How does the scholarship work?

[Traumaturtle]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Last year I was at an pre-med school conference and I talked to the Navy recruiter who told me about their program. Basically from what I understood they would pay for me to go to medical school (where ever I get in), there was a $20K sign on bonus, about $2K a month while in med school and residence was $60K-$90K a year. As far as my obligation, I would have to pay back one year for every year I accept money.

I guess I'm wondering how true this is or if I am missing a piece of the puzzle. It would seem to me that my situation would be as follows

4 years of med school
7 years of surgery residence
1 year of Critical Care Fellowship
1 year of Trauma Surgery Fellowship
4 years of obligatory payback

This puts me at a total of 17 years in the military because I was told that my service would start on day one of attending medical school. If this is the case, I can work 3 more years as a Navel Surgeon and retire from the military then go into the private sector.

This sounds too good to be true. The Navy pays for all of my medical school, I only have to do 3 years after my obligatory pay back and I can retire?

Can someone set me straight? Also, I've seen people post about GMO time vs. AD time. What does that mean? I can do some accronyms, just not these ones!

Thanks ahead of time,
Will Smith

*I apologize if this post is in the wrong area. It is nothing malicious and I do apologize*

 

[DoctaJMa]

Last year I was at an pre-med school conference and I talked to the Navy recruiter who told me about their program. Basically from what I understood they would pay for me to go to medical school (where ever I get in), there was a $20K sign on bonus, about $2K a month while in med school and residence was $60K-$90K a year. As far as my obligation, I would have to pay back one year for every year I accept money.

I guess I'm wondering how true this is or if I am missing a piece of the puzzle. It would seem to me that my situation would be as follows

4 years of med school
7 years of surgery residence
1 year of Critical Care Fellowship
1 year of Trauma Surgery Fellowship
4 years of obligatory payback

This puts me at a total of 17 years in the military because I was told that my service would start on day one of attending medical school. If this is the case, I can work 3 more years as a Navel Surgeon and retire from the military then go into the private sector.

This sounds too good to be true. The Navy pays for all of my medical school, I only have to do 3 years after my obligatory pay back and I can retire?

Can someone set me straight? Also, I've seen people post about GMO time vs. AD time. What does that mean? I can do some accronyms, just not these ones!

Thanks ahead of time,
Will Smith

*I apologize if this post is in the wrong area. It is nothing malicious and I do apologize*

Ok, there are a few things you should know that they didnt tell you.

You are correct in that they pay for med school and provide a stipend each month. However, there are a few details they left out.

1. They pay for all REQUIRED fees. If there are books that are RECOMMENDED they will NOT pay for them.

2. If the signing bonus stays on for another year you should be able to get the 20,000.

3. You are required to do 45 days of annual training (AT) each year you are on scholarship. Technically on of those times should be spent at ODS (Officer Development School). You do get PAID for this time. I hear it is around 4300 or so for 45 days. I could be wrong.

4. As for your residency you will have to do a Navy residency. There are a few instances in which they would let you do a civilian one, but not likely. Keep in mind you get paid more in a military residency.

5. Here is probably the most important part. If you have a 7 year residency you will owe the military 7 years! NOT FOUR! You owe them the amount of time that is the longest in your training.

6. The Navy is a little different that the other branches. The navy has ALOT more General Medical Officer (GMO) positions than other branches. I think the last statistic ran was that 60% of Navy docs will do a GMO tour. So there is a very high likelihood that you would do a GMO tour. THIS MEANS that you would have to do the tour BEFORE you do a residency. The good thing about this is that it counts toward your payback. Keep in mind doing navy you run a high risk of not going straight to a residency after med school.

7. As for the fellowships that is at the discretion of the Navy. You would have to file paperwork to apply to get in or go, especially if it is a civilian one.

8. Your payback time does NOT start at the time you start med school. It starts the day you go active duty (AD). RESIDENCY IS NOT ACTIVE DUTY. You would NOT owe 17 years. They way you had it stated above you would owe 7 years IF you go straight to residency without a GMO tour.

I think that about covers it. Post more questions if you have them.

 

[psychbender]

Ok, there are a few things you should know that they didnt tell you.

You are correct in that they pay for med school and provide a stipend each month. However, there are a few details they left out.

1. They pay for all REQUIRED fees. If there are books that are RECOMMENDED they will NOT pay for them.

2. If the signing bonus stays on for another year you should be able to get the 20,000.

3. You are required to do 45 days of annual training (AT) each year you are on scholarship. Technically on of those times should be spent at ODS (Officer Development School). You do get PAID for this time. I hear it is around 4300 or so for 45 days. I could be wrong.

4. As for your residency you will have to do a Navy residency. There are a few instances in which they would let you do a civilian one, but not likely. Keep in mind you get paid more in a military residency.

5. Here is probably the most important part. If you have a 7 year residency you will owe the military 7 years! NOT FOUR! You owe them the amount of time that is the longest in your training.

A 7-year residency (meaning, internship, and six more years of residency), incurs a SIX year service obligation (internship does not count). You owe your scholarship length, or the number of post-graduate years (after internship) to train your specialty, whichever is larger.

6. The Navy is a little different that the other branches. The navy has ALOT more General Medical Officer (GMO) positions than other branches. I think the last statistic ran was that 60% of Navy docs will do a GMO tour. So there is a very high likelihood that you would do a GMO tour. THIS MEANS that you would have to do the tour BEFORE you do a residency. The good thing about this is that it counts toward your payback. Keep in mind doing navy you run a high risk of not going straight to a residency after med school.

GMO time does start to count toward your payback...but once you restart GME, your residency time accumulates extra service obligation. You could nearly get rid of your obligation through GMO tours, then be right back at square one once you accept a residency spot.

7. As for the fellowships that is at the discretion of the Navy. You would have to file paperwork to apply to get in or go, especially if it is a civilian one.

Fellowship payback is usually year-for-year, to a minimum of 2 years (at least in Army). Additionally, you may have to complete a utilization tour as your basic specialty (in this case, General Surgery) before being allowed to complete a fellowship (thus incuring even more service obligation).

8. Your payback time does NOT start at the time you start med school. It starts the day you go active duty (AD). RESIDENCY IS NOT ACTIVE DUTY. You would NOT owe 17 years. They way you had it stated above you would owe 7 years IF you go straight to residency without a GMO tour.

I think that about covers it. Post more questions if you have them.

Residency most certainly IS active duty. However, as I stated, it incurs an additional training obligation that is paid back concurrently with the one from your scholarship, and that payback begins once you are out of training (either in GMO, or utilization). Also, the time in med school DOES NOT COUNT toward total years in service for pay or retirement, until you hit 20 years (then, magically, you have 24 years in). There are multiple threads on this site showing many different examples of the ADSO calculations, so I suggest doing a search for those to start.

 

[jabreal00]

You would owe 6 years for your residency. Any additional fellowship training would incur additional years owed. I don't know if the Navy has trauma or critical care fellowship, if they do, those would be an additional 2 years to the 6 already owed for residency. If the Navy doesn't have those fellowships but sponsors you to a civilian fellowship then you'd owe two years for each year of the fellowship for a total of four years in addition to the 6 years owed for the residency.

 

[IgD]

This sounds too good to be true...

During internship, you have to apply for a PGY2 residency position. You will likely have to do a GMO tour before you are permitted to do a surgery residency. You will also have to apply for the fellowships and would likely have to do utilization tours before you are permitted to take the fellowship.

 

[marshall21]

Do not take the scholarship. Six years ago, when I was looking at $250,000 in med school debt I thought the HPSP scholarship was the only way to go. Now, that I'm actually in the military and living every ridiculous day that it has to offer, I can say that taking the HPSP scholarship was the worst decision I've made to date.

In the military, they don't care if you're a physician, nurse, whatever...all they see is rank. They don't care if you've been in school for the past 15 years, you're just an O-3 to them. I'm an "attending" staff GMO right now and they had me and another staff attending crammed into an 10x10 office.

If you have an undying urge to be in the military, then maybe the HPSP scholarship is for you. If not, then it's definitely not worth it. Talk to as many military physicians as you can and see if they regret it. Don't only talk to the lifers, O-4 and above. Be sure to talk to the docs who are in payback.

 

[DoctaJMa]

Ok so I wanted to make myself clear.

When I said that residency is not active duty, I was referring to payback. Residency IS active duty in that you are doing your job and getting paid for it. However, it is active duty that DOES NOT count towards your payback. I am sorry about the confusion.