Army Vet Corps HPSP Scholarship

[bbeventer]

So basically like most my parents are strapped for cash and I am not to enthusiastic about being 120k+ in debt by the time I graduate vet school. For awhile now (2 years?) I have been looking at the vet corps scholarship and was wondering if any of you guys have experience with it or know of anyone know has gone this route? Any information positive, negatives, would be great.
Thanks!

Here is a link for anyone who has no clue what I am talking about:
http://vetopportunities.amedd.army.mil/hpsp.html

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[goldnretrivrgrl]

I think there's an old thread on this somewhere. But I'd be curious if anyone has recent experiences they'd like to share!

 

[bbeventer]

I actually looked at that thread and it wasn't really inline with the questions I was interested in. I have dabbled a little over in the military medical forum, but would really like to know what the vet corps are like.

 

[zeebra44]

Not to rain on your parade, but I didn't realize how competitive this scholarship actually is until a few months ago. An army recruiter came to speak with incoming first years at Mizzou, and he said to be considered..you basically need to be in the top 1% of your vet school class at the end of the first semester. There are only a limited number of scholarships (about 25), and they consider ALL of the schools. So, that's not even one student from each school...Basically, don't rely on this option. The student chosen from our school last year was #1 in the class with a 4.0 GPA. Sadly, this is one time where grades really do matter. He also said they weigh what vet school you're attending as well..so I guess vet school rankings matter in this case too. Some people in my class are studying really hard this semester (aka: killing themselves to get A's) because they want to try for it, but most of us were a little disheartened and gave up after his talk.

 

[UM2014]

The army scholarship is great but it's extremely competitive and you have to give them a year of service for every year of tuition they pay. You apply for it during your first year in vet school and from what the army recruiter told us you basically have to have a 4.0 in your first semester of vet school to even be considered and I think a very high undergraduate GPA as well.
I have one friend that had the army scholarship in vet school and is now serving her time working on a base in texas. They did not cover her first year of loans, only the last three years. I'm not sure if they ever offer to cover that first year since you will have to apply for and accept your first year of loans prior to even applying for the scholarship in your VM-1 year. They might, I just know they didn't for my friend.
You have to do an officer basic training during your summer off and there are a few other training type things you have to do during vacations in vet school but I can't remember what all that was off the top of my head.
She likes it but is ready to be done and move on to a private practice somewhere. She said the debt relief was worth it in some ways but not in others based on her current lifestyle but it's only for a few years.

I'm not shooting for the army scholarship but I have several friends that are in my class this year. I'm from a big military family and personally the debt relief is not enough of an incentive for me to try and go that route but it is an awesome option for someone more suited to that sort of program/life style. I just wish my friends aiming for the scholarship wouldn't stress themselves out quite so much with the 'must have a 4.0!!' mentality.

 

[bbeventer]

Thanks Zeebra, thats interesting information, from what I was reading over on the medical board, they were saying that if you have a 3.5gpa you are automatically accepted, so I guess the vet scholarship is ran a bit differently. Their website makes it sound like it is just a matter of applying to receive the scholarship... interesting.

eta: UM thanks for the reply. I also come from a military family. My dad served 20yrs in the navy and my brother is actually serving right now in the navy. I actually would not mind the chance to serve which is another reason why I was considering it, not just the debt relief. I actually had no idea that it was so competitive. My undergrad gpa is not too impressive so I may already be in a pickle.

 

[BQ2009]

I talked to a recruiter and he made it sound like it was just a matter of applying. For medical reasons I can't apply but its something I always wanted to do. As people mentioned above you really have to like the regimented military lifestyle and be ready to be an officer. I have a good friend who is in the program right now and loves it but we were both in the ROTC program at Texas A&M. I believe he said there was only one other girl in his year that is in the program too but very few people are actually interested in it down here....maybe its less competitive at A&M? He was a little disenchanted with the program though, there isn't any high-speed, fun cases in the army. For excitement he's thinking about joining Special Forces as a vet so he could deploy with them. Maybe if you completed an ROTC program it would make you more competitive for the scholarship...?

 

[Armymutt25A]

there isn't any high-speed, fun cases in the army. For excitement he's thinking about joining Special Forces as a vet so he could deploy with them. Maybe if you completed an ROTC program it would make you more competitive for the scholarship...?

I'm not sure what he would count as fun, but the vets I worked with in Iraq dealt with some wildlife, some gunshot/fragment wounds, and some veterinary civil assistance programs - basically a vaccination clinic in a village. As far as the scholarship, I've heard that most of them go to prior service people, as they are a known quantity already. I'm hoping to get one, but I also have 5 years worth of OERs, 3 combat deployments, and a host of other things that make me desirable for retention. There is also the loan repayment program that may actually be a better option, depending on the cost of your school.

I'm not going to go into everything again, but if anyone has questions on the missions of the vet corps, shoot me a PM.

 

[chris03333]

The army scholarship is great but it's extremely competitive and you have to give them a year of service for every year of tuition they pay.

you have to do a minimum of 4 years active duty regardless of how many years they pay (so if you do a 1 year, 2 year, or 3 year, you still owe 4 active years). There is also an extra 4 years "inactive" requirement.

 

[JosephKnechtDVM]

http://www.army.mil/-news/2010/04/26/37971-creation-of-the-us-army-public-health-command/

The Vet Corps will be eliminated in the near future as it becomes part of the new Public Health Command. From my understanding and research on the Army Public Health Command site, this new command will cover much of the environmental/industrial health, food safety (from procurement to the commissary/mess hall), immunizations/infectious disease control and even mental health. Animal medicine will be a smaller proportion and will be civilianized and controlled at the installation level. I know because I have applied for the installation positions. Also as a Vet Corps officer in the mid 90s I ran base vet treatment facilities on 3 installations and we had already started using civilian DVMs on contract basis as I could not cover the clinics in 3 states (WA, ID and MT air force bases) on a weekly basis. The Army is following the same path the Air Force did in the early 1980s when Air Force Veterinary Service was eliminated and replaced with an organization focused on base public health, leaving animal medicine to the Army Vet Corps (the reason I was stationed at an Air Force Base). Vets are probably going to have less of a job to do in this new organization than when they had their own shop called the Vet Corps.

Joe

 

[JosephKnechtDVM]

Here is the link for the PHC and the very varied mission they will have:

http://phc.amedd.army.mil/Pages/default.aspx

 

[Two]

I think this does it for me. I was planning on applying for the scholarship when I reach vet school, but they are phasing out the corps. I personally wish the army didn't do this. I want to work with animals, not public health. Does anyone have an idea of how much longer the corps have before they are eliminated?

 

[JosephKnechtDVM]

Phase 2 with the closing of the Vet Corps and the CHPPM(Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine) began 1 Oct 2010 according to the first website I posted earlier. I would say one to two years at the most before they are completely assimilated into the new command.

Also from talking to recent grad last year who was considering joining, the Army will not repay loans if you graduated from a non AVMA approved school. She had graduated from one of the Caribbean schools.

Also this merger is not an entirely new idea. Some Veterinary Corps officers in the 90s knew that the VC mission really needed to be part of a larger group devoted to preventive medicine and public health. I remember one of our instructor cadre at AMEDD in San Antonio making similar remarks.

The Air Force is also an option but it means no animal care. On the other hand Air Force Public Health Officers can rise to command level positions in the Air Force Medical system. Part of the problem with the Vet Corps prior to getting a brigadier general star was that you maxed out at colonel in grade. That kept slots requiring a general star out of reach like being head of Army wide institutes for infectious disease research (USAMRIID) out of reach.

 

[Armymutt25A]

I'm not buying the complete phasing out of animal medicine for a couple of reasons. The Army has just spent a few million on standing up training facilities at a few large installations for new vets. The purpose of them is to provide more training and experience so that the new guys can go out and take over a VTF. Secondly, civilians are not going to fulfill several of the more sensitive roles out there - CA, PO, and the SF school house, nor are they going to deploy to hot spots. A contractor costs a lot more to send to a hostile fire area. A military member only costs about $500 more a month. Until the Army gets out of the war fighting business, there will always be a need for animal care. It may not be in the VTF, which are becoming more and more non-competitive due to funding reductions.

 

[JosephKnechtDVM]

Animal medicine stateside and at large overseas installations will likely be civilianized for sure because it is cheaper to hire and keep a DVM at the local installation on a longer term basis to do privately owned pets and routine MWD care (biennial physicals and dentistry mostly). Any serious MWD issues are usually sent to Lackland AFB for the specialists care. As in my earlier posts, the animal med job at installation level has been mostly provided by contract DVMs for past 15 yrs. I used to be the "relief" vet for Ft Lewis/Mc Chord AFB VTFs when the full time contract vet needed time off. Army Civilian Personnel is already trying to recruit for these positions as I am trying to get one of them. Civil affairs and Special Forces will need their vets of course for those specialized assignments but overall the role of veterinarians is being reduced. Current vet districts with the responsibility for the local food plant inspections and VTFs are having those brought back more to the installation level from what I gather.
As for building new VTFs, some of those are very old and probably due for it. The old VTF at Ft lewis was close to 40 yrs old when I was there in the 1990s. But also I do not see the VTFs being allowed to provide full service unless a remote duty station. It will remain mostly preventive pet care unless the AVMA removes its objections to full service care whish have been in place for years

I only speculate what might happen to those vets in the research side of things but with WMD research being national priority, the institutes for infectious disease research and chemical defense might have more of a civilian component and run like the national laboratory system (ie Los Alamos in NM and Oakridge, TN). Secretary Gates and the Pentagon are making alot of cuts and changes across the board.

 

[JosephKnechtDVM]

I think the last time the army needed animal medicine on a widespread basis was in the last half of the 1800s with the Indian Wars in the West and vets were needed to care for calvary mounts and the draft horses/mules. I am not unaware of the role of the horses in Afghanistan in the recent past or of pack animals in World War 2 in jungle and alpine warfare. Also it would not surprise me if the MWD Hospital at Lackland goes civilian either as the cost of training Vet Corps officers in civilian residencies adds up when they only use that training for a 5-6 years before moving into command slots.