Online Resources & Scholarships for Nurse Practitioner Students

A Nurse Practitioner’s Deep Dive into Scholarships and Grants

There are tons of great financial aid resources for nurse practitioner students out there, including:

• Student loans
• Fellowships and assistantships
• Employer tuition reimbursement
• Tuition discount, deferment, and installment plans
• VA benefits (for military veterans)

But none are better than scholarships and grants. That’s because there’s no requirement to pay them back, making them essentially “free money” for your education.

There are two basic categories of NP scholarships to search for: school-sponsored and external.

The biggest benefit of school-sponsored scholarships is that there is often less competition for them compared to external scholarship opportunities. They’re also among the easiest to find — just contact your program’s financial aid office.

External scholarships are those offered by outside sponsors (i.e., not exclusive to a particular school or program.) These awards may be highly-competitive and/or limited to applicants in a specific group (financial need, minority, residents of a particular state, etc.).

The following external scholarships provide just a small sample of what’s available currently to nurse practitioner students. Eligibility and application requirements vary from award to award, though, so it’s important to review requirements carefully before applying.

Steps to Success on Nurse Practitioner Scholarship Applications

When pursuing scholarship awards, it’s important to remember that you’re in competition with other applicants. So, it’s critical to develop a strategy for choosing and applying to scholarships that maximizes your chances of winning.

To get you started, here are five important keys to landing the scholarships you want:

Key #1: Beef up your experience and volunteer work.

Competitive scholarships are often awarded on a points system based on a number of factors, such as professional work experience and participation in community service and other volunteer activities. So, consider investing some time in beefing up your work experience and volunteer accomplishments before applying for scholarships.

Key #2: Create an impactful personal statement.

One of the best ways to set yourself apart from your scholarship competition is to submit an exceptional personal statement. Don’t skimp on the time and effort you invest in its content and be sure that you review your statement carefully for spelling and grammatical errors before sending it in.

Key #3: Get your application in early.

Scholarship committees typically review applications as they come in and, whether explicitly or not, they tend to give greater consideration to early submissions. So, get your application in ASAP.

One caveat: never send in a scholarship application that is not complete and checked in detail for errors.

Key #4: Choose the writers of your letters of recommendation wisely.

The quality of your letters of recommendation can be the determining factor in whether you win a scholarship award or not. So, be sure you have a clear understanding of who the scholarship committee wishes to hear from and what exactly they want to know.

Then, choose your letter writers carefully and make sure that they also clearly understand what the selection committee is looking for. And make sure you check in with your recommenders to ensure that they get their letters written and in before the deadline.

Key #5: Consider local scholarships.

Big, national-level scholarships with impressive award amounts are great, but they typically come with lots and lots of applicants. And lots of applicants means lots of competition.

So, don’t discount regional and local scholarships. They may have smaller award amounts, but they also come with less competition resulting in a better chance of your winning them.

And remember: You’re not limited to the number of scholarships you can win, and those smaller wins can really add up.

See Also: Resources for Securing Funding as a Nurse Practitioner Student

As we said, scholarships and grants are great, but if you’re like the vast majority of nurse practitioner students, you’ll be looking to additional sources of financial assistance in paying for your degree or certificate program. Listed below are several online resources you can tap into to help you in your funding search.

American Nurses Association: Tuition Discounts for Nurses

American Nurses Association page that lists colleges and universities offering tuition discounts to nursing students who are ANA members. Included are many that offer discounts to nurse practitioner students pursuing their degrees online.

Federal Student Aid

The U.S. Department of Education’s website for all forms of federally-offered college student financial aid. Resources available to qualifying nurse practitioner students include Grad PLUS and Direct Unsubsidized Loans, and loan repayment and loan forgiveness plans.

Find the Online MSN Degree Programs that Offer Financial Aid

EduMed’s own guide to nursing master’s programs, including those that prepare graduates to become nurse practitioners. The guide offers information on current online MSN programs, financial aid resources to help pay for those programs, and more.

Guide to the Most Affordable Online Nurse Practitioner Programs

This EduMed guide focuses on online nurse practitioner programs featuring exceptionally affordable price tags. Readers will also find valuable tips on how to lower the cost of their nurse practitioner educations.

Indian Health Service Loan Repayment Program

The Indian Health Service offers up to $50,000 in loan repayment benefits to health care professionals (NPs included) who agree to fulfill a two-year service commitment at a qualifying health facility serving Native American and/or Alaskan Native communities.

NHSC Loan Repayment Program

The Federal government’s National Health Service Corps offers student loan repayment assistance to clinical practitioners in a number of roles, including nurse practitioners. Assistance is given in return for a minimum of two years of practice at an NHSC-approved site in a Health Professional Shortage Area.

Sallie Mae Graduate School Loan for Health Professions

Sallie Mae is a private lender whose primary purpose is offering and servicing loans and savings programs for higher education. This site provides current information on its loans for students in graduate health professions programs.

Scholarships and Resources for MSN Students

Another of our own guides, this one featuring a list of two dozen in-house and external scholarships and grants available to master of science in nursing students. Also included are links to 20 useful online resources that help MSN students succeed during and after their degree studies.