Is it possible to serve in the national guard/reserves and attend dental school?

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LidocaineMane32

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I’ve been in the military for 12 years and am currently serving in the national guard. I’ve recently been accepted to dental school and will start June 2021. I still have 4 more years left on my national guard contract and am starting to worry about how I’m going to manage going to drill weekends/training and attend dental school. Does anyone have any feedback on what they’ve done or seen some of their classmate do in this situation? Is it even possible to be in dental school (and excel) and serve in the national guard/reserves simultaneously?
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Yes, your situation was the same as mine. I was in the army reserves for 9 years prior to dental school and had several years left on my contract. I applied for the medical dental student stipend program which canceled out my contract and put me in a new contract. Now going to class counts as drill weekends. Once I graduate I will resume normal battle assembly.
 
Blackca3 said:
Yes, your situation was the same as mine. I was in the army reserves for 9 years prior to dental school and had several years left on my contract. I applied for the medical dental student stipend program which canceled out my contract and put me in a new contract. Now going to class counts as drill weekends. Once I graduate I will resume normal battle assembly.
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Awesome Info. I didn’t know about this program. From what I’ve read; every 6 months of stipend received, we have to give back 1 year of service. Is this active duty or reserve duty?
 
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4th year dental student here. I served through the 3rd year in dental school as an Army Reservist and it really sucked in my case. My initial contract was 88M and none of my higher ups didn’t care about dental school and I was constantly called in to the BA during weekdays. I guess E4 mafia doesn’t really have that much freedom. I ended up switching to MDSSP which Blackca3 mentioned. It was a life changer. I get paid as O1 and only submit 1380s monthly for taking classes. Highly recommend it if you don’t want to get called in during dental school, especially first two years in dental school heavily loaded with didactic and sim courses are not a joke. Also, MDSSP is pretty competitive now days so make sure to apply early and do as much as you can to improve your application. Good luck!
 
I did the MDSSP while I was in school and have been in the guard for 8.5 years now. @LidocaineMane32 it is possible to be in the Guard and excel at dental school. My best semester in dental school was the semester I started I joined the Guard and started to drill with them. I never felt that the drill weekends interrupted my studying. With time management, I feel anything is possible. Drill was only once a month so I would plan my schedule. The stipend from the MDSSP was pretty nice. There's nothing else you can do to get that money with as little work. Currently, I am in my payback years for HPLRP. Let me know if you have questions
 
So the national guard and army reserve are obviously different, but are the benefits the same?
From reading several posts do most people think the guard is the way to go? Can you apply for the guard at any time? It seems as if the reserves have a deadline?
 
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