Hey everyone, I'd appreciate your thoughts on my financial analysis of the HPSP scholarship vs. civilian route. Please read and comment!
Let's suppose that a 4-year HPSP recipient leaves medical school and enters a 4-year military residency program. Their medical school tuition/fees is 50k/year and they receive 25k/year stipend + military pay. Upon graduating from medical school, the HPSP recipient collects about $300,000 from the scholarship [ (4 years X 50k tuition/fee) + (4X 25k stipend/pay)]. In comparison, a civilian medical graduate may incur a medical school debt of at least $200,000 (not to mention the accruing interest…
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Later, in residency, the HPSP recipient receives around 65k/year, which is roughly 25k/year more than the average civilian graduate. Therefore, after a four years of residency, the HPSP recipient nets another 100k on top of the aforementioned 300k. HPSP benefits so far: 400k.
Next, during military payback, the HPSP attending earns a salary (base pay + specialty pay) around $100,000/year - a pretty conservative estimate I think. Consider that, in a specialty like IM, the civilian counterpart makes 180k straight out of residency.
At this point it would seem that the civilian counterpart is making much more than the HPSP recipient… but perhaps not! When you add in the tuition savings, the med school stipend/pay, and the residency "bonus", the HPSP recipient actually gets an "extra" 400k/4 every year (100k/year), or approximately 200k/year total. In this scenario, the HPSP recipient wins out financially. Of course, I did not even include the other financial benefits of military med, e.g. sign-in bonus of 20k, retirement, GI bill, affordable housing, discounts. If this HPSP recipient leaves the military right after their 4 year obligation, he/she might actually get out ahead of his/her civilian colleagues. In any case, it would seem that for many medical students, especially those heading into primary care or fields that average less than 200k/year salary, HPSP makes reasonably good financial sense.
I want to emphasize that I deliberately only focused on the financial aspects of HPSP. Before someone mentions it, I wholeheartedly agree that nobody should do HPSP just for the money.
That said, does my analysis seem valid?
Please note that I created this thread in effort to challenge the SDN consensus that HPSP is - more often than not - a bad financial decision. I'm an incoming medical student who is thinking about doing HPSP (most likely army), so any feedback would be appreciated!
Let's suppose that a 4-year HPSP recipient leaves medical school and enters a 4-year military residency program. Their medical school tuition/fees is 50k/year and they receive 25k/year stipend + military pay. Upon graduating from medical school, the HPSP recipient collects about $300,000 from the scholarship [ (4 years X 50k tuition/fee) + (4X 25k stipend/pay)]. In comparison, a civilian medical graduate may incur a medical school debt of at least $200,000 (not to mention the accruing interest…
.Later, in residency, the HPSP recipient receives around 65k/year, which is roughly 25k/year more than the average civilian graduate. Therefore, after a four years of residency, the HPSP recipient nets another 100k on top of the aforementioned 300k. HPSP benefits so far: 400k.
Next, during military payback, the HPSP attending earns a salary (base pay + specialty pay) around $100,000/year - a pretty conservative estimate I think. Consider that, in a specialty like IM, the civilian counterpart makes 180k straight out of residency.
At this point it would seem that the civilian counterpart is making much more than the HPSP recipient… but perhaps not! When you add in the tuition savings, the med school stipend/pay, and the residency "bonus", the HPSP recipient actually gets an "extra" 400k/4 every year (100k/year), or approximately 200k/year total. In this scenario, the HPSP recipient wins out financially. Of course, I did not even include the other financial benefits of military med, e.g. sign-in bonus of 20k, retirement, GI bill, affordable housing, discounts. If this HPSP recipient leaves the military right after their 4 year obligation, he/she might actually get out ahead of his/her civilian colleagues. In any case, it would seem that for many medical students, especially those heading into primary care or fields that average less than 200k/year salary, HPSP makes reasonably good financial sense.
I want to emphasize that I deliberately only focused on the financial aspects of HPSP. Before someone mentions it, I wholeheartedly agree that nobody should do HPSP just for the money.
That said, does my analysis seem valid?
Please note that I created this thread in effort to challenge the SDN consensus that HPSP is - more often than not - a bad financial decision. I'm an incoming medical student who is thinking about doing HPSP (most likely army), so any feedback would be appreciated!
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