HPSP once in school - question

[glamqueen]

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So once I'm in school, will I have an officer over me that can advise me on rotations or whatever while I'm HPSP during school? Who is our go-to person?

Also, I am already getting an idea of a place I might like to match. Should our number one choice be our third or fourth year rotation? With what I want to match into - it could go in either year.

I guess I'm a little nervous about knowing how to do things through school. Do I need to just make friends with an officer who is active duty and medical, so I know what to do when?

 

[Jolie South]

There is a small staff of AFIT folks that help organize stuff for us. I can't tell you all the specifics about rotations because I'm not there yet, but I can tell you that the AFIT website has pretty comprehensive instructions about all aspects of the scholarship. You should get access pretty soon after commissioning, scheduling COT.

I've e-mailed a couple of the folks for various reasons and they seem pretty helpful. If the person you contact can't help you, they'll generally tell you who can.

I'm actually curious about rotations and how easy it is to set those up. I'm also wondering if I can start earlier since I'll be in clinics as a second year.

 

[psychbender]

I don't know how it works in the AF, but in the Army, you're mostly on your own. Sure, there are the civilian handlers at AMEDD that will occassionally send you emails regarding yearly paperwork that needs filing (and they can answer some of the bureaucratic/administrative questions), but that's about it. My advice: find some HPSP upperclassmen, and become their friend. They'll tell you what you need to do/when you need to do it, and will be able to tell you how to work things through your school. This board is also good for some of that, but each school handles things a bit differently.

 

[Jolie South]

I don't know how it works in the AF, but in the Army, you're mostly on your own. Sure, there are the civilian handlers at AMEDD that will occassionally send you emails regarding yearly paperwork that needs filing (and they can answer some of the bureaucratic/administrative questions), but that's about it. My advice: find some HPSP upperclassmen, and become their friend. They'll tell you what you need to do/when you need to do it, and will be able to tell you how to work things through your school. This board is also good for some of that, but each school handles things a bit differently.

That's where my concern lies because as far as I know I'm the only AF HPSP person. I guess I could contact a guy that's in the Navy program for navigating the school end of things.

 

[glamqueen]

There are like four of us that are AF in my med school class next year. I'm assuming we'll band together to figure it all out. Hopefully, we can find some upperclassmen that are AF also. I know there are some Navy people - that probably won't help me much.

These boards are so helpful, though. Seriously.

 

[BigNavyPedsGuy]

These boards are so helpful, though. Seriously.

Ideally, that's what these boards are for. I went to Med school over 700 miles from the nearest Navy base. Find some contacts either here or elsewhere.

Also, don't be surprised if your mind changes. I wanted to match at one spot all during med school until my fourth year when I liked the program and residents at another spot a whole lot more.

 

[The White Coat Investor]

I got way more info from this forum than I ever got from the HPSP office. Getting anything out of them was like pulling teeth. If I could find a human to talk to, they usually didn't know the answer to my question. The worst part if that they don't give you information on stuff you didn't know you were supposed to ask about, like how the whole military match system works.

But it's been a few years, it might have gotten better.

 

[glamqueen]

Thank goodness for this board, then (and all of you older, wiser, students and attendings).

I'm definitely open to change for sure - I love almost every aspect of medicine. It's fascinating to me. However, I'm really passionate about one area, so I'm just hoping it works out. If it doesn't - I can think of at least four different specialties I think I'd enjoy doing. Another reason I was cool with HPSP. Medicine is just stimulating, in general. If I do end up in the specialty I think I want now, though - it would be really great if I could land in this certain residency program, because my sister lives there.