Please Assist

[nybrian]

Will I be able to get the army to pay my medical school's tuition for the full four years no matter what school? How long would I have to serve if the answer for the previous question is affirmative and I go that route? When will I be recruited?

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[shiftingmirage]

They will pay your tuition and give you a living stipend ~1600. I think the army requires 4 years of service but other branches of the military are different.

For the army check out
http://www.goarmy.com/amedd/hpsp.jsp

 

[mvenus929]

They pay up to a certain amount. It's usually plenty for most schools, but there may be some it's not. I think the number is $180K. As the poster above mentioned, you also get a stipend every month for living expenses.

Your repayment is one year for every year you get assistance (with your internship if you don't do an army residency). That repayment starts after you become board certified.

If you allow people to contact you on the MCAT, you'll get e-mails once every couple months after you get your score back. If this is something you're serious about doing, though, I'd suggest that you actually take the initiative to go to a recruiter sometime, at the latest, when you are applying. Before, if you can manage.

 

[DoctorDreamer]

I talked with an army recruiter for several hours, and here's the lowdown:

Pay - They pay all your tuition and fees no matter what medical school you go to as long as it's in the states - for all four years.

They also pay a living stipend of ~2K/month

There are also 6 weeks a year that you are payed at a 2nd LT rate - If you aren't in school during the summer you are expected to spend that time doing medical programs with the army, but they're supposed to be really cool.

Keep in mind, though, that the pay difference in the army out of the civilian world is big - HUGE in some specialties (particularly surgery). You may take a bad financial deal in the long run, but yuou'd probably be out of debt when you graduate.

Time Commitment: Your pay-back time starts when you enter your internship/residency. However, while you are in an internship/residency, your time is also accumulating, because that is considered army education. Thus, the end effect is that you will finish your residency, and then you will still pay back years after that equal to the greater of either 4 years (for medical school), or however long your residency is (Surgery - 5 years, Neurosurgery - 7 years, etc). Thus, if you did Neurosurgery, you'd do your 7 year residency, then you'd have to serve 7 more years, for a total of 14. But, if you did family practice, you'd do your 3 year residency and then you'd have an additional 4 years to pay back for school, for a total of 7 years.

There are options for doing your residency outside of the military which changes things, but they are rare, and you'd need to talk to a recruiter for more info.