Assistance program
Scholarships for Health Professions Students from Disadvantaged Backgrounds
$330.1 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Health Resources and Services Administration, Health and Human Services, Department of
- Assistance
- Project Grants
- CFDA number
- 93.925
- What it does
- The Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students (SDS) program increases diversity in the health professions and nursing workforce by providing awards to eligible health professions schools for use in awarding scholarships to students from disadvantaged backgrounds who have financial need, including students who are members of racial and ethnic minority groups. The SDS program aims to increase the: 1) number of graduates practicing in primary care, 2) enrollment and retention of full-time students from disadvantaged backgrounds, including students who are members of racial and ethnic minority groups, and 3) number of graduates working in medically underserved communities (MUCs). Schools provide scholarships, maintain and operate a program to recruit and retain students from disadvantaged backgrounds that encourages completion of school and service in primary care and in medically underserved communities.
- Who benefits
- Students who are citizens, nationals, or lawful permanent residents of the United States or the District of Columbia, the Commonwealths of Puerto Rico or the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the American Samoa, the Republic of Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia; and enrolled full-time in health professions or nursing schools. A student who is in this country on a student or visitor's visa is not eligible.
- Who applies
- Accredited public or non-profit private schools of medicine, nursing, osteopathic medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, podiatric medicine, optometry, veterinary medicine, chiropractic, allied health, public health, a school offering a graduate program in behavioral and mental health practice, or an entity providing programs for the training of physician assistants. 1) At least 20 percent of the total enrollment (full-time enrolled) of a degree program over three specified academic years period must be students from disadvantaged backgrounds; and 2) At least 20 percent of the total graduates (who were full-time students) of a degree program over three specified academic years period must have been from disadvantaged backgrounds. Faith-based and community-based organizations, Federally Recognized Indian Tribal Government and Native American Organizations are eligible to apply if all other eligibility requirements are met.
- Authorized by
- Section 737 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 293a)
- Program site
- https://bhw.hrsa.gov/funding/apply-grant ↗
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments