Air Force HPSP

[khami012]

Hello!

I am currently applying for the Air Force HPSP.. I have a strong GPA (3.997) and DAT (24AA 25 PAT) but I want to make sure everything else is good for my interview/application. I am a Division I athlete and have service experience both in a dental office and general volunteering, as well as coaching, research and other extracurriculars. Does anyone have any advice to help me stand out or have a better chance of being accepted? I am especially curious for the interview. I consider myself a fairly extroverted and bubbly person but I am really interested if anyone has any advice or what their experience was like. I would love to hear about people's experience as a Air Force dentist or any experience/advice about this process in general!

Also, for anyone with experience, do I seem like a likely candidate for this program?

Thank you!!!!

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[LFA20]

Hello!

I am currently applying for the Air Force HPSP.. I have a strong GPA (3.997) and DAT (24AA 25 PAT) but I want to make sure everything else is good for my interview/application. I am a Division I athlete and have service experience both in a dental office and general volunteering, as well as coaching, research and other extracurriculars. Does anyone have any advice to help me stand out or have a better chance of being accepted? I am especially curious for the interview. I consider myself a fairly extroverted and bubbly person but I am really interested if anyone has any advice or what their experience was like. I would love to hear about people's experience as a Air Force dentist or any experience/advice about this process in general!

Also, for anyone with experience, do I seem like a likely candidate for this program?

Thank you!!!!

My only advice is to apply to all branches of the military. It’s really difficult to get the scholarships nowadays even with your stats. Get your applications in EARLY.

 

[IdleKoala]

Yeah you have a great chance! I am also applying to the Air Force HPSP and have lower stats than you, GPA 3.94 and 22AA DAT with a good amount of extracurriculars. I would apply as soon as possible! I started working with my recruiter in May, i've already been to MEPS and just had an interview with a dentist Air Force Col. last week. Right now im just waiting, my recruiter told me it will be awhile till they actually give out the scholarship. I am also applying to the Navy HPSP just as a back up. If you have any specific questions feel free to PM me.

 

[outwardbound]

Hey guys I had a question regarding specializing in the Air Force. I was accepted into medical school this cycle and am deciding between the Army or Air Force HPSP. I am interested in emergency medicine, psychiatry, and oncology/hematology.

I was wondering how difficult it is to do internships in the Air Force? Would I have to get special clearance to do an internship in oncology/hematology after IM residency? And would this extra training require more active duty years? Thank you!

If anyone knows about this on the Army side I would appreciate feedback on that. Or any other reason why the Air Force would be better or worse than the Army is also greatly appreciated!

 

[AppalachianDentalBoy]

Hey guys I had a question regarding specializing in the Air Force. I was accepted into medical school this cycle and am deciding between the Army or Air Force HPSP. I am interested in emergency medicine, psychiatry, and oncology/hematology.

I was wondering how difficult it is to do internships in the Air Force? Would I have to get special clearance to do an internship in oncology/hematology after IM residency? And would this extra training require more active duty years? Thank you!

If anyone knows about this on the Army side I would appreciate feedback on that. Or any other reason why the Air Force would be better or worse than the Army is also greatly appreciated!

You posted in the predental forum. You’ll get better answers in the military medicine and premed forums.

 

[BatedPenguin]

I hear Air Force is crazy competitive for HPSP but your stats are good so you should be fine.

 

[I'mthebadguy]

Hello, hopefully someone can answer my question. After completing dental school. Im aware the AF requires Its dentists to apply to a year of residency. Does GPA in dental school determine residency acceptances/ residency locations?? Also, would GPA determine whether or not you get your top picks at base locations? If not, what is the major determining factor for getting top picks at locations, residencies etc.

 

[ysrebob]

Hello, hopefully someone can answer my question. After completing dental school. Im aware the AF requires Its dentists to apply to a year of residency. Does GPA in dental school determine residency acceptances/ residency locations?? Also, would GPA determine whether or not you get your top picks at base locations? If not, what is the major determining factor for getting top picks at locations, residencies etc.

You can learn almost anything you need to know about USAF/HPSP by reading through past replies in the Military Dentistry subforum. This is the rare question that may not have been previously addressed.

- USAF does require you to apply for an AEGD-1 year. Their goal is to always have enough residency slots for ALL incoming HPSP dentists, but if there were a shortage of slots in any given year then yes the new grads with poorest school transcripts would probably be the ones not selected.

- They ask you to rank your choice of AEGD locations. I would suspect this is the main influence on where you get sent for AEGD-1... it's not like they're going to send all their worst applicants to one particular residency program, and let that be the crappy residency base. If you request a less-exciting location then you will likely get it. The attendings there will be just as great and the training just as excellent as at the more glamorous locations. If you select something desirable like Langley then who knows if you'll get it. It's a short year and you will be too busy working to get out all that much, so I'm not sure it really matters where you go for that one year of AEGD. They're almost certain to send you to a different base for the following years anyway.

- Despite what you may be led to believe as a resident, performing well during your residency year does NOT improve your chances of getting sent to a "desirable" base for the following years, at least not that I could ever see during my time in service. The one effect is that if you are a strong resident, especially if you have good surgical skills, then you are more likely to get sent to a smaller base (which can be great). Weak residents (or people without the AEGD year) will tend to be sent exclusively to bigger clinics where plenty of other competent dentists are around to handle the more difficult procedures.

 

[DynamicDental]

You can learn almost anything you need to know about USAF/HPSP by reading through past replies in the Military Dentistry subforum. This is the rare question that may not have been previously addressed.

- USAF does require you to apply for an AEGD-1 year. Their goal is to always have enough residency slots for ALL incoming HPSP dentists, but if there were a shortage of slots in any given year then yes the new grads with poorest school transcripts would probably be the ones not selected.

- They ask you to rank your choice of AEGD locations. I would suspect this is the main influence on where you get sent for AEGD-1... it's not like they're going to send all their worst applicants to one particular residency program, and let that be the crappy residency base. If you request a less-exciting location then you will likely get it. The attendings there will be just as great and the training just as excellent as at the more glamorous locations. If you select something desirable like Langley then who knows if you'll get it. It's a short year and you will be too busy working to get out all that much, so I'm not sure it really matters where you go for that one year of AEGD. They're almost certain to send you to a different base for the following years anyway.

- Despite what you may be led to believe as a resident, performing well during your residency year does NOT improve your chances of getting sent to a "desirable" base for the following years, at least not that I could ever see during my time in service. The one effect is that if you are a strong resident, especially if you have good surgical skills, then you are more likely to get sent to a smaller base (which can be great). Weak residents (or people without the AEGD year) will tend to be sent exclusively to bigger clinics where plenty of other competent dentists are around to handle the more difficult procedures.

You meantioned that Langley is a desirable AEGD location. Just out of curiosity, what AEGD locations have you heard to be competitive/desirable? And which ones are not as desirable? Clearly this sounds like a personal preference/opinion, but I am wondering what the trend typically is for those applying.

 

[I'mthebadguy]

You can learn almost anything you need to know about USAF/HPSP by reading through past replies in the Military Dentistry subforum. This is the rare question that may not have been previously addressed.

- USAF does require you to apply for an AEGD-1 year. Their goal is to always have enough residency slots for ALL incoming HPSP dentists, but if there were a shortage of slots in any given year then yes the new grads with poorest school transcripts would probably be the ones not selected.

- They ask you to rank your choice of AEGD locations. I would suspect this is the main influence on where you get sent for AEGD-1... it's not like they're going to send all their worst applicants to one particular residency program, and let that be the crappy residency base. If you request a less-exciting location then you will likely get it. The attendings there will be just as great and the training just as excellent as at the more glamorous locations. If you select something desirable like Langley then who knows if you'll get it. It's a short year and you will be too busy working to get out all that much, so I'm not sure it really matters where you go for that one year of AEGD. They're almost certain to send you to a different base for the following years anyway.

- Despite what you may be led to believe as a resident, performing well during your residency year does NOT improve your chances of getting sent to a "desirable" base for the following years, at least not that I could ever see during my time in service. The one effect is that if you are a strong resident, especially if you have good surgical skills, then you are more likely to get sent to a smaller base (which can be great). Weak residents (or people without the AEGD year) will tend to be sent exclusively to bigger clinics where plenty of other competent dentists are around to handle the more difficult procedures.

Thank you for your timely and great responses. I have another question that hopefully you can answer as well. In addition to dentistry, were there other jobs Air Force dentists are required to do. For ex, non dentistry jobs? Leadership activities? In addition, are dentists able to partake in activities outside of dentistry?

 

[ysrebob]

1. In addition to dentistry you will spend a little time each week on AF-wide training (mostly computer-based routine HR stuff like HIPPA awareness etc), and will be responsible for a few minor non-clinical "Additional Duties..." some of the roles individuals are assigned at COT are modelled on the latter. Maybe you will be in charge of the dental radiology program, or infection control, or the dental lab, etc. And you will have occasional "management" meetings with the clinic commander and the other dental officers. There will also be ~monthly training sessions with the rest of your med group on emergency preparedness, and physical fitness time. But as an O-3 the vast majority of your time will be in patient care.

2. Typically not a ton of opportunities for O-3 level dentists to get outside of clinical dentistry day-to-day. You will have the occasional cool chance to peek into other corners of the AF. I got to do a behind the scenes tour of active F-22 Raptor facilities and peek in the cockpit of this extremely advanced plane; got to spend a day in the Predator drone control rooms and fly a drone simulator, etc. If you play your cards right you might be able to get an "incentive flight" in a T-38 jet at some point. But these are rare occasions. Mostly, the AF is going to want you doing what you're good at, which is fixing teeth.

3. The above may change greatly by the time you finish school. There is an active effort now to consolidate the medical services of all three branches under a common DOD command. Don't think anybody knows exactly what that will look like. But for an enormous, cumbersome organization, the military (when it puts its mind to it) can sometimes change with surprising speed.

4. Highly encourage you to post these good Qs on the Military Dentistry subforum instead of Predents. You'll get a greater diversity of answers, including from people with more recent mil experience.