Couple of Questions about HPSP scholarships

[justin7w2011]

I just started to look into the HPSP scholarships and I am really interested in them but I have a couple of questions.

1) How much of a say do I have in where I will go after d-school? And what are the chances that I would have to go somewhere overseas? Does it vary among the navy, army, and air force? I really don't care where I go in the United States I just don't want to leave the country so I am looking for the branch that has most of their dentists in the states.

2) How flexible is the 45 days I would have to serve while in dental school? Do I get to pick what days I serve and can I postpone them around my boards?

3) Are there any additional selection factors for being selected besides DAT and GPA?

4) Do we get the sign on bonus when we start dental school or when we graduate d-school?

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[toothfixeralex]

Most of these questions have been answered already on here if you search for them, but I'll give you a couple of quick answers. Also, my answers are from the Army perspective, I can't answer for anyone else.

1) Of the 12 or so people that graduated with me that were HPSP, no one went overseas unless they requested it. The rest of us stayed stateside. Having said that I think only 1 person go their #1 choice, most got their #2-4 choice and only 1 or 2 got a location that wasn't even on thier list but they were still stateside.

2) My school was all year long so my 45 days was just going to school each year. Just bonus pay for a bit. However I didn't know a few classmates that took time off school to do 21 days for their ADT and that time was somewhat flexable.

3) Yes. Those are the big ones, but your resume, letters of recommendation, and personal statement also help quite a bit. I got into the program and I had an awful GPA and a very average DAT (19 AA)

4) The bonus came for me about 3 months after I started school in 2 separate payments.

Hope these answers helped, let me know if you have more questions.

 

[justin7w2011]

Thanks a lot those answers really help

 

[MatthewLeeDDS]

I answer all of those and more on my blog if you want to check it out. Great answers by toothfixeralex. #3 depends on the branch you're wanting as well. And for #4, no sign-on bonus with the Air Force.