Applications are now open for the “Primary Care Medicine and Psychiatry Forgivable Education Loan Program” for the 2024-25 academic year. Current North Carolina medical students are eligible for up to $25,000 per year of medical school. The loans will be forgiven if the student ultimately enters a primary care specialty or psychiatry on a full-time basis in one of 80 counties in the state that are classified as Tier 1 or Tier 2 counties (all but our 20 most metropolitan and most prosperous counties). Each $25,000 loan will be paid in full after one full year of service in these specialties in these counties.
This new program is part of the broader Forgivable Education Loans for Service (FELS) Program. Applications opened Jan. 16 and will remain open until March 1. Any medical student who has applied by March 1 will be considered for a forgivable loan. The NC General Assembly allocated $8 million per year for the next two years for this program, for which the NCAFP strongly advocated. If there are more applicants than available funding, the loans will be allocated through a lottery of all eligible applicants.
A second smaller program has already been available for medical students, dental students, podiatric medicine students, and PhD psychology students. This program provides up to $14,000 per year (maxing out at $56,000), but there is no specialty requirement nor any geographic restrictions. You simply must practice in North Carolina for one year for every year of funding received.
To apply for either of these Forgivable loans, you should go to the FELS Program page on the College Foundation of North Carolina’s website and apply there! This website explains the various programs and is where you start your application for the forgivable loans which are administered by the NC Education Assistance Authority.
For more information, you can download a PDF about the program as follows: