Promotion/Graduation Question

[BigNavyPedsGuy]

Some folks said that I can get my promotion to O-3 before graduation. Will that make my HPSP stipend stop? It's supposed to stop at graduation, but I could see them saying, "well, that means you're done with HPSP".

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[cyclegirl]

You can have your promotion ceremony before graduation but you are not actually O3(LT) until the day of your graduation. Your stipend will stop on that day. All of the paperwork that has been sent to the Navy reflects your actual day of graduation and that is when things change over.

 

[megadon]

dude, who cares if your HPSP stipend stops, if you get commissioned as an 0-3 you get paid as an O-3, which trust me, is heads and shoulders above our sub-ensign pay. You'll be getting at least 2 grand every two weeks.

 

[DiveMD]

dude, who cares if your HPSP stipend stops, if you get commissioned as an 0-3 you get paid as an O-3, which trust me, is heads and shoulders above our sub-ensign pay. You'll be getting at least 2 grand every two weeks.

Ha!

 

[Tank]

The Navy might be different, but the AFIT site says the stipend stops if your school certifies your graduation requirements have been met more than 45 days before graduation itself. Something to keep in mind...

From the website:
Your HPSP contract states: "Payment of my stipend terminates upon the date of formal graduation or upon completion of degree requirements if it precedes formal graduation by more than 45 days." HPSP will not pay for you to take vacation at the end of your medical school training. When your school certifies that you have completed all academic requirements, if that date is 45 days before your formal graduation date, your stipend will stop on the earlier date.

 

[Ex-44E3A]

You can have your promotion ceremony before graduation but you are not actually O3(LT) until the day of your graduation.

That might be true for the Navy, but I'm not sure that's correct for everyone. A bunch of us AF types finished our degree requirements a couple of weeks before graduation, and raised our hands well before the ceremony. That earlier date was reflected on the commissioning paperwork, and resulted in an earlier date-of-rank for all of us. A particular high-ranking officer that a bunch of us knew was going to be in town, and we wanted him to swear all of us in. After contacting a bunch of HPSP program people in Denver, they confirmed that we could do it, provided we'd met the graduation requirements.

Think about it. The MPF, Pay offices, etc only look at your commissioning date as your date of rank... they could care less what your med school graduation date was. Who cares about the ceremony? Once you've met the graduation requirements, you can skip the ceremony entirely if it's OK with your dean (classmates of mine did exactly that).

Now, this was ten years+ ago, so they may have changed the rules... but knowing the military's penchant for organizational inertia, you might still be able to do it.

 

[cyclegirl]

That may have been true 10 years ago but it is not anymore. I am the VP of AMOPS at my school and have been putting together the promotion ceremony. We have also been in charge of getting all of the paperwork done and finding answers to HPSP students that are similar to the OPs. We have learned that it is ok for us to do the ceremony before graduation but that their date of rank will reflect the date of graduation. If anyone that has been going thru this same process recently and has had a different experience I would love to learn what you have found out.

 

[kwiggo]

in the Army we need to get a certified letter from our registrar stating our graduation date AND that we will not complete graduation requirements more than 45 days prior to graduation. For some people this might mean delaying a required rotation until the very end of fourth year in order to ensure your stipend continues through graduation. You're still on your own for most of the month of June, and maybe May if you finish grad requirements too early. I think the deadline for submitting a letter from the registrar was April 1st, but you can double check in the policy handbook.