Considering HPSP

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

CoolRunnings

Full Member
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2007
Messages
66
Reaction score
0
Hello all, I'm considering HPSP as a rising junior in college, and have some questions:

1. I think I read that you apply and get in to HPSP before you get into med. school, right? If so, how would this affect your chances of admission at the top schools? Would ADCOMs look on it well or poorly, or would they even know?

2. If I wanted to do a civilian surgery residency after graduation, and then a civilian trauma surgery fellowship-- could I do this or would I have to be a GMO and/or do a military residency?

3. If I did the above, I would have 11 years (4 med. school, 5 residency, 2 fellowship) towards rank before being active duty, right? So I would go in as a Major, then have 4 more years. Would there be any chance of getting to Lt. Colonel?

Thanks

Members don't see this ad.
 
Hello all, I'm considering HPSP as a rising junior in college, and have some questions:

1. I think I read that you apply and get in to HPSP before you get into med. school, right? If so, how would this affect your chances of admission at the top schools? Would ADCOMs look on it well or poorly, or would they even know?

2. If I wanted to do a civilian surgery residency after graduation, and then a civilian trauma surgery fellowship-- could I do this or would I have to be a GMO and/or do a military residency?

3. If I did the above, I would have 11 years (4 med. school, 5 residency, 2 fellowship) towards rank before being active duty, right? So I would go in as a Major, then have 4 more years. Would there be any chance of getting to Lt. Colonel?

Thanks

I would read up on some of the info in this site.

1) You can't get approved until you've been accepted to medical school. You wouldn't have to mention it to any adcome if you didn't want to.
2) I'd say the chance of doing a civilian residency right now is pretty slim. You're almost guaranteed a military residency (or, at least, internship).
3) Med school doesn't count as time toward pay (or rank), if I'm correct. Clock starts when you start residency, although I'm not sure how it works if you get the opportunity (however slim) to do a cilivian residency.
 
It's better to be in a military residency anyway....much better pay. It's when we're attendings that we're gonna be screwed.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
It's better to be in a military residency anyway....much better pay. It's when we're attendings that we're gonna be screwed.

Why's that? Would a military general surgery residency be as competetive as a civilian one? Would it count towards my time to pay back? Would I be moving around a lot? Could I then do a fellowship?

Thanks
 
3. If I did the above, I would have 11 years (4 med. school, 5 residency, 2 fellowship) towards rank before being active duty, right? So I would go in as a Major, then have 4 more years. Would there be any chance of getting to Lt. Colonel?

Thanks
Four more years to what?

Assuming you're talking about a civilian sponsored residency, you're looking at 6 years of commitment.

Good lord, you need to do some reading...the search function is your friend.
 
Hello all, I'm considering HPSP as a rising junior in college, and have some questions:

1. I think I read that you apply and get in to HPSP before you get into med. school, right? If so, how would this affect your chances of admission at the top schools? Would ADCOMs look on it well or poorly, or would they even know?

I mentioned it but I don't think they really cared. They're going to get their money and if someone is more qualified than you are, it doesn't matter if you will get an HPSP.

However, my recruiter told me they are very numerous and if you do get into medical school and don't have some serious medical problem or are a spy or something you should get one.

2. If I wanted to do a civilian surgery residency after graduation, and then a civilian trauma surgery fellowship-- could I do this or would I have to be a GMO and/or do a military residency?

I think it depends on service. Some want GMO right away.

3. If I did the above, I would have 11 years (4 med. school, 5 residency, 2 fellowship) towards rank before being active duty, right? So I would go in as a Major, then have 4 more years. Would there be any chance of getting to Lt. Colonel?

Thanks

Medical school doesn't count.

I'm starting my first year of med school so if you do a search function or wait for some of the other people to answer more in depth, they all know more details to your questions. :)
 
You can apply for the scholarship before getting accepted to medical school, but it doesn't matter if you got a 4.0 and 45, you won't be accepted until after a school has accepted you.
Also, the military has fellowships, and they also granted deferments or FTOS for civilian residencies.
I didn't realize you could do FAP with HPSP. Is that really possible, and why in the world would someone do that?
 
Hello all, I'm considering HPSP as a rising junior in college, and have some questions:

1. I think I read that you apply and get in to HPSP before you get into med. school, right? If so, how would this affect your chances of admission at the top schools? Would ADCOMs look on it well or poorly, or would they even know?
You can apply for the scholarship and medical school at the same time. You can be given a contingent selection prior to acceptance into medical school, but final selection requires an acceptance into medical school. Some say that having a scholarship offer is of benefit to applying to medical school. Each school has a limited amount of financial aid that it can offer and if you come with a full ride, that pot is divided up between a smaller group. I have never heard of a school discriminating against a military applicant. Many Academy grads are accepted into Ivy League schools and Hopkins.

2. If I wanted to do a civilian surgery residency after graduation, and then a civilian trauma surgery fellowship-- could I do this or would I have to be a GMO and/or do a military residency?

You are making a huge number of assumptions here. First, you are assuming you will be given a full deferment and approval to continue that deferment to complete a fellowship. Probably not a good assumption in any of the services. Is it possible? Yes, but highly unlikely. If you are flexible, it is likely you will get there in the end, but you may find a few bumps in the road. GMO time is not a guarantee, but possible. The Army and Air Force have cut GMO positions significantly already and the Navy is looking to follow suit. By the time you graduate med school, you may not even want to do surgery, so keep that in mind.

3. If I did the above, I would have 11 years (4 med. school, 5 residency, 2 fellowship) towards rank before being active duty, right? So I would go in as a Major, then have 4 more years. Would there be any chance of getting to Lt. Colonel?

If you did do the whole deferal thing, you would come on active duty as an O-4 (Major/ Lt. Commander) 4 years later you would be selected for O-5 (Lt. Colonel/Commander) and pin on a year after that.

Thanks



hope this helps.
 
Hello all, I'm considering HPSP as a rising junior in college, and have some questions:

1. I think I read that you apply and get in to HPSP before you get into med. school, right? If so, how would this affect your chances of admission at the top schools? Would ADCOMs look on it well or poorly, or would they even know?

2. If I wanted to do a civilian surgery residency after graduation, and then a civilian trauma surgery fellowship-- could I do this or would I have to be a GMO and/or do a military residency?

3. If I did the above, I would have 11 years (4 med. school, 5 residency, 2 fellowship) towards rank before being active duty, right? So I would go in as a Major, then have 4 more years. Would there be any chance of getting to Lt. Colonel?

Thanks

To be gentle, you really need to do some extensive reading. Just like everything else in life, this endeavour will take some hard work and time, but if you do it, all of your questions have been asked and answered before.

The first question you should be asking is why do you want to join the military? Is it because you want to be a military officer, or you want to get them to pay for your medical school. You will quickly find that doing this for money is the worst reason you can do it for. Not to dwelve much into what you should be reading, but dependind on which service you go to, and your school standing, and a whole host of other factors, you may not get to do a surgical residency, and it HIGHLY unlikely that you would be allowed to do it civilian, and THEN to get a Trauma fellowship. You are way too early in the game to predict that's what you'll want to continue to do when you start your training. Either way, military medicine is in a shambles right now, and specially in training new physicians, there is a lack of support, material, patients, (in surgical fields for sure), and a general acceptance of mediocrity which does not make for anything even close to an ideal training environment.

You really need to read through these forums, and then call up bases and talk to current active duty physicians. Get as many opinions as you can as this is a very life changing experience, and one that many of us with experience would not do over if we had this forum and voluminous amount of information.
 
Thank you all for your helpful advice. I admittedly need to do alot more research, and with your collective wisdom you make this board a great place to start.

Thanks again.
 
However, my recruiter told me they are very numerous and if you do get into medical school and don't have some serious medical problem or are a spy or something you should get one.

Not to pick on you Founder, so please don't take offense at my singling this out from the grand text of your post. Never completely believe a recruitor. First off, was he med corps, proabably not, so can't really say. Next off, they just want you to sign, so they make their quota and someone isn't breathing down their back. Third off, they are just regular people, there are good ones and bad ones. Granted they are your road guide into this whole ordeal and instinctively you want to trust them because of that, but ask any enlisted, their recruitor lied to them. Some of them have to be telling the truth.

Next off, my bottom line is I want to be a GI. I don't want a civilian deferment for residency, cause I need to get back on the clock (need another 13 to retire). Realistically, I'd say 50/50 on being able to straight shot it through an IM residency. However, it's unrealistic to think that I'd immediately be able to pick up a GI fellowship, I'll have to go do an operational tour. The points system is biased against straightshooting a fellowship.
 
I don't take offense. That's why I post, so I can get feedback and whatnot. I can't figure out what is true and what is false unless I post what I think is true. :)
 
Top