Commisioning in October

[Greyangel6]

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I am an incoming D1. I applied for the Navy's HPSP in January and was put on alternate list. I got off the alternate list through re-ranking and was ranked in the top 10. From what I understand of what my recruiter told me, if ranked in the top 15-20, I can potentially get a 3.5 years worth of scholarship and that I will be able to get commissioned in October or before the end of 1st semester.

Was anyone in the same boat who would like to share their experience? Is this a sure thing? I've been told not to worry but as orientation approach, and all the financial aid paperwork pours in, I don't know what to tell my school since I don't have an official selection letter.

How would the navy handle the loans I took out for 1st semester of dental school? Do I have to pay back the excess? What about other living expenses, do I get reimbursed?

 

[chill45]

Yeah I know of a couple people that were able to commission after Oct 1 since that is when more funds become available after all the budgets get in order. You'll have to go ahead and pay for everything out of pocket up front (loans if needed). Once you get commissioned and in the system you can submit to be reimbursed for all your fees that you had to pay for. They will send in your tuition payment to the school and the school will just end up distributing that money to you. Then you just apply all that to the loans you took out. So the only money you are out for having to wait until October is about 2 months of stipend pay, the origination fees for taking out loans (1% if its the federal loans), and whatever interest has accrued on those loans while you had them out. My advice since you are missing on the stipend pay for a couple months (~$4000) is try to live as frugal as possible, which is hard since everyone will want to go out and do stuff. I'd use that bonus to pay off any other loans or debt you have too and then start saving. It's nice to be able to accumulate money on the HPSP as opposed to your classmates that just go deeper in the hole.


Side note...get a credit card with 1.5% or 2% cashback rewards. Those dental kits are about $5k a semester so thats a free $75+ and around $1000 a month on food and bills, thats another free $15-$20....pay it off every 2 weeks when you get your stipend and no interest paid. Easily got about $500 in rewards my first year.

 

[USArmyHPSP]

While the above is true, just as a quick note for incoming Army HPSP dentists, the Army no longer supports this practice. If your packet goes to a board after 1 October, you will not be eligible for any benefits until the following fall semester.

 

[Greyangel6]

Thank you for your inputs. ^^

I guess I'll take out federal loans for when school starts for tuition and equipments, I will dip into my personal savings+credit cards to handle living expenses and moving-in costs.