what you want to do that. For me, I'm kind of, you know, like most students will struggle, will have that like inter-talk with themselves whether or not, you know, do I do family medicine versus, like whether or not you want to work in ER or dermatology. So it just kind of depends on where you're at in life and what specialty you want to practice in, right? Because prior to PA school, a lot of people already had that work experience. So I've had my ER background and I thought that I wanted to, you know, be an ERPA or a working in the ED. But after finding out about this program, it's making me have some second thoughts and really weighing out my options. So I know that a lot of you PA, pre-PA applicants are type A students, you want to get all your eggs in a basket. So this is something I would highly consider if you're open to working in primary care. I think that if you have an inkling or like a ray of doubt as to whether or not you want to work in primary care, I'd say this is not the option for you because if you do become a scholar recipient and then you rescind that offer and say, oh, just kidding, I want to work in ER, you know, family medicine's not for me. I think you would have to owe back everything plus a little bit more just because they kind of, you know, utilize their resources, their time and money on you and you didn't follow through with your contracted agreement. It's, you're essentially breaking contracts. So this is something, you know, you can't just jump in and say, yeah, sure, why not? Let's do it. Let's have school paid for for free. You have to weigh out your options. What's best for you and your family? What's best for your financial situation? Because everyone is in kind of different financial standpoints in life. So yeah, weigh out your options, do your research, talk to people. I talked to Boris about this. I asked his help. I'm still considering it. So yeah. Yeah. So to kind of double back on that and also just like, because Elijah and I talked a little bit about this and I said, let's turn on the camera and talk about this, because I think a lot of people would really get a lot of help out of this. First off to even know that this thing exists. And second, you know, to like kind of get the thought process. So I don't know. It's not like you're doing two years in a specialty that's just totally unrelated to everything else. It's not like you're doing like Botox injections for two years, and then you have to go try to figure out how to do other stuff. Like you're practicing real medicine, you're doing primary care, you're getting your hand into like a little bit of every medical field, you're referring to specialists, you're reading specialist notes, you're talking to specialists, you're really, you're building a very broad base of medical knowledge your first two years of practice or your first four years of practice. So after which you can certainly go work in the ER, you can certainly work in a specialty, you just be kind of starting from the bottom. So it's not a bad way to go. And also the patient populations that we discussed earlier, they, you know, can be kind of stressful to work for. So definitely think about your personality. If that's something you're going to be able to do for two years, if you're not going to be miserable doing it, because, you know, nothing's worth that. If your personality is just straight up, I want to work in the operating room. I want my patients not to be conscious. I want to basically operate. And I don't really want to talk to patients all that much. Yeah, I'll round once in a while, but like, I don't want to be talking to patients, you know, all day. So if that's you, probably don't do this. If you just want to be an ORPA, you want to like be surgical, and that's it. If you're considering outpatient, if you're considering primary care, good option. Sorry, the recording from the last one just populated. Also, just as far as dollars and cents, and as far as your practice goes, if you are like Elijah, and you know you want to do ER eventually, I don't know, for you personally and financially, wouldn't it make more sense to just start your career off in the ER, you're not going to be making much your first six months to a year, but then you get good, you start making pretty good money. And also, you're doing what you want to do. So those two years are two years of experience that you could already be an experienced ERPA. Instead, you're sitting around in primary care doing primary care medicine. So it is a cost. It definitely is service. You're sacrificing what you could be doing for yourself for the good of other people. So it legitimately is service. So choose wisely. Fair. That was good. Pretty fair assessment. So Elijah, what are you going to do? Have you made up your mind? Man, you know, my wife is really upset because I keep going back and forth because I tell her like, I want to be an ERPA. No, I want to do trauma. I love trauma. I think trauma is like the dream for me. And then I find out about this, and I'm like, oh man, but you know what, like having my loans paid off would be amazing because she's to point to that school, right? We're going to have so much loans now that we're married. But she told me basically what you told me where it's like, you got to do what you love. If you're unhappy doing family medicine, then what's the point? You're going to come home miserable. You're not going to treat your patients right. It's going to reflect on your work ethic. For me, being a family man now, it's something I considered. I think I would lean towards the specialty I want to practice in. I'm very selfish that way. And especially after working in the hospital and, you know, getting accustomed to the hospital culture and seeing those high QT patients, that's something that I want to see again. And I've always wanted to practice as a PA. I want to see those high QT traumas. I want to follow a patient's case throughout the hospital. And I told myself before family medicine wasn't for me. At least when I was scribing, I loved it. I love scribing for my family physicians, family medicine physicians. But I thought I wasn't going to ever go back into family medicine. So that's kind of where I'm at right now. Where it's kind of like a sacrifice, whether or not I want to do it. Do I want to commit myself to the service? Or do I want to just practice in what I've been dreaming about doing? Like basically my whole life. I just want the audience to focus on how certain Elijah sounds and like how, because if you listen to him talk, it sounds like he's almost certainly not going to do this thing. And he's going to get a job in hospital medicine in, you know, ER or trauma. And like he's certain. But like, with decisions like this, you flip flop. Because if you ask him again tomorrow, he'll have some time to think about it and be like, well, actually, maybe this wouldn't be a bad idea. It would be good to have this paid off. It would be less stressful. It would be like more likely to get me through PA school and not having to worry about money. So if I don't get through like the whole trauma, things not going to happen anyway. Like, so you just keep going back and forth and back and forth until you finally come to a decision. And that feels committing years of your life, man. It's a big decision. And there's going to be a lot of students, current students and pre-applicants that are going to be in the same situation that I'm in. I'm kind of giving myself the same mentality as like, weird analogies when I got my tattoo, I'll give myself like half a year to think about it. And if, yeah, like Boris has a tattoo. So I kind of like, we'll use that same mindset where it's like, oh, do I like this tattoo idea? I'll give myself like half a year to think about it. And if I like it in half a year, then maybe it's something that I can seriously consider. But for me, I've been kind of flip flopping for the past couple months. So I'm going to give myself a little time at least until the next deadline, which is next April. And if I really want to push through with it, I can still apply and then deny and reject the offer later. But at least I still have that time. And if you're a pre-PA applicant, if you're still in high school or if you're still in college, give yourself that time to think about it. And I know you guys are probably very young, trying to think about finances, but this is something that'll impact you in the future and is something that you will have to face. So, yeah, look into the pros and cons, whether or not it's good for your family or not good for you. What do you want to practice in? Just take some time. Take some time to think about it. Yeah, because it is a big decision. Like Elijah said a little while ago, which I thought was very important. You can't really be flaky with this. Like once you commit and you especially you receive the money, like that's it, you're committed. You know, if you just realize, oh my God, like I just went through PA school and I fell in love with dermatology. I want to work in dermatology so bad. And then you graduate and you have to do this for two years. You're committed. So, you know, choose wisely. You know, it is a it is service. It is sacrifice to do this potentially. You know, that being said, like when I was doing my rotation at one of these clinics, there was a nurse practitioner there that had been there, I think for like eight years. So she just loved it. You know, like so she was getting the benefits of this thing. But like, she absolutely loved it. And that's just what she wants to practice. So that's not out of the realm of possibility. It could be service technically, but like some people love to serve, you know, so it could be for you. It certainly could be free. So anyway, guys, I'm Boris, I'm a physician assistant. This is I'm Elijah. I'm a first year PA student at Rutgers. Cool. And we're going to be bringing you lots more content on PA school admissions on essays on interviews on a PA school as in general how to study that kind of stuff. Career advice, you know, because I'm a couple of years ahead of Elijah, I've been practicing about two years. He's just starting his PA school journey. He just got in without too much rambling by my book, how to get into PA school, how to write your essay, step by simple step, and also just some application tips. Link is going to be in the description for the video. And I'm going to a wedding. So I got to get ready. Elijah, good talking to you. All right, boys. All right, y'all. Elijah, everybody else. Peace. We'll see you in the next video. Thanks, everyone. See you. Bye.