Pre dental

[Arduinox]

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Hey, I'm a sophomore in my undergrad for Pre dental. Im very interested in joining the military for dental school. I'd actually prefer to do it now so I can have my undergrad paid for as well. What I'm scared of is joining to early and not being able to get into the dental program through the military. Does anyone know of suggestions that might help?

 

[del Sol DOHC]

Hey, I'm a sophomore in my undergrad for Pre dental. Im very interested in joining the military for dental school. I'd actually prefer to do it now so I can have my undergrad paid for as well. What I'm scared of is joining to early and not being able to get into the dental program through the military. Does anyone know of suggestions that might help?

I don't recommend that you do ROTC to pay for undergrad. There is no guarantee that you will be granted an educational delay for dental school. You may have to serve the 4 year active duty commitment for ROTC before being allowed to attend dental school. You could join a reserve component during undergrad, but there is no protection from deployment while you are in school. Also, there is no guarantee that your commander will allow you out of your reserve commitment early to participate in HPSP during dental school. Honestly, if your goal is dental school and you want to make sure nothing gets in your way, you should just remain a civilian during undergrad, and apply for HPSP at the same time that you are applying for dental school. You'll be able to pay back your loans.

 

[Arduinox]

ThAnks del sol dohc. You clarified some my questions about signing up now. It's true my undergrad loans won't be much anyways and it'd be a better sacrifice to have a few grand in debt rather than no dental school.

 

[krmower]

I don't recommend that you do ROTC to pay for undergrad. There is no guarantee that you will be granted an educational delay for dental school. You may have to serve the 4 year active duty commitment for ROTC before being allowed to attend dental school. You could join a reserve component during undergrad, but there is no protection from deployment while you are in school. Also, there is no guarantee that your commander will allow you out of your reserve commitment early to participate in HPSP during dental school. Honestly, if your goal is dental school and you want to make sure nothing gets in your way, you should just remain a civilian during undergrad, and apply for HPSP at the same time that you are applying for dental school. You'll be able to pay back your loans.

Concur with del Sol. I don't recommend doing ROTC if you will be going dental for sure. The only other reason I would give, is that your income will be impacted 4 additional years if you do ROTC. The large specialty bonuses don't kick in until all of your obligations are paid back. Thus the soonest you could take any large bonuses would be after 10 yrs in the military as opposed to 6 yrs if you don't do ROTC.