Pediatric Research Loan Repayment Programs

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With higher education becoming more and more expensive, today most students need educational government loans in some form or other to meet their study costs. Although financial aids and grants are available from private funding organizations, students prefer government loans for their flexibility, lower interest rates and easy loan repayment options. Under the jurisdiction of the US Department of Health and Human Sciences, the pediatric research loan repayment program sponsored by the National Institute of Health is one such program which pays back the student government loans of medical professionals provided they commit to a research career with the organization.

Among all the disciplines, medical studies are one of the most expensive programs. Whatever the financial background of the student, studying health sciences requires some kind of financial aid. Government loans such as the pediatric research loan repayment program are doubly beneficial as they allow health professionals to have a research career, while dues from their educational loans are also cleared. As research is always a vital part of health sciences, the main aim of this program is to attract health professionals towards pediatric research.

The underlying principle of this program is that the health professionals would commit to a two year research career while the NIH would repay the student loans. In return of your commitment to pediatric research funded by the Federal, state or local US Government organization or a domestic non-profit organization, the NIH would pay up to $35,000 annually for your qualifying educational loan debt which includes most graduate, undergraduate as well as medical school loans from a US government organization, academic institution or commercial lending institutions. Since, loan repayments fall within the category of taxable income, the NIH would pay you an extra 39% to cover the Federal taxes and also reimburse the resulting state taxes.

There are two kinds of loan repayment programs: extramural programs and intramural programs. Health professionals conducting qualified research at domestic non-profit organizations outside the NIH are eligible for the extramural programs, while professionals employed with the NIH are eligible for intramural loan repayment programs.

The eligibility criterion for the pediatric research loan repayment program requires a health professional to be either a citizen or a permanent resident of the United States.

The applicant must have a M.D., PhD, Psy.D, Pharm.D, D.O., D.D.S., D.M.D., D.P.M., D.V.M., D.C., N.D. or any other equivalent degree from a recognized institution and must be involved in qualified pediatric research. Additionally, it is also required that the health professionals have outstanding government loans of or exceeding 20% of the base salary.