paying for med-school

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drtongue_danger

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I was wondering what you guys think about going through the miltary to pay for medical school. I do know some of the pros of going that route are
1. higher paying Residences ($10,000)
2. health care insurance
3. monthly Stipend

here are some of the cons that i know of
1. lower pay once finished med-school
2. your stuck with them for 4 years
3. most miltary residences are in primary care

can anyone else tell me some of the pros and cons that they have heard
thanks
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well any medical school you go to (at least at the schools ive been to or interviewed at) do provide health insurance.

my school has a very good health insurance plan that includes dental etc...

there are attractive pros to the military as my friend is doing it as we speak for the navy, but one you are missing in the con section is that you might end up in a place you really don't want to be for residency. and honestly...who enjoys boot camp? haha.
 
check out the military medicine forum... there are a whole bunch of threads on the pros and cons :)
 
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Don't join the military unless you are truely interested in serving the military. But if you were going to become something like a primary care physician I guess it would be about the same in pay.

As for your coment about most military residencies are primary care, this doesn't matter because from my understandment you don't have to do a residency with the military.
 
God knows the military needs trauma surgeons right now. I know a guy who went to the military for an Ob Gyn residency! Who would have thought. But all the women in the military and wives of servicemen need treatment too.
 
Cons:
-Possibly being sent to war and dying/becoming disabled
-Being a pawn in our corrupt government's power-hungry and/or money-driven conflicts

There are other ways to get benefits like those offered by the military without the risks--look into the NHSC, for example (although that does require a primary care commitment; you can't get something for nothing). If, however, you can construe either of the above cons as a pro, you may be just what the military is looking for. :rolleyes:
 
Mistress S said:
Cons:
-Possibly being sent to war and dying/becoming disabled
-Being a pawn in our corrupt government's power-hungry and/or money-driven conflicts
Click to expand...

No blood for oil! LOL
 
It also should be said that the military has control over what type of residency you do. If you want to go into radiology and the military has a sudden need for surgeons....well, too bad. It's surgery for you. This happens more than you think.
 
Con: You are on Ready Reserve readied for deployment anytime the President call. Have you seen the news lately about ex-GI being called back into service?

Pro: Everything else.
 
I would only consider the HPSP if you meet one or more of the following criteria:

1.> You would join the military, or have considered joining the military, even if you weren't going to be a physician.

2.> Your specialty is actually BETTER in the military than it is in the civilian world (e.g., Aerospace Medicine, Dive Medicine).

3.> You are going into primary care and don't care if they move you around wherever they need you - with or without your family.

This is, after all, the military. They fight wars. That's their job. I know it's obvious, but seriously, you must truly understand that fact before you join. They are not there to provide jobs for the people. They are not there to give you money or further your personal career goals - even if you would be an awesome physician. They are there to blow stuff up.

In short, you will probably have to put in more than you will get out of it. If you're not cool with that, then look elsewhere. If it sounds like it's up your alley, then you're crazy not to take advantage.

1. You don't have to do real basic training - you get a weak, 6-week version.

2. You don't get summers off like most other students.

3. To get a residency you want will almost certainly require that you move.

4. You will probably be deployed to East Jesus for a few months at least once.

5. If you join the Navy, you'll probably have to do some duty as an untrained primary care guy before you get to do your residency.

6. In military medicine, almost everyone acts as a primary care physician for at least a couple days every week - even the most highly trained specialist.

7. Military medicine is often more concerned with "adequate care" than "the best care".

(Most of this information comes from the military medicine forum. If you want to ask questions or think some of what I say isn't credible, ask those guys. They know more than I do.)
 
Oh yeah,

8. THERE IS A RANK STRUCTURE. A nurse may outrank you! This is a complicated situation.
 
uic1999 said:
It also should be said that the military has control over what type of residency you do. If you want to go into radiology and the military has a sudden need for surgeons....well, too bad. It's surgery for you. This happens more than you think.
Click to expand...

Where did you hear this from? From reading some posts a couple months ago on the military board, I remember seeing that you have pick of residency and you don't even have to be in the military match. I am guessing that they could tell you what to do your residency, but only in hardcore situations like if World War III happened.

Do you know of anyone who was actually told what to specialize in?
 
It is a great program IF:
you understand that you are in the MILITARY- a war machine!!!

I am going to take advantage of it but I have researched it in great depth. Definitely check out the Mil Med forum as it has great links and perspectives/ Also the mil does not chose your match BUT if you get accepted at a mil training hospital the you MUST go there for your residency.

"Cons:
-Possibly being sent to war and dying/becoming disabled
-Being a pawn in our corrupt government's power-hungry and/or money-driven conflicts"

-Hey why don't you shove it...this is the SAME military/governmet that keeps you, me and your family safe!
 
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rtmcad2319 said:
"Cons:
-Possibly being sent to war and dying/becoming disabled
-Being a pawn in our corrupt government's power-hungry and/or money-driven conflicts"

-Hey why don't you shove it...this is the SAME military/governmet that keeps you, me and your family safe!
Click to expand...
Agreed.
 
I don't intend to get into a political debate (this is not the appropriate forum), but those are actual, significant cons to getting your MD through the military, which is what the OP asked for. If you want to spew patriotic crap in lieu of an actual analysis of the pros and cons, do it in the everyone forum, please (they love that there). Yeah, the Bush administration has done a real bang-up job of keeping us safe, I'd say--that's why they cut anti-terrorism funding and scaled back the CIA investigation of Al Qaeda RIGHT BEFORE 9/11, and embroiled us in the current conflict in Iraq that has done LOADS to make us all safer. I really owe them my allegiance over that one. If this is the government/military's way of making us all "safe", I think we'd be a lot better off on our own, thank you very much. And before I some idiot pipes up with, "why don't you leave if you hate this country so much?" let me pre-emptively state that I don't hate this country, I hate the power hungry a****les in charge, and in fact I care enough about this country to question them in the hopes that we can better our administration and strive for peace with the rest of the world rather than the jingoistic attitude that has largely prevailed for the past 50 years. Anyone contemplating joining this organization owes it to themselves to take a hard look at what the real risks are and who they'll be working for; like I said, if you can construe them as positives, you're exactly what the military is looking for. Have a nice day.
 
Mistress S said:
I don't intend to get into a political debate (this is not the appropriate forum), but those are actual, significant cons to getting your MD through the military, which is what the OP asked for. If you want to spew patriotic crap in lieu of an actual analysis of the pros and cons, do it in the everyone forum, please (they love that there). Yeah, the Bush administration has done a real bang-up job of keeping us safe, I'd say--that's why they cut anti-terrorism funding and scaled back the CIA investigation of Al Qaeda RIGHT BEFORE 9/11, and embroiled us in the current conflict in Iraq that has done LOADS to make us all safer. I really owe them my allegiance over that one. If this is the government/military's way of making us all "safe", I think we'd be a lot better off on our own, thank you very much. And before I some idiot pipes up with, "why don't you leave if you hate this country so much?" let me pre-emptively state that I don't hate this country, I hate the power hungry a****les in charge, and in fact I care enough about this country to question them in the hopes that we can better our administration and strive for peace with the rest of the world rather than the jingoistic attitude that has largely prevailed for the past 50 years. Anyone contemplating joining this organization owes it to themselves to take a hard look at what the real risks are and who they'll be working for; like I said, if you can construe them as positives, you're exactly what the military is looking for. Have a nice day.
Click to expand...
So you didn't want a political debate, and then you "spew" your views. If you don't intend to get into political debate, then don't start one.
 
I didn't start anything--you and your friend who gave me the astute and carefully thought-out advice that I should "shove it" for pointing out to the OP that one of the negatives of military medicine is the large risk of death in service of a corrupt government are the ones who got us off topic here. But, I do plan to end it--please send me a PM that I will promptly ignore if you feel compelled to challenge my political views. My goal is, and has been, to get the OP and anyone considering joining the military for the "perk" of a free education to think a little more deeply about the serious risk to life and limb this entails and who exactly it is that they would be serving. I think this is a valid consideration for anyone making this decision. I have made my views clear; obviously most of those who choose to join the military will see things in a different light, but since the recruiters only paint a rosy picture of what being a military physician is like I think it is good to bring in a different perspective. I believe we can both at least agree that there is much more to joining the military than a monthly stipend and free tuition.
 
You are instigating when you refer to the government as "corrupt". Trying to portray your personal view as some sort of accepted fact is inappropriate.

That would be like me saying that one of the drawbacks to joining Doctors Without Borders is all the bleeding heart, naive communists.

There are ways of demostrating your points without the political charge. If it was, as you say, not your objective to start a political discussion, then we shouldn't be able to tell what your alignment is by reading this thread.

While your first point is valid, your second point is a value judgement.
 
Right...you weren't starting something by refering to military physicians as being pawns to a corrupt gov't? Please - our military is one of the main reasons why you can rest your head in peace at night, and you refering to its soldiers and officers as pawns is absolutely insulting. Your opinions (which are based entirely on unsubstantiated conjecture) on our gov't have no bearing on why someone should or should not choose to serve their country. They can come to their own opinions about what our gov't is doing.
Honestly, I'm glad you're getting into medicine and not politics...if our gov't was run by people like you, we'd be sitting in smoldering cities.
 
CaptainZero said:
Your opinions (which are based entirely on unsubstantiated conjecture)
Click to expand...

As opposed to your opinions that are based on what...government propaganda that you've swallowed hook, line, and sinker? I have every reason to believe in my opinions, as I'm sure you feel you have every reason to believe in yours. No one is going to change anyone's mind on this forum, and I'm not trying to do that--just present the other side to the glorious world of free tuition and benefits that the military tries to push on naive potential recruits. I've seen the deceptive techniques recruiters use first-hand, and I think someone needs to point out the very real negatives associated with military service. The military is lucky that there are people like you out there to keep their bloated war machine running while the hungry go unfed and the sick untreated.

CaptainZero said:
Honestly, I'm glad you're getting into medicine and not politics...if our gov't was run by people like you, we'd be sitting in smoldering cities.
Click to expand...

I find this quote laughable, considering that I'm the one advocating peace and you're the one speaking in favor of above-mentioned bloated war machine. Whatever. I've made my point to the OP and anyone else with similar questions, they are free to take it or leave it as they are free to take or leave your blind support of our fearless leaders. I'd ask you to restrict further debate with me about this to PM's, but as you probably won't I'll just seperate myself from further involvement in this pointless argument.
 
Why I like Miss S:

1) She has a pro Bush sig!
2) She gets worked up easily (freak in the bed)
3) She says our government is power hungry yet she wants to be a doctor.
-One of the most power driven professions!!

I love Miss S!
 
A friend of my brothers went this route and wanted to surgery but the military told him he had to do family medicine. So he went through the family medicine residency, then once he was out he did a surgery residency and is now a happily practicing general surgeon.
 
Mistress S said:
If this is the government/military's way of making us all "safe", I think we'd be a lot better off on our own, thank you very much. ...jingoistic attitude that has largely prevailed for the past 50 years.
Click to expand...

PRO: You'll never have to deal with a patient like this unless you're shipping her off to the psychiatric ward. :thumbup:
 
Mistress S said:
As opposed to your opinions that are based on what...government propaganda that you've swallowed hook, line, and sinker? I have every reason to believe in my opinions, as I'm sure you feel you have every reason to believe in yours. No one is going to change anyone's mind on this forum, and I'm not trying to do that--just present the other side to the glorious world of free tuition and benefits that the military tries to push on naive potential recruits. I've seen the deceptive techniques recruiters use first-hand, and I think someone needs to point out the very real negatives associated with military service. The military is lucky that there are people like you out there to keep their bloated war machine running while the hungry go unfed and the sick untreated.



I find this quote laughable, considering that I'm the one advocating peace and you're the one speaking in favor of above-mentioned bloated war machine. Whatever. I've made my point to the OP and anyone else with similar questions, they are free to take it or leave it as they are free to take or leave your blind support of our fearless leaders. I'd ask you to restrict further debate with me about this to PM's, but as you probably won't I'll just seperate myself from further involvement in this pointless argument.
Click to expand...
First of all, I won't take this to PM and allow you to get in your two cents and then run and hide from public view. This thread has lost it's original intent because the OP has been redirected to the military med forum where he/she can get real information from people that are actually in the military, not people that just sit back and criticize it while knowing NOTHING first hand about what it is like to be in HPSP.
Okay, so you're a peace lover. Great, so am I. But how is it that you propose to accomplish this peace? By reasoning with terrorists and the countries that undeniably support them? Have you watched these people beheading countless coalition soldiers? Do you think the people we're fighting want peace with us or anyone for that matter?

I like how in one paragraph you say that I have my own reasons for holding the opinions that I do and then in the next go on refer to my blind support of our fearless leaders. So because my opinion differs from yours it must be blind and spawned solely from gov't propaganda that I must have ignorantly "swallowed hook line and sinker?" I don't think the gov't is sponsoring these beheadings/car bombings/suicide bombings to fuel their "bloated war machine". Nor do I think the gov't killed thousands upon thousands of Iraqi and kurdish people so that they could blame it on Saddam and invade Iraq. The existence of terrorists, their threat to the United States and the atrocity of their actions is pretty hard to deny. I think if anyone is falling subject to propaganda it's you.

And, for the record, my recruiter was the first person to tell me not to do the HPSP for the money. But yes they sugarcoat things. Everyone knows that. To assume that the students talking to recruiters are naive is where you went wrong (but then again I would imagine that you feel that anyone that doesn't share your enlightened point of view is naive). I think most of the people considering HPSP grasp the magnitude of the commitment and usually have enough common sense to talk to other people...people that ARE ACTUALLY IN THE MILITARY to get some more realistic info.
 
rtmcad2319 said:
Why I like Miss S:

1) She has a pro Bush sig!
2) She gets worked up easily (freak in the bed)
3) She says our government is power hungry yet she wants to be a doctor.
-One of the most power driven professions!!

I love Miss S!
Click to expand...

4) She warns me when I'm being blinded by gov't propaganda.
5) She was one of the few people in 1992 to know that post-Cold War espionage funding should not have been cut due to the emerging threat of Al-Qaeda.
 
drtongue_danger said:
I was wondering what you guys think about going through the miltary to pay for medical school. I do know some of the pros of going that route are
1. higher paying Residences ($10,000)
2. health care insurance
3. monthly Stipend

here are some of the cons that i know of
1. lower pay once finished med-school
2. your stuck with them for 4 years
3. most miltary residences are in primary care

can anyone else tell me some of the pros and cons that they have heard
thanks
Click to expand...

If you are want to take the military route, apply to Uniform Services University. The benefits is that everything is paid for--tuition, fees, books, equipments, health insurance--plus you get Lieutenant salary which is in the mid $40,000 per year for going to school versus just around $1000 a month with the program you are refering to (HPSP). That's just going to school, once you are graduated, you are automatically promoted to Captain which is 2 pay grade higher--a much better paying residency program. The catch is that you have to pay back 7 years of practice. The lower pay when you practice is not necessary true. Some specialties pay as much as civilian. Also, most residencies are not primary care. The military teaching hospitals, at least the Army ones, have all the specialties and subspecialities that civilian program does. The only question is do you want to serve the men and women of the military for 7 years. My answer was I do. I love the people.
 
rtmcad2319 said:
Why I like Miss S:

1) She has a pro Bush sig!
2) She gets worked up easily (freak in the bed)
3) She says our government is power hungry yet she wants to be a doctor.
-One of the most power driven professions!!

I love Miss S!
Click to expand...

A gold star for you, my friend. :D
 
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