HPSP

[-phantom-]

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Hello,

I’ve been accepted to medical school. Right now, I’m thinking of applying to Army and Air Force. I start school in July, so I know I’m a little late but I’m thinking of doing a 3 year scholarship.

I’ve been doing a lot of research outside of SDN and also reading a few threads here. I wanted to ask a couple questions before starting the process with a recruiter. I really appreciate anyone’s time in answering them and helping me with the process.

1.) I chose Army and AF because I’m interested in relatively competitive specialties (neurosurgery, vascular surgery, and oncology). I chose Army because it has residencies in these programs (Walter Reed) and AF because from what I understand they more readily defer students to civilian programs. However, I’m just curious to what criteria is used to select HPSP students for limited residency slots and/or deferment. Is it based more on academics or military service/lineage? I’ll have 4+ publications going in, and still part of research teams so should have more. I’m thinking with step being P/F and my own school considering switching to P/F instead of H/P/F, research will be more important…but does that change in the context of military med?Also, will I be able to purse research activities while in med school (I.e. are there any military related activities that will take up time? From my research I don’t think so, but was wondering if there are any monthly commitments similar to the drills for Nation Guard)

3) is it possible to finalize HPSP before the end of the first semester in order to attend officer training?

2) could someone please explain the “millimed restructuring” that’s mentioned in this thread?

Air Force - Signing the HPSP Contract

3) I came across this thread, has things changed for better/worse? Should I not consider AF anymore?

Air Force - Cuts to HPSP

4) I also have horrible eyes. As in my power is -13 and -10 (L and R). Would that impact anything? I’m assuming things like being a flight surgeon with AF is out of the question…

Thank you in advance for the help! I really appreciate everyone’s help and this forum in general. I’ve learned a lot and would really like to make the most informed decision possible.

 

[DocSurgeon]

I'm not going to hit every one of your points but here's some of the high notes:

• 3 year HPSP is a scam. Chances are you'll end up owing 4+ anyway and lose out on the one year of loan payment/stipend.
• It's been said a million times in this forum: no one knows what military medicine is going to look like next year, let alone in 7-9 when you're finally operational. MTF's are being shut down or consolidated as we speak. The military looks to be getting out of the primary care business and yet can't fully support the surgical specialization business either.
• On that note, I just finished my 4 year commitment as a general surgeon. My last year I was deployed for 6 mo to BFE and did zero major cases. Because of COVID, spin up/deployment/wind down and the general lack of USAF volume my last year I did approximately 40 cases.

I didn't answer any of your other questions since my overall point in responding to your post is, don't do military medicine. It wasn't ALL bad... I made some great friends, had some unique experiences but given the choice I would not do it again. When I applied I was single, childless and wanted to do primary care or radiology. 9 years later when I went active duty I had a wife, kids and was a general surgeon. My priorities changed a lot and yours will too. Now I'm expecting a sharp re-learning curve when I start my civilian job soon.

Take the loans, live like a medical student through residency and first few years as an attending and pay down the debt. The fact that you are applying to medical school then the military tells me you probably value being a physician more than an officer. If this is the case, military medicine is definitely not for you.

 

[DeadCactus]

If you want to remain anonymous, you're probably being oddly specific with your description of the medical school and your ethnic background and neither are really needed information for you to get good advise here

1. The chance of your target specialty changing are high but I would not do HPSP if I was interested in a highly technical specialty like the ones you mentioned. Take the loans if this is about money, explore the Reserves or Guard if it's about service. To answer your actual question, it's based on academic performance, military experience, networking, and luck.

3. Deferred to someone who knows.

2. No one knows. Theoretically the military is outsizing a lot of the specialty and dependent care to focus on only having the physicians they need to go to war. We'll see what actually happens.

3. There are pros and cons to each branch, well discussed here but hard to predict. The people in that thread supposedly just got free medical school in exchange for 8 years as inactive reservists. I don't think anyone has ever gotten a better deal.

4. No on really cares about a physician's vision as long as it correct enough to practice medicine.

 

[-phantom-]

Thank you for the responses. I’ve had chance to do more research and speak to others on the forum. It’s not about the money, it is about the service, but I also realized that I do want to be a physician first. My main point of friction is the potential for unplanned delays in training from GMOs etc. Not to take away from the positives from that experience, But I’m already starting med school late so that makes me a bit worried.

However, I will look into the reserves or guard or even explore the options available post graduation or post residency. That way the risk of delays are mitigated more. Thanks again for everyone’s help.