Being able to start a family?

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Midwestern Blot

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I am a senior undergraduate and am applying to medical schools right now. I am considering applying for the HPSP. I haven't been able to find much information on what family life would be like in this situation. I am hoping to get married in the next couple of years and this is a big factor in my decision on whether or not to go through with it. Can anyone give me some opinions or experiences regarding this? TIA

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Well for the 4 years of medical school it will pretty much be like any other med student with only a few 'extra' things over the 4 years. After that it's the military life.....you can be deployed, you can be sent to places you don't necessarily want to live, you can be sent to areas where your spouse can't find a job, OR there's the possibility that everything works out great.

If you want control don't sign for HPSP. If you have done all the research and HPSP is right for you and you can handle not knowing exactly what will happen in the future then go for it.
 
your spouse may have a hard time going through a college or graduate program. he/she can't start a business because you will get moved to another base and if he/she is an attorney for example they can't stay long enough to make partner... or their successful shop can't be sustained.

military duty changes are a system built for male military members of the 1950s where women stayed at home or worked as bank tellers or grocery clerks that could just find another job like that when you moved. it hasn't evolved to present day systems where your spouse may want to forward education or career.
 
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If youre unsure about doing HPSP, you can always go the loan repayment route later on as well. Something to think about.
 
If you're concerned about family life, I'd recommend not doing HPSP. You can always do FAP later and come out pretty much even.
 
If you're concerned about family life, I'd recommend not doing HPSP. You can always do FAP later and come out pretty much even.
If your concern is student loans, you can also do a military loan repayment program. The National Guard and Army Reserve both offer loan repayment in the amount of $40K/year, with a maximum of $120K and $250K respectively. All for reservist (read: part-time) duty.
 
My situation is that I already have started a family (wife and 1 kid) and am leaning towards the HPSP for the stipend while in med school. Wife is a housewife who works part time. The extra money will be needed when I start medschool because I will not be working and she will have to be at home to take care of kid. What would you all suggest is best route? The loan repayment is nice but not necessesary when considering the money one makes as a doctor, it's really the stipend that is making me lean towards HPSP.
 
My situation is that I already have started a family (wife and 1 kid) and am leaning towards the HPSP for the stipend while in med school. Wife is a housewife who works part time. The extra money will be needed when I start medschool because I will not be working and she will have to be at home to take care of kid. What would you all suggest is best route? The loan repayment is nice but not necessesary when considering the money one makes as a doctor, it's really the stipend that is making me lean towards HPSP.

I'll give my two cents...My husband lost his job due to the recession and layoffs this year, and we are surviving because of the stipend with no additional loans needed to be drawn out. I'm super grateful for the stipend. It's really really tight, but we are living cheaply, and we are both grateful. I wanted stability more than a huge paycheck out of my life anyway with a family, and this is working out well for us so far in that respect. I do not think you should do the HPSP scholarship only for the money though. You have to truly be ready to serve in the military (I really do think some of the people forget this part when they talk about the scholarship). It is the MILITARY. And you have to be ready to deal with a lot of lost income in compared with everyone else in your field + military life. It was a good fit for us. We will do our service and likely get out. Yet again, I was never after the biggest paycheck I could pocket i.e. civilian pay. If I can put a roof over our head, support my family, and my husband is happy despite the downfalls of a military lifestyle - works for me. And again, we are eating and paying bills due to the stipend. So thank you for that, Uncle Sam!
 
My situation is that I already have started a family (wife and 1 kid) and am leaning towards the HPSP for the stipend while in med school. Wife is a housewife who works part time. The extra money will be needed when I start medschool because I will not be working and she will have to be at home to take care of kid. What would you all suggest is best route? The loan repayment is nice but not necessesary when considering the money one makes as a doctor, it's really the stipend that is making me lean towards HPSP.

I also started medical school with family (wife and one kid) and able to go thorugh medical school with HPSP stipend + modest school loan without too much trouble. I end up having two more kids during medical school. I think the HPSP program/military residency pay/benefits help medical students with family to reach their goal as the road to become a doctor is a really long journey. Good luck!
 
I think the point at which it becomes a big issue is when kids are older. My friend has something like 12 years in or more but he and his wife are seriously considering getting out. He keeps getting deployed, sent TAD and moved. It's disruptive to his kids and family.
 
I'll give my two cents...My husband lost his job due to the recession and layoffs this year, and we are surviving because of the stipend with no additional loans needed to be drawn out. I'm super grateful for the stipend. It's really really tight, but we are living cheaply, and we are both grateful. I wanted stability more than a huge paycheck out of my life anyway with a family, and this is working out well for us so far in that respect. I do not think you should do the HPSP scholarship only for the money though. You have to truly be ready to serve in the military (I really do think some of the people forget this part when they talk about the scholarship). It is the MILITARY. And you have to be ready to deal with a lot of lost income in compared with everyone else in your field + military life. It was a good fit for us. We will do our service and likely get out. Yet again, I was never after the biggest paycheck I could pocket i.e. civilian pay. If I can put a roof over our head, support my family, and my husband is happy despite the downfalls of a military lifestyle - works for me. And again, we are eating and paying bills due to the stipend. So thank you for that, Uncle Sam!
I'll also put mine in. My wife is actually the student and HPSPer in our family. We have 3 kids, ages 8, 6, 4. Her med school tuition is over 50k a year. While some people point out the downside of deployment, I will point out her stipend and bonus allowed me to leave my job of 14+ years so that we could move and still be together, as well as letting me stay home with our youngest, taking care of all the small stuff like cooking and laundry so she could study, and enabling me to start the career I've been wanting (writing fiction literature).

My wife and I saw it as a more evenly distributed stress load in our lives, less uncertainty and more security. You may not make as much as civilian, but when I crunched the numbers, the difference for us wasn't enough for the significant financial stress up front during med school. In the end, she'll still be a doctor, we'll have enough to live comfortably and take care of our family and retire just fine, and that was what we wanted.
 
While some people point out the downside of deployment, I will point out her stipend and bonus allowed me to leave my job of 14+ years so that we could move and still be together, as well as letting me stay home with our youngest, taking care of all the small stuff like cooking and laundry so she could study, and enabling me to start the career I've been wanting (writing fiction literature).

Right now you guys are living high on the hog. It doesn't get difficult until Uncle Sam wants its lb of flesh after she finishes internship. Keep us posted. I think its awesome you guys are having a good experience btw.
 
your spouse may have a hard time going through a college or graduate program. he/she can't start a business because you will get moved to another base and if he/she is an attorney for example they can't stay long enough to make partner... or their successful shop can't be sustained.

military duty changes are a system built for male military members of the 1950s where women stayed at home or worked as bank tellers or grocery clerks that could just find another job like that when you moved. it hasn't evolved to present day systems where your spouse may want to forward education or career.
This is basically true for medical education as a whole, though. You need to move somewhere completely random for school, and then move to a new completely random location for residency. Your odds of getting the location you want are, if anything, even lower than in the military. Taking the HPSP scholarship really only extends this dysfunctional situation for another 4 years, and honestly if your spouses career wasn't wrecked after the first two moves chances are it isn't going to happen.
 
I'll also put mine in. My wife is actually the student and HPSPer in our family. We have 3 kids, ages 8, 6, 4. Her med school tuition is over 50k a year. While some people point out the downside of deployment, I will point out her stipend and bonus allowed me to leave my job of 14+ years so that we could move and still be together, as well as letting me stay home with our youngest, taking care of all the small stuff like cooking and laundry so she could study, and enabling me to start the career I've been wanting (writing fiction literature).

Well that may be great if you're okay basically being a stay at home dad, and your desired career of writing fiction is very flexible.

Most husbands aren't thrilled by the idea of being a stay at home dad, and they do not have jobs that are even remotely amenable to moving from one middle of nowhere location to another every couple of years.

My wife and I saw it as a more evenly distributed stress load in our lives, less uncertainty and more security. You may not make as much as civilian, but when I crunched the numbers, the difference for us wasn't enough for the significant financial stress up front during med school. In the end, she'll still be a doctor, we'll have enough to live comfortably and take care of our family and retire just fine, and that was what we wanted.

I agree that avoiding the 8 years (or longer) of finacial stress that many incur during med school and residency is a great upside to HPSP, especially for those with families. BUT, those are the years when everyone loves the military. You and your wife may be not be so happy if you're transfered to the middle of nowhere without any family support, and then she gets deployed for a year.
 
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