Military Health Professions Scholarship Programs

[dmprice2]

The military will pay for your school and give you a stipend if you agree to pay back those years in the military as a physician. Anyone know someone who has done this? Or has anyone heard many good/bad things about going this route.

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[DeAlighieri]

Check the Military Medicine forum. There's a metric ton of posts regarding HPSP and other similar programs (like FAP).

 

[Bacchus]

Had a speaker at my school talk about HPSP and USUUHS (Sp?). She was very, very positive about it. She said those of us on SDN tend to make it sound worse than it is, haha. (I think she may read on here occasionally)

 

[Bacchus]

If you are considering it at all, go talk to a military physician. Do not rely on the recruiters, who are frequently either misinformed or will outright lie to you.

Our recruiter brought a physician (pathologist) that I believe is now overseeing a group of physicians at a military hospital. She was all for it.

 

[maestro1625]

.

 

[wanabdoc]

Our recruiter brought a physician (pathologist) that I believe is now overseeing a group of physicians at a military hospital. She was all for it.

Right, the physician was hand picked by the army to help recruit, and she has been briefed on what kind of things to say, free speech does not exist in the military you know.

 

[Bacchus]

Right, the physician was hand picked by the army to help recruit, and she has been briefed on what kind of things to say, free speech does not exist in the military you know.

It didn't appeal to me anyway. I don't feel comfortable submersing myself in the field in any form, front line or "back" line.

 

[MelnaisLacis]

1. Stop listening to the recruiter. They get fatty bonuses for getting people to sign.
2. Read the military medicine forums further down.
3. Talk to current active duty doctors in the military - especially ones that did HPSP.
4. Decide to do FAP- that's what I did

 

[Perrotfish]

This is all second hand, but from what I've gotten between the Milimend forum here and the various milimed and ex-milimed doctors I've talked to:

Reasons not to do HPSP:

1) It can screw with your chances of getting a residency, since they don't have to allow you to take a non-military residency and military residencies might be more competitive than their civilian counterparts. You stand a significant chance of not getting a residency at all, at least not right away. Make sure you understand the concept of GMO tours.

2) If you go into a more competitive specialty it can be a major financial loss. At the extreme end if you do Neurosurgy or Plastics you can end up losing over 2 million.

3) It's the military: you have to be willing to take orders (however much you disagree with them), move where the want you to move, deploy to war, etc. A Dr. Cox/House style attitude towards authority is off limits. You may feel some of the orders are harmful to your patients, and some of the rules will definitely be downright silly.

4) In certain specailties poor patient population diversity can force you too moonlight if you want to remain compettive for civilian medicine.

5) The computer program they use for records keeping (AHLTA) apparently REALLY sucks

Reasons to go were:

1) Patriotic Reasons and the desire for the military experience. Chance of a bad experience >>>>> Regrets

2) It can be a huge financial gain if you go into a lower paying speciality like IM or FP. Currently they pay for all school + All fees (including health insurance) + all books + 1900K/month stipend + 20K signing bonus + 40K/year more than your civilian counterparts will make during residency. If you go to an expensive private medical school you're going to be more than 400K up on your civilian counterparts by the time you're done. Then, if you're FP or IM attending, you'll only get paid about 10K/year less than you would in the civilian world for your four years of active duty obligation.

3) Chance to serve the best patient popultion in the world. Very significant if you want to go into a specialty like EM. Wounded Soldiers >>>>>>>>> Drug addicts.

4) Relatively low incidence of certain infectious diseases in your patients. You don't need to worry about HIV because you got a cut on your hand and your glove broke.

5) Uniforms will get you laid

 

[Old Grunt]

If you go into the military for monetary reasons alone, you will be sorry.

They are going to get much more out of you then they spend on you. Don't ever think you are going to get over on the government.

At any rate, just thought I'd drop by and stick my typical $.02 in.

 

[wanabdoc]

If you go into the military for monetary reasons alone, you will be sorry.

They are going to get much more out of you then they spend on you. Don't ever think you are going to get over on the government.

At any rate, just thought I'd drop by and stick my typical $.02 in.

Seriously, is this just idle speculation from other posts or do you have figures to back it up? If I want to be primary care, it actually sounds good.

Why does everyone bemoan low physician salaries in the civilian world and then raise hell about getting free education, at similar salaries in the military.

 

[StealthNerd]

Seriously, is this just idle speculation from other posts or do you have figures to back it up? If I want to be primary care, it actually sounds good.

Why does everyone bemoan low physician salaries in the civilian world and then raise hell about getting free education, at similar salaries in the military.

I'm biased because I just seperated two years ago. But, here's my $.02: don't go MilMed unless you were seriously, SERIOUSLY considering the military anyway. Under no circumstance should you even consider MilMed otherwise. If you're very up-to-date on worldwide events, future geopolitical trends, etc, and still think the military is the way to go then by all means, do it. But chances are if you're reading this as a civilian then you should probably stay one. If you're already in the military and haven't yet run screaming for the hills, instead intending to go your 20... then yes, you should definitely do MilMed. 1) you get to be a doc and 2) you're just skipping out on a half dozen tours to the sandbox that you would've been on had you not gone to med school.

 

[NoUse4aName1286]

Seriously, is this just idle speculation from other posts or do you have figures to back it up? If I want to be primary care, it actually sounds good.

Why does everyone bemoan low physician salaries in the civilian world and then raise hell about getting free education, at similar salaries in the military.

Numbers are not the only thing to consider. The military is a lifestyle in and of itself, and from a financial perspective the salary is NOT comparable by a significant portion.

But my main point, jsut to emphasize, is that you cannot see the true cost of joining the military from a financial perspective. As OldGrunt pointed out, you really think the government is going to LOSE money on you?

 

[Perrotfish]

Seriously, is this just idle speculation from other posts or do you have figures to back it up? If I want to be primary care, it actually sounds good.

Again, from someone currently applying for the scholarship with no previous DoD experience:

It is a good deal if you want primary care, at least financially. That's why it's so popular at DO schools: they send 70% of their students into primary care so the scholarship is a good financial deal for most of their students. However the freedom you sacrifice, both to choose the course of your career and in your daily routines in the military, is going to be significant. You're going to be a 32 year old attending and you're going to be working for an organization that can tell you to cut your hair. I like this example because the length of my hair is one of those thing I've had discression over since I was about 8 years old. Also they can move you, make you attend irrelevant meetings, make you take orders from nurses or non medial personel, and send you to do things you are completely overqualified for. This is probably going to outweigh your financial benifits, so hopefully you have some idealistic patriotic aspirations if you're interested in the scholarship.

Anyway financially:

During your student years they pay for all of your tuition and books, as well as a 20K bonus, $1,900/month stipend, and they also pay you as an 0-1 during your 45 days of active duty training each year. All in all that adds up to about 35K/year above and beyond tuition.

In residency, milimed pays about twice as much as average civilian residencies, or about 80K/year.

As an attending, you make about 10K less than a normal primary care physician.

If you go to the most expensive kind of private school, and do the military residency, at the end of residency you're going to be up a little less than 500K compared to your civilian counterparts (not counting interest, which only helps). If you go to a public school, or a school with good financial aid, or if you recieve a deferment for your residency, the financial benefits are lessened by that amount.

Ultimately the opportunity cost is going to depend entirely on what specialty you choose. If you choose primary care you're going to keep almost all of that 500K advantage. If you choose neurosurgury you're going to end up 2.5 million in the hole. Most of all if you choose a competitive residency and don't get it (because the military is more competitive for some residencies than the civilian world) you're going to end up consierably in the hole financially AND have to start your residency at 32 after finishing out your military obligation as a GMO (a residency incomplete physician). The career GMOs are the doctors who seem to be angriest at milimed, since they paid the greatest opportunity cost.

But my main point, jsut to emphasize, is that you cannot see the true cost of joining the military from a financial perspective. As OldGrunt pointed out, you really think the government is going to LOSE money on you?

Why not? Their incompetence frequenly outweighs their sense of unfair-play. That's why we have hundreds of billions in deficits and a multi-trillion dollar debt

 

[StealthNerd]

Numbers are not the only thing to consider. The military is a lifestyle in and of itself, and from a financial perspective the salary is NOT comparable by a significant portion.

But my main point, jsut to emphasize, is that you cannot see the true cost of joining the military from a financial perspective. As OldGrunt pointed out, you really think the government is going to LOSE money on you?

Yeeeeeeeeaaaaahhhhhh........... I'm gonna have to go ahead and go w/ PerrotFish on this one. I've been able to take advantage first-hand of government ******ation through loopholes, etc, and I see it ALL THE TIME second-hand in my "bridge to medicine" job working inside the government. Seriously, if you find the loopholes you can pretty much legally screw the government. Sure "The Man" may win on the screw scale on an aggregate level but one-on-one you an outwit them.

Caveat: if you're in the military you become property of the U.S. Government. They do everything but tatoo that on your ass. So if you like calling your boss by his/her first name, picking out what to wear, what time of day to get up, or if you think living under Federal and State laws is enough... think real, real hard before you sign up. The Uniformed Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) will be over your head until the day you seperate. That means calling the wrong person by their first name could theoretically get you thrown in prison. Tell your CC to "go f*ck yourself"? That will definitely get you tossed in the brig. Say "no thanks" to a command to do something totally inconsistent with your own survival... ... hello cell mate. O... almost forgot, if you're gay then just forget about it. Many folks I worked with were totally cool with it, but legally you're still SOL. So, all it takes is one little prick and your life can get flushed down the sh*tter in a heartbeat.

So yeah, think MilMed over long and hard, and without ANY INFLUENCE AT ALL from any recruiters. They lie, it's just what they do. Whether they mean to or not: you're not getting the truth out of them.

 

[Perrotfish]

..So yeah, think MilMed over long and hard, and without ANY INFLUENCE AT ALL from any recruiters. They lie, it's just what they do. Whether they mean to or not: you're not getting the truth out of them

To be fair, I've never had one lie to me, or even dodge a direct question. They're salesmen, they emphasize the positive and deemphasize the negative. That's not the same as a lie. Maybe for the bottom 10% of the enlisted recruits that might amount to the same thing as a lie, but I really can't see having a lot of sympathy for someone with the intelligence and maturity to get into medical school who didn't bother to read over his service contract before he signed it.

 

[StealthNerd]

To be fair, I've never had one lie to me, or even dodge a direct question. They're salesmen, they emphasize the positive and deemphasize the negative. That's not the same as a lie. Maybe for the bottom 10% of the enlisted recruits that might amount to the same thing as a lie, but I really can't see having a lot of sympathy for someone with the intelligence and maturity to get into medical school who didn't bother to read over his service contract before he signed it.

True... but that's the problem with the recruiting system... they're not there to present an accurate picture, they're there to sink the DoD's hook into as many unsuspecting people as possible. Whether they do it through half-truth "salesmanship" tactics or just outright lies ... the incentive for them is to just get it done.

But yeah, definitely memorize any service contracts before you sign them. Might want to skim over the UCMJ and talk to a few people currently on deployment too...

 

[CA0708]

UCMJ is no joke. I know all about this "program," all that "personally experience." When you swear in to a service, you will be taking an oath.

 

[Jolie South]

To be fair, I've never had one lie to me, or even dodge a direct question. They're salesmen, they emphasize the positive and deemphasize the negative. That's not the same as a lie. Maybe for the bottom 10% of the enlisted recruits that might amount to the same thing as a lie, but I really can't see having a lot of sympathy for someone with the intelligence and maturity to get into medical school who didn't bother to read over his service contract before he signed it.

They do lie. My recruiter said I would have no problem getting the residency that I want. After reading the milmed forum, this is obviously a lie.

There are other things, but after a while I just stopped listening to what he had to say and asked him for contact info for someone that took the HPSP and was already out.

 

[jdh71]

My father was an Army Doc (resigned his commission during the Clinton years after leaving the service as a full-bird) and there were so many things my father loved about the military, like the 3 years he spent with the 160th SOAR as their flight surgeon. The military took care of him and us (Mom and brother), and he was a career guy.

So it came as much of a surprise when he begged me not to do military medicine. His words to me, and I'm paraphrasing a bit, "The Military is one of the last bastions of honor left in this world - the best people I've ever met were in the military. However, the suits and tin-soldiers running the military lack honor and your future and destination should not be determined by filth".

I still kick around the idea of joining the military, and if I was drafted, I would have no problem going.

I agree with those who have said do not do military unless you are actually interested in a 20 year career, by the the time you finish your military internship, spend a few years in Iraq or Afghanistan, then do residency, and finally payback any time left you owe, you'll have been in ~12 years - so you best know what you are getting yourself into. Everyone from my graduating class who was doing military med was doing an internship an then deploying, most of them to Iraq (the exception was a guy doing Peds . . . guess the military is short of Peds right now?) and . . . Recruiters do misrepresent the situation, often

 

[Jolie South]

I didn't even think to mention this before. . .

I went to MEPS a couple of weeks ago for my physical and saw the complete dichotomy of colleagues I could be dealing with in the future.

I did an interview with the chief medical officer of the facility and he was a total arse. Not once did he ever smile or even look at me.

Then, I had some other stuff to talk over with another doctor. This lady was AWESOME. I could only hope for colleagues like her, be they civilian or military. She was the vision of what I would like to be as a physician. Everyone was treated with respect and she was still efficient.

However, the former left a bitter taste in my mouth as I realized that these are more likely the people that I will have to deal with should I choose to take the HPSP.

 

[andymac08]

I didn't even think to mention this before. . .

I went to MEPS a couple of weeks ago for my physical and saw the complete dichotomy of colleagues I could be dealing with in the future.

I did an interview with the chief medical officer of the facility and he was a total arse. Not once did he ever smile or even look at me.

Then, I had some other stuff to talk over with another doctor. This lady was AWESOME. I could only hope for colleagues like her, be they civilian or military. She was the vision of what I would like to be as a physician. Everyone was treated with respect and she was still efficient.

However, the former left a bitter taste in my mouth as I realized that these are more likely the people that I will have to deal with should I choose to take the HPSP.

Wow, I think you are my female counterpart. I ultimately decided not to take HPSP after the physical- The benefits were not enough for me to be shunted into a residency I didn't want to do!

 

[mosel]

I didn't even think to mention this before. . .

I went to MEPS a couple of weeks ago for my physical and saw the complete dichotomy of colleagues I could be dealing with in the future.

I did an interview with the chief medical officer of the facility and he was a total arse. Not once did he ever smile or even look at me.

More than likely, the MEPS doctor is not a military physician, but a civilian hired to work for substantially lower than average pay. He or she may, however, have been retired military, doing it to help the process of accessing young men and women into the military, but don't assume he/she is/was military. Unless of course he/she was wearing a uniform at the time!

 

[mosel]

1. Stop listening to the recruiter. They get fatty bonuses for getting people to sign.

Simply untrue, there are no monetary bonuses for recruiters to put in additional recruits. It can lead to promotion if you do really well, so in a round-about way the argument could be made, but the recruiter will not get a "check" for putting in a recruit as an car-salesperson would. Recruiting doesn't work on commission.

 

[Jolie South]

More than likely, the MEPS doctor is not a military physician, but a civilian hired to work for substantially lower than average pay. He or she may, however, have been retired military, doing it to help the process of accessing young men and women into the military, but don't assume he/she is/was military. Unless of course he/she was wearing a uniform at the time!

she was military, and prior active duty as an enlisted I think but young enough that I don't think she could be retired.

the CMO wasn't wearing a uniform either.

 

[mosel]

she was military, and prior active duty as an enlisted I think.

the CMO wasn't wearing a uniform either.

reason i say this is i deal with 2 MEPS CMO's on a daily basis in my job. 1 is a prior, but the other is not - she took the job b/c the hours are good and she is a single parent; wants time with her kid.

 

[Jolie South]

reason i say this is i deal with 2 MEPS CMO's on a daily basis in my job. 1 is a prior, but the other is not - she took the job b/c the hours are good and she is a single parent; wants time with her kid.

you can be a CMO as a civilian?

 

[edmadison]

I've been reading and posting on this board for over five years. I did HPSP and did a pediatrics residency in the Army. Straight out of residency, I got tagged for a 15 month deployment in Iraq. Daily, I'm expected to care for adults, some with significant medical problems, without having any real training on how to do so. If the timing works out perfectly, we'll return and before I can transfer out, we'll get orders to deploy again and I will then get stop-lossed forcing me to deploy again. I very likely will end up serving 6 months beyond my service obligation and never do a day of pediatrics. This isn't even the worst of it. I work with people whose motivations I don't understand. Quality patient care is often not the goal of those who control your life. Until very recently, I've been positive about HPSP. That being said, no one deceived me. I mostly knew what I was getting into. Well there is no way I would do it again. The money just isn't worth it. You have no control over your life. No amount of student loans forgiveness is worth the 3 or more years of my life I will lose.

Ed

 

[mosel]

I've been reading and posting on this board for over five years. I did HPSP and did a pediatrics residency in the Army. Straight out of residency, I got tagged for a 15 month deployment in Iraq. Daily, I'm expected to care for adults, some with significant medical problems, without having any real training on how to do so. If the timing works out perfectly, we'll return and before I can transfer out, we'll get orders to deploy again and I will then get stop-lossed forcing me to deploy again. I very likely will end up serving 6 months beyond my service obligation and never do a day of pediatrics. This isn't even the worst of it. I work with people whose motivations I don't understand. Quality patient care is often not the goal of those who control your life. Until very recently, I've been positive about HPSP. That being said, no one deceived me. I mostly knew what I was getting into. Well there is no way I would do it again. The money just isn't worth it. You have no control over your life. No amount of student loans forgiveness is worth the 3 or more years of my life I will lose.

Ed

good post ed. it is unfortunate, but things like this can and very possibly will happen to you in the military. i've been an active duty officer for the past 7 yrs, and i can't tell you with any degree of certainty where i will go next, only from where i've come. deployments happen, and not only in the army. if you are going to do milmed, do it for the right reasons, whatever those may be for you personally (patriotism, self-worth, $$$ for education).

i have myriad friends who have gone thru the mil pipeline as docs, i will be doing the same shortly. for every horror story, there is another that is not. one of my buddies went to the duke, then to usuhs, and is now going into an er residency after a pleasant shore tour. the doc he replaced at that shore tour is currently in an orthopedic residency at bethesda. neither one has yet deployed, and both are quite happy. either way, you take a chance, and you better be ready to be on call in hell, b/c it can happen. just food for thought...

 

[Perrotfish]

Wow, I think you are my female counterpart. I ultimately decided not to take HPSP after the physical- The benefits were not enough for me to be shunted into a residency I didn't want to do!

Just to be clear: you can't be shunted into a residency you don't want. You can be denied the residency you do want, but if you are determined to get that Ortho slot the worst case scenario is that you serve out your obligation as a GMO (no residency required) and then do your residency 4 years later than your colleagues, with GI bill benifts. Still not a great situation, but certainly not the same as, say, getting stuck with Pathology for the rest of your life when you didn't want it.

 

[Questions]

What's fap?

 

[andymac08]

Just to be clear: you can't be shunted into a residency you don't want. You can be denied the residency you do want, but if you are determined to get that Ortho slot the worst case scenario is that you serve out your obligation as a GMO (no residency required) and then do your residency 4 years later than your colleagues, with GI bill benifts. Still not a great situation, but certainly not the same as, say, getting stuck with Pathology for the rest of your life when you didn't want it.

GMO=Something I don't want to do. In another case, my sister-in-law applied for General Surgery residencies, but the board that selects applicants decided for her that she would be better in Family Practice- a specialty that she did not apply for. Also, if you were doing Ortho, you would start your career four years after everyone else in an extremely long residency. By the time you were actively practicing what you would like, you will be 34-35.

 

[armybound]

What's fap?

Fee Assistance Program. you get an extra income during your residency in exchange for service in the military once you're done with your residency.

 

[Perrotfish]

GMO=Something I don't want to do. In another case, my sister-in-law applied for General Surgery residencies, but the board that selects applicants decided for her that she would be better in Family Practice- a specialty that she did not apply for. Also, if you were doing Ortho, you would start your career four years after everyone else in an extremely long residency. By the time you were actively practicing what you would like, you will be 34-35.

Never said GMO tours don't suck, just that in the absolute worst case scenario the military is only going to waste 4 years of your life, they're not going to force you to do a residency you don't want. You couldn't, for example, be forced to do a 5 year general surgury residency and then 4 years of payback if you really wanted to be a pathologist. You'd do 1 year of internship, 4 years of a GMO tour, and then start your pathology residency at 30-32.

 

[PunkmedGirl]

1. Stop listening to the recruiter. They get fatty bonuses for getting people to sign.
2. Read the military medicine forums further down.
3. Talk to current active duty doctors in the military - especially ones that did HPSP.
4. Decide to do FAP- that's what I did

what is FAP?? sorry im a lil slow

EDIT: Ok read previous post...so does FAP only cover residency or does it cover med education also???

 

[Perrotfish]

what is FAP?? sorry im a lil slow

FAP, or financial assistance program, is a program where the military pays you about 40k (I think) for each year of your residency in exchange for # of years of financial support + 1 years of payback.

 

[smq123]

To be fair, I've never had one lie to me, or even dodge a direct question. They're salesmen, they emphasize the positive and deemphasize the negative. That's not the same as a lie. Maybe for the bottom 10% of the enlisted recruits that might amount to the same thing as a lie, but I really can't see having a lot of sympathy for someone with the intelligence and maturity to get into medical school who didn't bother to read over his service contract before he signed it.

The recruiter I talked to didn't really lie - he just didn't have the experience to really understand what I was asking. I asked him about the quality of residency training, and his answer was just that "It's just as good as residency training anywhere else." Well, that wasn't what I was asking - some civilian residencies are lousy, and some are great. How does military residency training compare? But the recruiter has never been through med school or residency, and the only people he could put me in contact with went through residency 20 years ago. Ultimately, he didn't answer my questions to my satisfaction, so I decided not to do it.

 

[notdeadyet]

3) Chance to serve the best patient popultion in the world. Very significant if you want to go into a specialty like EM. Wounded Soldiers >>>>>>>>> Drug addicts.

If you are hung up on the "quality" of your patient population, you have no business going into Emergency Medicine.

4) Relatively low incidence of certain infectious diseases in your patients. You don't need to worry about HIV because you got a cut on your hand and your glove broke.

The rate of HIV in the military is about 1 or 2 per 10,000 as opposed to 10 to 20 per 10,000 in civilian population. It would be nice to worry 90% less, but assuming someone is HIV negative because of a uniform can be dangerous thinking. A diagnosis of HIV positive is no longer grounds for automatic medical discharge in the military (though AIDS is).

5) Uniforms will get you laid

The sort of woman that sleeps with you because of a uniform is the one of the reasons you have to worry about #4.

 

[Old Grunt]

Seriously, is this just idle speculation from other posts or do you have figures to back it up? If I want to be primary care, it actually sounds good.

Why does everyone bemoan low physician salaries in the civilian world and then raise hell about getting free education, at similar salaries in the military.

Here are some numbers for you:

I spent four years as an Infantry Officer. During that time, I had to deal with more than a few people who were in the military for the wrong reasons. There ****ty attitudes permeated through their entire being and ended up screwing things up for people that simply wanted to serve.

The military is not a 9-5 job. It's a profession, much like medicine. It will dominate your entire life while you are on active duty.

If you want to do it for the money, go ahead. You may love it. More than likely you won't. You will realize, most likely when you are sitting in the middle of the desert on the receiving end of a Katusha Rocket barrage and on a government paycheck that is tied to your rank (with a bonus for your skill level that you haven't really saved any money in the long run.

Please note: I am not talking down on military service. I enjoyed my time in and it was an honorable profession and experience. I am merely commenting on the people who do it for solely economic reasons. I rarely saw anyone in that position that was happy with their choice.

At any rate, do what you want. What the hell do I know anyways?

 

[Old Grunt]

I agree with those who have said do not do military unless you are actually interested in a 20 year career

I disagree with that. This country was founded on the concept of the citizen soldier who served his country when called and then moved on to other things. Very few members of the "greatest generation" served 20 years in the military. Most of them served and left after the war.

In my personal opinion, I would say don't serve unless you want to soldier and make no mistakes about it, you will be a soldier even as a doctor.

I did everything I wanted to do in the military during my four years of service. It wasn't an accident that I ended up in the Infantry. I requested it. I joined the military with the full expectation that I would do four years and move on to other things. Most people in the military don't do 20 years of service. If that were the case, there would be almost as many Lt. Colonels as Lts. That is not the case.

Again, just my $.02

 

[notdeadyet]

This country was founded on the concept of the citizen soldier who served his country when called and then moved on to other things. Very few members of the "greatest generation" served 20 years in the military. Most of them served and left after the war.

In my personal opinion, I would say don't serve unless you want to soldier and make no mistakes about it, you will be a soldier even as a doctor.

Good advice here. Very very (startlingly) few physicians do their 20 in the military before punching out. You get a lot more infrantry folks re-upping than you do physicians.

The question to ask yourself is if you'll be happy being in the military for four or five years even if it is at the expense of your medical career. Folks who seem to be happy as military physicians are those that say "yes".

 

[Drosophila88]

I have the following question:
can HPSP actually help to GET you into medschool?
I suppose they can call ADCOMS during admission process and tell them they'd better take HPSP student?
Is that true ? Does anyone know?
Thanks.

 

[abnatc]

I think you have to have an acceptance from a school before you can apply for hpsp.

 

[MelnaisLacis]

No, if it's something you want to do you can apply before you get accepted. I was actually awarded it, they called it matrix or something like that -- that's based off a set minimum gpa and mcat, before I got into school.

 

[MelnaisLacis]

I have the following question:
can HPSP actually help to GET you into medschool?
I suppose they can call ADCOMS during admission process and tell them they'd better take HPSP student?
Is that true ? Does anyone know?
Thanks.

It didn't help me get into any schools. I was on the wait list at several schools and when I found out that I was awarded the HPSP, I contacted the schools. They didn't really care.

 

[Drosophila88]

It didn't help me get into any schools. I was on the wait list at several schools and when I found out that I was awarded the HPSP, I contacted the schools. They didn't really care.

Really?
That's not what a recruiter told me (he might have lied). He basically said schools will take you w/HPSP more willingly because it's like they are getting a blank check.
So I started thinking that I may consider HPSP if they can actually help me to get in, and if HPSP does not make a difference in chances of acceptance - then I do not really care about it - if I am going to be a doc without it.

 

[midn]

Really?
That's not what a recruiter told me (he might have lied). He basically said schools will take you w/HPSP more willingly because it's like they are getting a blank check.
So I started thinking that I may consider HPSP if they can actually help me to get in, and if HPSP does not make a difference in chances of acceptance - then I do not really care about it - if I am going to be a doc without it.

Lie.

 

[notdeadyet]

Lie.

^^^ seconded.

HPSP will not help your chances of getting accepted to any medical school. If your recruiter told you that, he is either way out of touch or lying. Either way, verify everything he's told you with other sources. Caveat emptor.

 

[Jolie South]

As another poster said above, I think the recruiters are just out of touch with the whole process of becoming a physician. I don't think that they intentionally misrepresent anything, but that doesn't mean they explain all the realities of the program correctly. They haven't gone through any of it and don't work directly with physicians, so their perceptions are warped.

hell, my recruiter didn't even know that you had to go on interviews for med school.

 

[midn]

Sorry, I wasn't trying to speak ill of the recruiter, but like the other posters said, most will stretch the truth sometimes even unintentionally.