All Branch Topic (ABT) Looking for HPSP advice from military. Appreciate any help!

[Asclepius293]

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Hey everyone,

I am currently a junior in undergrad. I'll be taking my MCAT in January and then applying to medical school in June 2016.

I'm considering doing the HPSP program to pay for medical school. My biggest dream is to travel the world as a physician. Money isn't the end all be all for me. I just want to be able to live comfortably. Additionally, military medicine seems like a good fit for me under first impressions. I'd be honored to serve my country and excited for the adventure and fulfillment.

While I know it will probably change in medical school, I'm considering general surgery or infectious diseases.

So far, the pros and cons of each branch I've seen are these:

Navy:
Pros:
-Lots of travel and coastal bases
-Get to work with marines or navy
-2nd most available residencies
Cons:
-Very high chance of having to do a GMO tour prior to residency which also incurs additional repayment time as I understand it.
-Spending years on a ship with 5,000 other dudes

Air Force:
Pros:
-Smaller branch, so you should get more time to spend per patient.
-Better living conditions/lifestyle (arguably)
-Travel
Cons:
-Bus driver uniforms
-Less available residencies

Army:
Pros:
-Largest medical branch, so more residencies available
-Cool factor
Cons:
-Longest deployments
-Spread thin, less time with patients.

Could anyone provide any additional insight into the pros/cons of each? I know they're are tons of threads on this but I'm looking for more up to date opinions from military members or others who've had experience with HPSP. If anyone is willing to answer specific questions/talk, I'd also really appreciate a DM.

Thanks!

 

[Red Lobster Actual]

Money isn't the end all be all for me. I just want to be able to live comfortably.

Hey! Another Boxer from Animal Farm is here!

Anyways...you need to keep on reading through this forum, spend a lot more time reading. But not so much it'll harm your MCAT studying. You seem to have gotten some details but you are in that perilous zone of only knowing half truths...

My biggest dream is to travel the world as a physician

Especially to places where you'll get mortared and shot at? I mean not so much now but you never know...

Plus instead of those sexy locations like Hawaii, San Diego, Landstuhl, Ramstein, or Naples you'll probably more than likely end up in 29 Palms or Buck Futt Georgia or...something like that I'm sure the attendings and veterans here have knowledge of more saltier locations.

I'd say more but I'm a little delirious from taking my class final and packing to go somewhere because someone with a higher rank told me to do so.

I guess my point is if you have the right attitude you'll be ok.

 

[pgg]

My biggest dream is to travel the world as a physician.

If it's travel you want, civilian private practice beats the military. Higher pay, more vacation time. You can travel for leisure, or join up with groups like Operation Smile and others to do humanitarian work.

Despite the TV commercials, we don't do a lot of travel or humanitarian work.

Money isn't the end all be all for me. I just want to be able to live comfortably.

That's a commendable attitude, but it's naive.

Living "comfortably" at the US median wage +25-50% sounds nice until you get there and realize that compared to your neighbor who runs the Wonderbread factory floor roughly 40 hours per week, you're working 400% harder during 50% longer hours (including many nights, weekends, and holidays) with 4,000% more responsibility and liability.

Medicine's fun, but not that fun, and it's still a job.

Another difference lost on most pre-meds is that the difference between earning $150K/year and $300K/year isn't that you get to live that much more "comfortably" on $300K but you will get to retire 10 or 15 years earlier ...

You don't have to pretend to be 100% altruistic here. We're not an admissions committee. We know you don't want to split your time between sub-Saharan Africa and an Indian reservation in New Mexico ...

Navy:
Pros:
-Lots of travel and coastal bases

Travel? No. Coastal bases? Mostly, but there's always 29 Palms and Lemoore ...

Base locations do beat Army and AF for the most part, I guess.

-Get to work with marines or navy

Yes.

-2nd most available residencies

That's like buying a house because the lawn is the 2nd greenest in the neighborhood.

Committing yourself to residency in any branch of the military, while you're still a pre-med, is risky. The pool of spots available is nowhere near as deep or wide as the civilian match. It might work out great, it might not. If you take Navy HPSP and start med school in 2017, you'll graduate in 2021, finish internship in 2022, finish your GMO time in 2024 or 2025, and finish residency in 2028 or thereabouts.

You want to sign paperwork next year to commit yourself to training in a system more than 10 years down the road that no human being can predict the state of, or the opportunities within?

That's a risk, that one might reasonably accept if joining had other sufficiently compelling advantages. It's not a pro. You don't know what field you'll pick, if the Navy will have a residency for that field or how competitive it'll be (few spots + small pool of applicants = lots of year-to-year variability).

-Very high chance of having to do a GMO tour prior to residency which also incurs additional repayment time as I understand it.

High chance of GMO time, yes. But GMO time pay down the HPSP obligated service.

-Spending years on a ship with 5,000 other dudes

We don't really put many doctors on ships. You'll likely never set foot on one, unless you go looking for it.


I'm not saying that HPSP or the Navy are a bad decision for you, but you haven't given solid reasons why it'd be a good decision for you.

On the whole, the Army and AF seem to have more problems and issues than the Navy.

 

[jabreal00]

If traveling is a primary reason for joining the military you'll be sorely disappointed. The minority of people get stationed overseas in desirable locations. Most of the assignments are within the continental US. Many of those locations in all services are in pretty drab places especially if you stay primary care or during you GMO years. Specialists and sub-specialists tend to be assigned to medical centers that are in metropolitan areas.

 

[deleted480308]

I've never understood the concept of military as travel agency

 

[mikepremed1987]

You are most likely NOT going to do much traveling in the military. Everyone's experience is very different in the military and most people will NOT travel anywhere exciting. They are not going to be sending you to the bahamas after paying for your school, prepare to "travel" and "vacation" in places no-one else wants to go.

Beware of what you wish for. Most physicians that got attached to my unit (Marines), hated it. These guys wanted to "travel" the world and ended up treating sprained ankles in 29 palms.

 

[deuist]

Air Force:
Pros:
-Smaller branch, so you should get more time to spend per patient.

100% incorrect

-Better living conditions/lifestyle (arguably)

I'm not sure how true that is for the doctors who are working in North Dakota.

-Travel

Yeah, because the Middle East is so nice this time of year.

Cons:
-Bus driver uniforms

Really, that's the whole reason you would forgo the Air Force? I haven't had to wear my blues in all my time as an attending, by the way.

-Less available residencies

So what? We grant more civilian deferrals than any other specialty. If counting the availability of residency programs is your thing, then definitely don't take the scholarship.

 

[68PGunner]

Hey! Another Boxer from Animal Farm is here!

Anyways...you need to keep on reading through this forum, spend a lot more time reading. But not so much it'll harm your MCAT studying. You seem to have gotten some details but you are in that perilous zone of only knowing half truths...



Especially to places where you'll get mortared and shot at? I mean not so much now but you never know...

Plus instead of those sexy locations like Hawaii, San Diego, Landstuhl, Ramstein, or Naples you'll probably more than likely end up in 29 Palms or Buck Futt Georgia or...something like that I'm sure the attendings and veterans here have knowledge of more saltier locations.

I'd say more but I'm a little delirious from taking my class final and packing to go somewhere because someone with a higher rank told me to do so.

I guess my point is if you have the right attitude you'll be ok.

On the Army side, Ft Benning and Ft Stewart are actually solid choices. You don't want Polk Irwin Drum or Lost in the Wood.