AF Reserve/Guard med school payment options

[KilgoreSnout]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Are there any AF reserve/ANG only pathways for financial support in medical school or residency? I've been stumping AF med recruiters asking about this and rather than try a recruiter from each of the 50 states I figured I can ask here if anyone knows. STRAP appears to be Army only, with some vague mentions of it being offered by the AF in the past.

Context:
I am an AF reservist pilot looking to go to medical school in the next cycle. I have all of my prereqs/extracurriculars/MCAT done and all are above average.
I carry 8 years left on my current reserve commitment. (Managing that commitment is a conversation I'd love to have separately with anyone who's walked a similar path). I have been told by an HPSP recruiter that transferring to them (if approved) would mean that my 8 years of reserve commitment would become 8 extra years of AD commitment once I switch components... Not something I'm interested in.

 

[comp1]

Don't forget the VA also offers the HPSP and is extremely flexible with reservists.

 

[KilgoreSnout]

Don't forget the VA also offers the HPSP and is extremely flexible with reservists.

Can you speak on the flexibility of full time employment at VA required during payback? One of the appeals to me about staying reserves is the freedom to hop on and off orders at will/ do locums or per diem around the country.

 

[comp1]

Well, a VA job is a full time job. You wouldn't be hopping around the country. You can still do additional locums and per diem work local to where the VA places you. By flexibility, I meant that you could be in the reserves while doing your VA HPSP payback time. There's not a way to payback with just reserves time that I'm aware of, at least through the HPSP. I don't know if there something else, but I'm pretty sure they're looking to get their money's worth in some way and I don't think the reserves would cover that.