Health Professions Student Loans, Including Primary Care Loans/Loans for Disadvantaged Students

Uses and Use Restrictions

Funds on deposit at participating schools can only be used for loans to eligible students pursuing a full-time course of study. The maximum amount a student may borrow is cost of attendance (including tuition, other reasonable educational expenses) and reasonable living expenses. Third and fourth year medical and osteopathic medicine students may be eligible for additional funding to repay any earlier educational loans. The interest rate is 5 percent. Effective July 1, 1993, to be eligible for a Primary Care Loan (PCL), students of allopathic and osteopathic medicine must meet the financial need criteria, and agree to enter and complete a residency training program in primary health care not later than 4 years after the date on which the student graduates from such school. The PCL borrower must also practice primary health care until the loan is repaid in full. To be eligible for Loans for Disadvantaged Students (LDS), students must meet the HPSL criteria and also be from a disadvantaged background as defined by the Secretary. To be eligible for LDS funds, a school must be carrying out a program for recruiting and retaining students from disadvantaged backgrounds, including racial and ethnic minorities, and carrying out a program for recruiting and retaining minority faculty. In addition, the school must agree to ensure that adequate instruction regarding minority health issues is included in the curricula of the school. Health clinics must provide services to a significant number of individuals who are from disadvantaged backgrounds, including members of minority groups; and enter into arrangements with one or more such clinics for the purpose of providing students of the school with experience in clinical services to such individuals. Secondary educational institutions and undergraduate institutions of higher education, must enter into arrangements with one or more such institutions for the purpose of carrying out programs regarding the educational preparation of disadvantaged students, including minority students, to enter the health professions and recruit such individuals into the health professions. These institutions should also establish a mentoring program for assisting disadvantaged students, including minority students, toward completion of the educational requirements for degrees from the school.