Within the limits of funds available under section 338H of the Act, the Secretary may award grants to State applicants whose proposed Loan Repayment Programs will, in his or her judgment, best promote the purposes of section 338H of the Act, taking into account, among other pertinent factors:

(a) The need of the State for health professions manpower;

(b) The number and type of providers the State proposes to support through this program;

(c) The acceptableness of the State's standards for the designation of medically underserved areas and the appropriateness of the proposed placements of obligated providers;

(d) The degree of similarity between the proposed State Loan Repayment Program and the National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program;

(e) The adequacy of the qualifications, the administrative and managerial ability and the experience of the State staff to administer and carry out the proposed project;

(f) The suitability of the applicant's approach and the degree to which the applicant's project is coordinated with Federal, State and other organized activities for meeting the State's health professions manpower needs and resources, including mechanisms for an ongoing evaluation of the program's activities;

(g) The source and plans for use of the State match (including the percentage of the State's match that is proposed to be used for loan repayments), the degree to which the State match exceeds 25% or has increased over time, and the amount of the match relative to the needs and resources of the States; and

(h) The extent to which special consideration will be extended to medically underserved areas with large minority populations.