HPSP questions

[scjakester]

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Hello all, I am hoping that someone(s) here can answer a few
questions about the HPSP program. I'm in the beginning stages of pulling
together my plans for med school, I'm almost finished with my undergrad,
MCAT comes next fall. I have read a lot of conflicting stories about the HPSP.

1. Does it cover everything (lab work, books, computers, etc) involved with
the academic course work?

2. Does it cover your housing all 12 months of the year or only while
active duty?

2b. If not, is housing considered "part of tuition" or are there loans
to cover your housing? The $1300 bucks a month is great, but it sure
won't feed and house two people here in South Carolina!

3. If I wanted to do my residency in a military hospital, is the
opportunity there to do specialty work? I really want to work in either
orthopaedics or ophthalmology. Is there a good chance of getting the
speciality that I want?

4. My understanding is that from day one, you are a member of the
reserves, does this mean that if you chose to stay in the reserves after
you have repaid your scholarship that your retirement will start with
the day you joined the reserves (and started medical training) or is
this different?

5. I am sure all residents work crazy hours, but do the military
residency programs beat you up any worse than the rest of them? I have
heard that military doctors are very (read VERY) abusive to their residents.

6. Which branch has the best reputation for ortho or optha?

7. Which branch has the most opportunities for ortho or optha?

8. While repaying the scholarship, does the military send you where they
want you to go or do you have a choice in the location?

9. On a more personal note, if anyone went through this, did/does your
wife/husband/SO want to kill you for doing this? We've been married
for 8 years, I'm 35 and she thinks I'm nuts for even thinking
about the HPSP.

10. Aside from the Navy GMO and assuming I did a military residency, would I be repaying my scholarship while in residency OR would the residency time build a longer commitment for repayment. For example, if I went 4 years in med school and 5 years in residency would my commitment for medical school be repayed with my residency service or would I owe the military 9+1 after residency?

11. Can you think of a really important question that I should be
asking?

Thanks for any response to any of these questions.

Take Care,

-Jake

 

[HumptyDumptyMil]

1. everything except computers, even if it's required by school

2. 1300/month stipend while in school, only active duty pay when doing active duty during the summer

3. residency choice and spots determined by branch every year. Residency is in general more competitive than civilian

4. years in school doesnt count toward retirement

5. depends on where you go

6. army or navy. general consesus here on forum is AF has worst

7. refer to Q3

8. Military owns you. Final decision will always be up to military

9. just got engaged so i dont know. my fiancee is already giving me hell😛

10. 4 year payback if you do a 5 year residency. you add one year per one additional year of residency after that

11. Do you really want to do this?

This is the simple answers. Further explanations can be found throughout the forum. Most importantly, any of the current benefits, conditions of the scholarship CAN be changed anytime. It is written in the contract.

For example, when I signed up for AF HPSP, they could not force you to do a GMO/FS tour. Now, if you do not match your first year, you are required to do a tour before you can apply again for a residency match.

hope this helps some. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you read the other threads and be sure to listen to both sides of the story. DO NOT DO IT FOR THE MONEY!!!!

 

[R-Me-Doc]

Hello all, I am hoping that someone(s) here can answer a few questions about the HPSP program. I'm in the beginning stages of pulling together my plans for med school, I'm almost finished with my undergrad MCAT comes next fall. I have read a lot of conflicting stories about the HPSP.

PLEASE browse the forum; most of your questions have been addressed in many, many previous postings. Nevertheless, since things are a bit slow here right now in ex-military-land, I guess I'll post some brief replies.

1. Does it cover everything (lab work, books, computers, etc) involved with the academic course work?

Required books and supplies are reimbursed. I'm not sure about computers; they weren't covered in my day.

. Does it cover your housing all 12 months of the year or only whileactive duty?
2b. If not, is housing considered "part of tuition" or are there loans to cover your housing? The $1300 bucks a month is great, but it sure won't feed and house two people here in South Carolina!

While you're on active duty rotations, you'll be either in military housing or put up in a hotel. Either way it will be free to you. During the rest of the school year, your expenses all come out of the monthly allowance ($1300 I guess from your post). If you want, I guess you can take out additional loans or work to get more $$$$.

3. If I wanted to do my residency in a military hospital, is there opportunity there to do specialty work? I really want to work in either orthopaedics or ophthalmology. Is there a good chance of getting the speciality that I want?

Just like in the civilian world, you can try to match into whatever you want. Also just like in the civvie world, ortho and ophtho are highly competitive in the military, and there are no guarantees that you will match into either of them. You might get deferred to a civilian program, you might not. But the military cannot directly "FORCE" you into a residency you don't want. But always, always, ALWAYS remember this: THE NEEDS OF THE MILITARY COME FIRST!!!!!

4. My understanding is that from day one, you are a member of the reserves, does this mean that if you chose to stay in the reserves after you have repaid your scholarship that your retirement will start with the day you joined the reserves (and started medical training) or is this different?

While in school you are in the IRR (inactive ready reserve). I don't believe that this time counts for anything with regard to retirement.

5. I am sure all residents work crazy hours, but do the military esidency programs beat you up any worse than the rest of them? I have heard that military doctors are very (read VERY) abusive to their residents.

If anything, you will likely work LESS hard than civilian residency, due to the lack of patient volume in surgical specialties. The military is subject to the same residency work hour restrictions as civilian residencies. As for abusive attendings, the military has no monopoly.

6. Which branch has the best reputation for ortho or optho?
7. Which branch has the most opportunities for ortho or optho

Don't know. I would guess Army (since it's got the largest programs). Perhaps one of our ophtho or ortho friends can comment.

8. While repaying the scholarship, does the military send you where they want you to go or do you have a choice in the location?

You get to fill out a "wish list" but, like I said before: THE NEEDS OF THE MILITARY COME FIRST!!!!!
Learn it, love it, live it!

9. On a more personal note, if anyone went through this, did/does your wife/husband/SO want to kill you for doing this? We've been married for 8 years, I'm 35 and she thinks I'm nuts for even thinking about the HPSP.

She's right: you need your f******g head examined. Unless you are incredibly, incredibly debt-averse, even at age 35 you should not do this. In fact, ESPECIALLY at age 35 you should not do this. Do you really want to be doing physical training tests and getting deployed into your late 40s and 50s?
You need to go to med school, get good grades, and go into a nice relaxed, relatively high paying field like path or rads, so you can make up for lost time with a minimum of backbreaking hours. Of course, since you won't get there for another 10 years or so, who knows what medicine will be like . . .

By the way, I was in my early 30s and married when I started med school/HPSP. My wife never wanted to kill me; it probably helped that she came from a military family, though.

10. Aside from the Navy GMO and assuming I did a military residency, would I be repaying my scholarship while in residency OR would the residency time build a longer commitment for repayment. For example, if I went 4 years in med school and 5 years in residency would my commitment for medical school be repayed with my residency service or would I owe the military 9+1 after residency?

This gets complicated, but the short answer is: You incur a baseline 8-year commitment with HPSP. Usually, 4 is spent as an active duty attending after following residency. At that point, if you did a military residency, you have the option of getting out, since you would have done 8+ years on active duty (assuming a military residency lasting 4 or more years, plus your 4 years postresidency). If that's the case, you have no further obligation.

If for some reason you have less time on active duty (maybe you did a 3-year military residency, or a civilian residency) you would owe the balance of time in the IRR. (8 year committment - 4 years as active duty attending - active duty time during residency = residual reserve commitment)

11. Can you think of a really important question that I should be asking?

Yes, but it is one that only YOU can answer:
Am I 100 percent willing to work for an organization that will control every aspect of my life AND WHOSE NEEDS ALWAYS COME BEFORE MINE OR MY FAMILY'S??????

Thanks for any response to any of these questions.

You're welcome. Good luck. Now I'm gonna go get me some lunch.

THE NEEDS OF THE MILITARY COME FIRST
THE NEEDS OF THE MILITARY COME FIRST
THE NEEDS OF THE MILITARY COME FIRST
THE NEEDS OF THE MILITARY COME FIRST
THE NEEDS OF THE MILITARY COME FIRST
THE NEEDS OF THE MILITARY COME FIRST

X-RMD
Very happy to be out!!!!!!

 

[Out in 2008]

Previous posters have answered your questions pretty well I think. I've made some dumb decisions in my life but the only only one I have truly regretted and lain awake at night ruminating over is my decision to take the Navy HPSP scholarship. All I ever wanted to be was an emergency medicine physician, but here I am a GMO working in a fairly busy primary care clinic (the last thing besides psychiatry I wanted to do). Before I came here I had worked exactly 3 weeks in an outpatient clinic as an intern. I had one month of inpatient pediatrics and now I work as essentially a family practice physician.

My civilian medical school classmates have for the most part finished their residencies and moved on to fellowship training or now practicing the kind of medicine they want.

The most important thing for your career is to decide what you want to do iun medical school and then get the best residency/fellowship possbile in that specialty. Unfortunately, that will not likely be in the military. Do not join the military for financial reasons. Thousands of people with families have made it through med school with financial aid and you can too. If you have a burning desire to join the military do it after residency and they'll pay your loans off for you.

 

[DiveMD]

Previous posters have answered your questions pretty well I think. I've made some dumb decisions in my life but the only only one I have truly regretted and lain awake at night ruminating over is my decision to take the Navy HPSP scholarship. All I ever wanted to be was an emergency medicine physician, but here I am a GMO working in a fairly busy primary care clinic (the last thing besides psychiatry I wanted to do). Before I came here I had worked exactly 3 weeks in an outpatient clinic as an intern. I had one month of inpatient pediatrics and now I work as essentially a family practice physician.

My civilian medical school classmates have for the most part finished their residencies and moved on to fellowship training or now practicing the kind of medicine they want.

The most important thing for your career is to decide what you want to do iun medical school and then get the best residency/fellowship possbile in that specialty. Unfortunately, that will not likely be in the military. Do not join the military for financial reasons. Thousands of people with families have made it through med school with financial aid and you can too. If you have a burning desire to join the military do it after residency and they'll pay your loans off for you.

I agree 100% with my miserable colleague. I am also getting out of the NAVY in 2008 without the residency training promised by the recruiter. Some of my classmates will be practicing general ophthalmology by then. It's infuriating. IWO....DONT DO IT!!!!

PS:
I can still remember my recruiter saying: "It's just like civilian medicine but in a military hospital with better equipment…" F*&#ing liar…😡

DIVEMD

 

[West Side]

9. On a more personal note, if anyone went through this, did/does your
wife/husband/SO want to kill you for doing this? We've been married
for 8 years, I'm 35 and she thinks I'm nuts for even thinking
about the HPSP.

Jake,

You are a sadist, pure and simple.

Love,

West Side

 

[Croooz]

Last edited by West Side : Yesterday at 06:06 PM. Reason: Wait, how the heck are you 35 and just finishing your undergrad?

Exactly! Everyone knows that the 25 is the cut off......🙄

 

[g293]

9. On a more personal note, if anyone went through this, did/does your
wife/husband/SO want to kill you for doing this? We've been married
for 8 years, I'm 35 and she thinks I'm nuts for even thinking
about the HPSP.

I think your wife is right. How old will you be when you finish med school + residency--45 or so?? You have about 20 years to work and recoup the money you didn't make and save while you were in undergrad/med school/residency. Military pay in ortho and opthomology is so far below civilian levels that you are compounding the economic cost of med school and residency.

Plus, if you don't get your residency of choice right off the bat out of med school, do you really want to go back and try to get an ortho spot when you're 50???

Go to school, take out loans, get your residency, get out and enjoy your life and family.

 

[scjakester]

I wanted to thank everyone for taking the time to respond to me. I think maybe my wife is right, this isn't the best way for me to do it. And yes, 35 and getting the undergrad. I came from a very poor family and went straight to work after high school. I went to school nights and got an associates degree but by then life had caught up with me and so did the bills and mortgage. But the kid is going off to grad school in 18 months and I am fixing my life now... who knows, I heard Oprah say that 35 is the new 18! I believe her.

Thanks again...

-Jake

 

[notdeadyet]

I heard Oprah say that 35 is the new 18! I believe her.

Wow. 18 must've sucked back then. I'm 35 and I feel old....