HPSP question: spouse also in medical school.... please help, would truly appreciate some advice.

[nitram0606]

Hi Guys,

So my situation is this: My fiancee and I have been accepted to the same medical school here in CA. I've been considering the HPSP scholarship for two reasons; I want to be in the military, always have wanted to, and secondly, the financial aspect will alleviate half of our debt.

My question is this: Is it a terrible decision to join the Air Force HPSP if we want a chance to be near each other?

I will likely end up matching with the military, seems 75%+ do, and she will, of course, match with the civilian program (who knows maybe i'd get deferred or sponsored).

I really do want to join, but wondered some more experienced people's opinions on whether it would be feasible for us to plan being near each other during residency.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
M

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[HighPriest]

It will be fairly difficult for you to be nearby during residency. Not impossible, but difficult. Your best bet would be for her to apply to residencies near your potential AF spots, and hope for the best. So the answer is: you can try, and you can hope, but should you -plan- on living together? That may be a bit hopeful. After residency, depending upon what she decides to do with her career, it may or may not be easy for her to follow you around getting work. if she's in family med, then there's a very good chance that she could get hired on as a contractor or at least at a nearby facility. If she ends up being a pediatric neurologist with a specialty in intravascular treatment for aneurysms, then you're screwed.

This is one of the problems with HPSP: you don't have any idea what's going to happen. You know already, without asking, what the potential pitfalls could be. No one can tell you what will end up happening - not for sure, and really not with any real accuracy even when discussing likelihoods. You may end up doing residency close enough to live together, and then you may end up working at the same hospital. OR you may end up doing residency two plane tickets and 6 hours apart and then having difficulty finding employment near one another afterwards. Or anything in between.

 

[Red Lobster Actual]

I want to echo Dr. Highpriest on this. I'm actually over at USUHS but when I was discussing HPSP with some of my mentors that are veterans, they all universally said their experience would've been better had they been single. The story that comes to my mind is my mentor serving his 4 HPSP payback years on a naval base that is the furthest point from his wife that is physically possible on Earth. It is so far that if you fly past the island by mistake you will actually start getting closer to the USA.

Think of it this way. If you stay civilian, sure you guys will have 500k debt after medical school but even if both you guys end up in primary care your household income will still wind up in the 300k-500k range. Live frugally for a few more years after residency and you'll have a great windfall for the rest of your professional lives.

 

[pgg]

My question is this: Is it a terrible decision to join the Air Force HPSP if we want a chance to be near each other?

Probably. The AF won't care one bit about where your non-AF wife is or isn't.

Remember, you can join during or after residency too, and get some measure of loan repayment. This path is likely to be less disruptive for people with professional spouses, but may still be more disruptive than you're willing to accept.


Here's the caveat: how expensive is that school in California you're both attending? Are we talking ...

Obscene like USC?
Abso-****-ing-lutely obscene like Touro California's $100K per year price tag?
Or just medium-expensive like one of the UCs?

Doing HPSP for the money isn't a great idea, but it might be a better idea than graduating with $800K of debt between you and your wife.

 

[Kilgoretrout 65]

It will be difficult for residency and afterwards but not impossible. You could be selected for San Antonio and she could go to UTHSCSA or you both could focus on the Sacramento or Dayton areas. Very hard to predict after residency as has been said above. If she has a more obscure specialty and you get sent to the middle of nowhere it could be tough.

 

[jabreal00]

It's doable but the probability of being separated during your residency is higher. The military does not care about a non-military spouse, because the expectation is that they'll follow you where ever you are assigned. The Air Force has a few training centers, San Antonio being the biggest. Depending on what you want to specialize in you may potentially get a deferred slot which increases the odds in your favor.

 

[HighPriest]

Here's what you ask yourself:

Do I want to be in the military enough to make it worth not being near my wife, potentially for a number of years? That's a worse case scenario, but if the answer is no, then you should reconsider.

I agree with pgg regarding the total amount of debt you'll accrue. I would make the argument that if you're both going to hyper-expensive medical schools, you should consider going to a cheaper medical school. No school is worth $100k/year. I promise they're not teaching you anything worth that much more than their competitors, and frankly people don't care THAT much about where you went to medical school. But if you're stuck, then you have to ask yourself whether or not the debt is preferable to spending potentially a number of years away from your wife. If the answer is yes, then you should reconsider.

 

[idq1i]

The more blunt way of putting the points made above: Will your relationship survive if you are forced to live apart anywhere from 4 to 9 years? Mine did, but I was lucky enough to escape the yoke of in-house milmed training, and only had a 4 year commitment/sentence (all of which I spent 350-1200 miles from my spouse).

I also don't believe your "want to be in the military" point because of your follow up ($$$), but I'm just some anonymous internet poster. Do you even believe that? What do you know about serving on AD in milmed? You may want to answer this question before considering HPSP.

-4 days to outprocessing

 

[DMBandFan86]

The reserves might give you want you are looking for. You can join the military (that you have always wanted to do) and won't have to worry about location. MDSSP will pay 1/4 - 1/2 of medical school, but the contract obligation may not be all that great. Just something to consider and talk to your recruiter about.

 

[nitram0606]

Thank you all for the responses, I really appreciate it and am getting a pretty solid consensus.

I do in fact want to serve, not sure why mentioning the money at all would have any bearing on that....in my opinion it would be pretty foolish to do this without considering every single aspect of it. If they didn't pay for medical school I doubt many people would commit before medical school started with the promise of 100k a year salary afterwards..... I've done all the math and I realize I could pay back even 600k in total loans between the two of us fairly quickly living frugally. The money is a fraction of my reason for wanting to join, I've always wanted to join.

That being said, I am going to have to talk with her about the very real chance of being apart for a great deal of time. I was mostly decided for it, but now I'm questioning that. My order of priorities go - Her + medicine in general, military, then money.

Thank you all again!

 

[Perrotfish]

FWIW I see three viable paths if you really want to serve

1) You both join. The military is pretty good at keeping dual military spouses together. Not perfect, there are stories of separations, but most dual military physician couples I know ended up at the same hospitals throughout their training and their payback.

2) Wait until after you finish residency to join. Your greatest chance of being separated is during residency. Once she can work, assuming she chooses a profession that can follow you to a rural location (not a surgical subspecialty), odds are she will be able to follow you. Again, not a perfect strategy, since you could be stationed overeas and effectively separated if she needs to stay in the US to work, but normally if you need to stay in the US for your spounse the detailer can work with you at least to the extent of getting you to some awful location in the middle of a US desert or swamp.

3) Join the reserves. You will stay stateside, be able to couples match with her, and still be able to wear the uniform.

The civilian/military physician combination is rough. If you get residency somewhere she can't match, and then get a first duty station somewhere she can't work, its not impossible that you'll be separated for 7 full years. Also being somewhere she can work doesn't necessarily mean being somewhere she would ever want to work. Are you sure that your Type A doctor wife is going to be happy doing a low Tier residency in Portsmouth, and then spending the first 4 years of her career in a small town in a swamp, rather than going directly from a top tier residency to a top tier fellowship? For that matter are you really going to be happy gong to your first duty station in the badlands of New Mexico when your classmates are beginning their careers on beautiful tropical islands?

Lots of physicians make it work, but that doesn't mean its a good idea. At the very least she needs to be 100% on board and 100% clear what the sacrifices will be.

 

[NEVERacceptNO]

help! ARMY HPSP and Air force HPSP , both trying to do residency in the same location!

 

[ArmyTiger]

help! ARMY HPSP and Air force HPSP , both trying to do residency in the same location!

Go to BAMC?

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[Gastrapathy]

help! ARMY HPSP and Air force HPSP , both trying to do residency in the same location!

Residency is likely doable in Bethesda or San Antonio. Its the next phase where you are likely to be completely screwed. It is possible to switch services (at least I've seen it happen) and having one of you switch would be ideal. This presumes you are already married.

 

[deleted480308]

Residency is likely doable in Bethesda or San Antonio. Its the next phase where you are likely to be completely screwed. It is possible to switch services (at least I've seen it happen) and having one of you switch would be ideal. This presumes you are already married.

I do know of a married usuhs couple that had one of them switch services when they got married

 

[Red Lobster Actual]

I do know of a married usuhs couple that had one of them switch services when they got married

Happens reasonably often at uushs that they gave us a brief on it. Takes a few years though.