First ... it used to be that age waivers were almost never given for HPSP applicants who weren't going to graduate by age 40. I think that changed during the recruiting shortfall years of the mid 2000s. Not sure what the policy is now, but there's no recruiting shortfall. You may not even be eligible for HPSP.
Maybe one of our HPSP recruiter members could chime in here with some current info. @Armyhealth ?
I went back to training and am doing a fellowship at age 42. In some ways it is a lot harder than it was for me to be a resident when I was 32. It takes me 2 or 3 days to fully recover from a long/hard/busy call night now. I really am loving fellowship, but holy crap some days I am dead tired. When I was a resident, I'd feel great the day after my post-call day - hell, I'd run errands on my post-call day. Now when I'm post call, I pass out and drool on my pillow.
Best case you're looking at residency from age 41-45ish. HPSP could punt that back to your late 40s via GMO-related delays.
I can't imagine being a resident and pushing 50. Brutal.
Hard to know what the best answer is.
Med school is more expensive than ever, loan rates are high, and physician salaries are (IMO) likely to decline vs inflation in the next couple decades. There's a long thread here somewhere about assessing the $ value of the HPSP scholarship, and (also IMO) there's a pretty compelling financial argument for doing HPSP if you're attending anything except a really cheap public institution.
On the other hand, my older brother went to med school after I did. He graduated from a fairly expensive DO med school in 2009, the year I finished residency. He was 42. A few years later he was out of residency and now he's living the dream, making loan payments but not eating Ramen noodles. He got back from a conference in Fiji last week. Seems to be doing pretty well despite having to take out loans for med school.
Going to med school at age 37 in 2017 is going to be expensive and hard no matter what you do. Enjoy.
