Do i have this correct? Help me out.

[polojoe12]

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Ok, so i join the navy or whatever in the reserves. They pay for my schooling at my college and when i go to Med school, they pay for that as well? But the trade off is i have to serve as many years as they paid me plus one? Or does the military have their own medical school? That part confused me b/c of the comment that you get to pick your own speciality.

So about how many years of active duty am i looking at if i do my undergrad and med school in the navy? does this include residency?

 

[IgD]

Read the FAQ. The military pays for your medical school through HPSP. Your payback is basically one year for every scholarship year. Alternatively you could go to the military medical school USUHS. The paypback for that is 7 years however. You pay for your own undergraduate education.

 

[RichL025]

You pay for your own undergraduate education.

Addendum to essentially correct response above: you can get the Navy (or Army / Air Force) to pay all/part of your undergrad via ROTC, but you have no ironclad guaruntee that they will allow you to go to med school immediately afterwards. And even if you do, that's more time you owe.

Don't do USUHS unless you are very sure the military is for you.

 

[Mirror Form]

Addendum to essentially correct response above: you can get the Navy (or Army / Air Force) to pay all/part of your undergrad via ROTC, but you have no ironclad guaruntee that they will allow you to go to med school immediately afterwards. And even if you do, that's more time you owe.

Yep, although currently the military needs docs across all branches so I'd be very surprised if they didn't let someone go to med school. Also, if you do ROTC, you have the option of taking an education delay and paying for med school yourself. The advantage there is that you don't accrue a really long committment and also you get four years of service toward pay scale when you start internship after med school. If you do HPSP, you won't get those four years.

 

[Mirror Form]

So about how many years of active duty am i looking at if i do my undergrad and med school in the navy? does this include residency?

Keep in mind that if you plan to do medschool, you're signing yourself up for a very long military career. If you do Navy rotc and don't go to med school, you'll just owe four years, so you'll be free by age 25 or 26 (not bad). However, if you go to med school, that will accrue another four years. Then after med school you'll do residency for approximately four more years (that won't effect your commitment one way or the other). So, after finishing residency at approx age 30, you'll have 8 years of commitment (longer if you do a fellowship or something). So at age 18 you're signing away your freedom until about age 40. So don't take this decision lightly!

 

[island doc]

Ok, so i join the navy or whatever in the reserves. They pay for my schooling at my college and when i go to Med school, they pay for that as well? But the trade off is i have to serve as many years as they paid me plus one? Or does the military have their own medical school? That part confused me b/c of the comment that you get to pick your own speciality.

So about how many years of active duty am i looking at if i do my undergrad and med school in the navy? does this include residency?

Probably the best thing to do is simply stay away from the military for now. Best not to make such a long commitment at this point in your life. Leave your options open. Go straight civilian, then upon completion of residency (of your own choosing), and possibly fellowship, consider all your employment options. You certainly could join the military at that time (on your own terms) if you so desired, or enter a much more lucrative civilian practice. And of course, you could become a reservist at that time if that is what you still want.

 

[Croooz]

Take heed 😀 to what has been posted. You are WAY too young to sign up for all of this. Even I, who has 10 years of active time, am not even considering HPSP. Right now I'm looking at just taking out loans and perhaps going the FAP route. It comes down to how important you value your freedom of choice. Naturally it's limited in the military.

 

[Heeed!]

Take heed 😀

👍

 

[colbgw02]

i did the rotc route but paid for medical school on my own for the very reason mentioned above: i didn't want to commit myself to the army until the age of 39 when I was only 21. good advice, i think.

secondly, don't know if this is true for the navy, but back when i came through, basically if you got into medical school then you got your educational delay because they needed docs so bad. they still need docs, but they need officers in general so bad now that i heard they're not granting educational delays. that's really just a rumor, but it's worthing asking about.

biggest regret: do one or the other. right now i've got to spend at least 9 years in the army AND i'm $100K plus in debt. i'd rather have all debt or all time (read: all debt), because even $200K is nothing to pay off for many civilian physicians, but $100K is a lot to pay off while in the military. if you're sure you want to join the military and stay in long enough to retire, then go for ROTC and HPSP/USUHS. otherwise, i'd stay away.

 

[Mirror Form]

if you're sure you want to join the military and stay in long enough to retire, then go for ROTC and HPSP/USUHS. otherwise, i'd stay away.

I'd recommend avoiding hpsp if you did ROTC (unless you go to a very very very expensive med school). This is b/c even if you're in the military long enough to retire, people who do ROTC may still come out behind by doing HPSP. The reason is that if you do HPSP, then you'll start out in the military with zero years toward your payscale. Whereas, if you take an ed delay, those four years will count toward your payscale. Since those four years will follow you throughout your entire career, they'll chip away at the the money you would have saved by doing hpsp. Also, you'll have the freedom to get out earlier. And if you decide to stay in until retirement, ther are very big bonuses for signing up for another 4 year period.

So, when you take away all the money you'll lose in teh backend, the finacial incentive to doing hpsp just isn't nearly enough to sign away four more years of your life.