Medical Student Loan Debt Reaching Unprecedented Levels
St. Louis, MO, April 25, 2017– PracticeMatch, a leading national provider of healthcare staffing resources, such as job boards, career fairs, and candidate leads for employers, established the Empowered Physicians Scholarship award to assist future physicians in the United States with their medical school debt.
Physicians begin their careers with, on average, about $183,000 in medical school debt, according to the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC), and the average debt continues to climb. About one-third of medical school graduates have an additional $24,000 in undergraduate debt. Furthermore, 37 percent of medical school graduates have accumulated more than $200,000 in debt by the time they begin their medical careers.
"Medical school debt has become increasingly burdensome for new physicians in recent years; we’ve created this scholarship as a way to assist with this growing issue, one future physician at a time," states Mike York, chief operations officer of PracticeMatch.
"Since 1990, PracticeMatch has empowered physicians with career opportunities to help them meet their personal and professional goals. Today, we are excited to start this new tradition to further assist a future physician who exhibits exemplary dedication and involvement in his or her respective community."
The $2,000 scholarship will be awarded based on an essay contest which runs through December 1, 2017, with a winner to be announced on January 5, 2018. Entrants should write and submit a 500-word essay which conveys their career inspiration and passion for medicine, as well as how they plan to positively impact the lives of others and improve their respective communities as a physician.
"Many employers offer sign-on bonuses which can help offset medical school debt. Also, finding an employer in a community that qualifies as a medically underserved area may allow a physician to earn student loan forgiveness for most, or all outstanding school debt, after a few years of service as a physician," York advises. "In addition to this new scholarship we offer, PracticeMatch can assist future physicians and new physicians with student debt by helping them to identify employers who will pay or forgive some or all of an incoming physician’s student loan debt."
For more information about the physician scholarship, or to submit an essay for consideration, please visit PracticeMatch.com.
About PracticeMatch:
PracticeMatch is one of the most established companies serving healthcare employers with recruiting and staffing resources including job boards, career fairs, and candidate leads. Established more than 25 years ago, its Pinpoint physician database includes over 338,000 interviewed, pre-screened physicians. Based in St. Louis, MO, the company hosts more than 30 physician career fairs annually, across the country. For media inquiries, or to schedule an interview with a PracticeMatch executive, please contact Andrea Clement – aclement@usa.M3.com. For more information regarding healthcare recruiting resources provided by PracticeMatch, please contact Mike York (800) 489-1440, or email mike.york@practicematch.com.
If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Andrea Clement, Media Relations at 404.990.3614 or email at aclement@usa.m3.com.