HPSP Advice

[Cooki3]

Hi all,

I'm currently a first-year medical student and I'm trying to pursue an HPSP scholarship. I tried through the Army and they sort of dragged it out for 8 months after telling me I couldn't get a waiver for my 499 MCAT. I contacted the Airforce and they said they don't even allow waivers for that. I am currently trying to pursue it through the Navy.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? I'm just trying to look for some advice because I kind of got blindsided by the Army and I want to make sure that doesn't happen again. I really want to serve my country but at the same time, I want to look out for my interests as well.

Thanks!

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[scoopdaboop]

Forget about all that. Serving your country is a meme, and it's that mentality that gets people in sticky situations and abused in these HPSP scholarships and you get put in terrible work environments etc.

 

[DaniellaDavis]

I'm going to be blunt with you, a 499 MCAT is pretty bad. But you already knew that. As far as waivers go, you can try to contact other Army recruiters (at different recruiting offices) to see if they have different information for you. The Air Force is MUCH stricter than the Army, so I wouldn't get my hopes up with them. Navy is also stricter than Army, but you might as well contact a few Navy recruiters to see if your MCAT flies. Good luck

 

[Sardonix]

I would not recommend you do this. Here's why--I did not do HPSP, but I had friends who did. Doing HPSP requires summer training sessions. This means that in addition to the standard rigors of medical school, you will have no M1 summer break to either relax for sanity or research or volunteer etc. During M2 summer you will have officer training that forces you to either take boards much earlier than your peers or much later if your school even allows that.

That last part is incredibly stressful and the military is using the MCAT to predict how well you will handle that stress. If you graduate med school and are still feeling committed to the military, then there are other programs. For now, focus on med school.

 

[68wdogdad]

I'm prior service (Army) and got accepted to Air Force HPSP with a 500, as long as you get into medical school they should be able to waive it. Best of luck.