The scholarship at a glance
- estimated monthly stipend, before taxes
- $1,648
- years of full-time service owed
- 2 to 4
- minimum site HPSA score, PA class of 2027
- 18
- new awards expected in 2026, all disciplines
- ~150
- of applications funded, historically
- ~10%
Figures are for the 2026 to 2027 school year.[1,2] The 2026 application closed on April 16, 2026, and HRSA's application page does not list the next cycle's dates yet.[3] In your final year? A related NHSC loan repayment program for final-year students is open through November 19, 2026.[4]
What the scholarship pays
Paid for PA students, 2026 to 2027
- Tuition and eligible fees
- Required tuition and fees, generally paid to your school, for up to four school years.
- Other educational costs
- A yearly payment to you for a full school year: $3,500 in year 1, $2,450 in year 2 and $2,300 in year 3. A shorter year is prorated.
- Monthly stipend
- Estimated at $1,648 a month before federal taxes.
The program pays required tuition and eligible fees for up to four school years, plus a yearly payment for other educational costs and a monthly stipend.[1,5] A tuition increase reported after your award is paid only if funds are available.[1]
A full 12 months of the stipend comes to about $19,800 before taxes. New scholars receive the July through October stipend as a lump sum, along with the yearly education payment, by the first week of November. Plan your first months of living costs around that date.[1]
Only the stipend is taxable. It is subject to federal income tax and FICA, and NHSC withholds federal income tax based on your W-4. It does not withhold state or local income tax, so you may owe more at tax time.[6]
Support ends when you finish your required classes or on June 30 of your last contract year, whichever comes first.[1] You receive none during postgraduate training.[7]
Talk to NHSC before taking a leave. Stipend and tuition payments stop during a leave of absence, you may have to return part of the yearly education payment, and a funded partial year still creates service. Dropping below full time ends your support.[1]
How support turns into service
Service owed for support received
- 1 school year of support 2 years
- 2 school years of support 2 years
- 3 school years of support 3 years
- 4 school years of support 4 years
You owe one year of full-time service for each school year of support, full or partial, with a two-year minimum and a four-year maximum.[8] One year of support and two years of support cost the same service, so a late award is a weaker trade.
Contract years run July through June. If your program continues past June 30, paying for the added months can take another contract, and that can add a year of service. HRSA's guidance uses a 24-month PA program as its example.[1] Work out how many contract years your program touches before you sign.
Full-time means at least 40 hours a week for at least 45 weeks a year, on at least four days a week, with at least 32 hours of clinical care, which can include limited approved teaching and alternative settings.[1,8] Half-time service needs approval and your site's agreement, doubles the time you owe, and cannot be switched back.[8]
You start within six months of graduating or finishing approved training. Service credit begins only once you have passed your certification exam, hold a full license and are working at an approved site.[8] For a PA that exam is the PANCE, so build your PANCE study plan around that six-month window.
Who can apply and how HRSA chooses
Funding priorities, in order
- Current or former scholars who are eligible for more support.
- Applicants likely to stay in a shortage area after their service ends.
- Applicants from a disadvantaged background who are also likely to stay. Your school can certify this, or you can attest with documents such as a financial aid report.
PA students are eligible if they are US citizens or nationals, are enrolled or accepted full time at an accredited program, can qualify for federal employment, and have no conflicting service obligation. A green card does not qualify. Another sponsor's service obligation can bar you unless that sponsor confirms in writing that NHSC service comes first.[10]
Expect strong competition. HRSA expected about 150 new awards across every eligible discipline in 2026, and says funds have historically covered about 10 percent of applications for new awards.[1] PAEA counted 650 PA students in the scholarship and Students to Service programs combined in 2024, up from 149 in 2019.[11]
Check your record first. HRSA runs a credit check and will not select applicants with a history of not honoring legal obligations. That includes default on federal or other payment obligations, such as child support, and default on an earlier service obligation even if you later satisfied it. Judgment liens from federal debt also disqualify you.[9]
Timing is narrow. The last application ran from March 17, 2026 to April 16, 2026, with decisions by September 30, 2026. Classes had to begin by that same date, and an award cannot be deferred to a later year.[1] You may decline an award offer without penalty, and that decision is final.[3]
Where you would serve
Minimum site HPSA score for PA scholars
- 2022 14
- 2023 5
- 2024 3
- 2025 5
- 2026 19
- 2027 18
You serve at an NHSC-approved site in a Health Professional Shortage Area, and the site's HPSA score must meet your class year's minimum. For the PA class of 2027 that minimum is 18, against 21 for primary care physicians and nurse practitioners.[12]
You may not know your minimum when you sign. HRSA publishes it before July 1 of your final year, and the PA minimum has ranged from 3 to 19 since 2022.[2] Your contract has no geographic limit, and HRSA's guidance says scholars without a job may be expected to relocate anywhere in the country.[1]
Eligible settings include federally qualified health centers, rural health clinics, tribal and Indian Health Service facilities, critical access hospitals, health departments, certain prisons, and private practices that meet the program's requirements. Veterans Health Administration sites, most inpatient hospitals and home-based care are excluded.[13]
The primary care specialties for PAs are adult medicine, family, pediatrics, women's health and geriatrics, and the guidance separately lists PAs in mental health and psychiatry.[1] If you plan to go into emergency medicine, surgery or another specialty, this obligation delays that plan by years.
You find the job. NHSC assigns an analyst and asks for your top three states, but you apply to sites directly, through the Health Workforce Connector and virtual job fairs.[2] A site can generally hire only one scholar per class year.[12] If you interview and file the official request, NHSC honors that site's score for up to six months, even if it changes.[2]
A PA residency is optional and needs NHSC approval. The guidance allows a one-year program in a primary care or mental health specialty, while the training bulletin says primary care, so get NHSC's approval for the specific program. Training does not count as service.[1,7,14]
What leaving early costs
The breach formula, worked through
Amount owed = 3 ร (amount paid + interest) ร (months left รท months owed)
$120,000 paid, with 12 of 36 months served:
3 ร $120,000 ร (24 รท 36) = $240,000 on the payments alone.
This is the term to read twice. If you do not start or finish your service, federal law lets the government recover three times the total of what it paid for you and the interest on it, reduced in proportion to the months you served. Payment is due within one year of the breach unless HHS allows longer.[15]
Delinquent damages can go to collection agencies, be reported to credit bureaus and be deducted from Medicare payments. Bankruptcy can release the debt only after seven years from the first date payment was required, and only if the court finds that keeping it would be unconscionable.[15]
Leaving school is treated differently. If you withdraw or are dismissed before graduating, you repay what was paid without the multiplier.[15] The guidance allows three years from the default, with interest only after that. Separately, you must stay in good academic standing to keep receiving support.[1]
There is a narrow exit. For the 2026 to 2027 contract, you can ask HRSA to terminate it if you submit a written request and repay everything paid for that school year by June 1, 2027. Earlier years' contracts stay binding.[1,15] HHS can also suspend or waive an obligation if meeting it is impossible or would mean extreme hardship, and enforcing it would be unconscionable. Neither is automatic.[1,15]
Scholarship or loan repayment?
The scholarship pays school costs and a stipend while you are enrolled, but you commit earliest, often before you know your HPSA minimum or the job you will take. It suits students who are confident about primary care in an underserved community and willing to relocate. Compare the programs using your own costs, remaining school years and loans.
Students to Service commits you in your final year, for up to $120,000 toward qualifying loans you already hold.[4] Loan repayment lets you take the job first and then apply, for a two-year term.[16] Neither pays a stipend, though both can repay qualifying loans that covered reasonable living expenses.[17]
One sequence is clear from HRSA's pages: once your scholarship service ends, you may be eligible for NHSC loan repayment, and HRSA considers those applications on a non-competitive basis.[8]
If you would rather avoid a service obligation, start with our directory of PA student scholarships, which marks the awards that require service. Other aid is not automatically ruled out when it carries no service obligation, but it can have its own limits, so ask your financial aid office and each sponsor how the awards interact.[1]
