Reapplicant HPSP

[kglahm]

Hello all,

I recently got accepted to a D.O. school (Campbell), and I went ahead and applied to the Navy HPSP. I found out today that I was not selected by the Navy. The Lieutenant that was processing my documents noted that I can reapply after 6 months (or sooner if there is significant change in my application). I really wonder what does she mean by significant change? Another thing that I noticed was the high number of acceptances for Navy HPSP in Campbell. Last week when i was signing off the last few documents for my recruiter, he told me that there were 2 of his applicants (for Campbell pharmacy schools) who just got their scholarships. He also said that another applicants just got accepted into the Campbell D.O. with similar MCAT and GPA to mine. The last thing he said was he got 2 scholarships for 2 applicants at UNC, 1 at Duke, and 2 at ECU med schools. I wonder if there is a quotas of how many scholarship would a school receive in a fiscal year, or how many scholarships would the navy board grant per recruiter. I thought I was doing this early, but it is obvious that there are people who were selected way earlier than me. I feel a bit upset at the result because I really want to become a Navy Doc. Now I have to look at other branches.

My question for you is:

What should I do to improve my chance?
The Lt. that processed my paper work said that i can ask my professors to write me more LoRs. would this really help?
What are some example of "significant change"?

thank you all for helping

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[kglahm]

In case you are wondering, my MCAT is 28 (10,10,8), and GPA is 3.42

 

[Oo Cipher oO]

Hello all,

I recently got accepted to a D.O. school (Campbell), and I went ahead and applied to the Navy HPSP. I found out today that I was not selected by the Navy. The Lieutenant that was processing my documents noted that I can reapply after 6 months (or sooner if there is significant change in my application). I really wonder what does she mean by significant change? Another thing that I noticed was the high number of acceptances for Navy HPSP in Campbell. Last week when i was signing off the last few documents for my recruiter, he told me that there were 2 of his applicants (for Campbell pharmacy schools) who just got their scholarships. He also said that another applicants just got accepted into the Campbell D.O. with similar MCAT and GPA to mine. The last thing he said was he got 2 scholarships for 2 applicants at UNC, 1 at Duke, and 2 at ECU med schools. I wonder if there is a quotas of how many scholarship would a school receive in a fiscal year, or how many scholarships would the navy board grant per recruiter. I thought I was doing this early, but it is obvious that there are people who were selected way earlier than me. I feel a bit upset at the result because I really want to become a Navy Doc. Now I have to look at other branches.

My question for you is:

What should I do to improve my chance?
The Lt. that processed my paper work said that i can ask my professors to write me more LoRs. would this really help?
What are some example of "significant change"?

thank you all for helping

I'm sorry to hear that. There are no quotas or limits on how many HPSP scholarships can go to one school as far as I know. There are many recipients of the HPSP scholarship with similar MCAT and GPA as you. Was your application sent before the selection committee? My guess is baring some undisclosed red flags (failed background test, etc) the selection committee may have wanted to reserve more spots for more competitive applicants this early on in the process. That may be why the recruiter told you to apply again in 6 months. It is still pretty early right now, any med schools have barely started sending acceptance letters out so they may. You still can apply for HPSP Army or Air Force if you would like.

 

[kglahm]

Hey there, it was the navy processor (I believe she is the supervisor of all the recruiters in North and South Carolina regions) that let me know about the result. I worked with my recruiter for the most part and he was very nice to me.

 

[backrow]

If you really want Navy then you need to get with your recruiter and find out what the issues are with your application. Your scores you give here are not that far off the recent averages that I've heard tossed around so there must have been something else in your application that the Board was concerned about. Cipher above mentioned red flags, those can be huge these days, things like DUI's, arrests, academic probations, disciplinary probations, etc are going to have a huge impact. Were there any issues brought out in your letters, did someone you thought would write a good letter actually write a not so good one? Those aren't really things you can change, but I guess you could get more/different letters for a reapplication. I would definitely talk with your recruiter and see what insight they can give you.

Agree with above, I've never heard of any quotas for schools or recruiters.

 

[kglahm]

hey there, I have a pretty clean record, no ticket, no DUI, no criminal record. I have only asked the people I trust for references. I also had to submit all of my job's references for the past 5 years. I can't really say if there was anything bad about my personal record other than that I immigrated here from another country (Vietnam), but I already got naturalized back in 2012. Tomorrow i will talk to my recruiter and see if I can get some feedback from him.

 

[68PGunner]

hey there, I have a pretty clean record, no ticket, no DUI, no criminal record. I have only asked the people I trust for references. I also had to submit all of my job's references for the past 5 years. I can't really say if there was anything bad about my personal record other than that I immigrated here from another country (Vietnam), but I already got naturalized back in 2012. Tomorrow i will talk to my recruiter and see if I can get some feedback from him.

It's probably your security clearance that's holding you back. You have too many ties to a Communist country.

 

[68PGunner]

I'm sorry to hear that. There are no quotas or limits on how many HPSP scholarships can go to one school as far as I know. There are many recipients of the HPSP scholarship with similar MCAT and GPA as you. Was your application sent before the selection committee? My guess is baring some undisclosed red flags (failed background test, etc) the selection committee may have wanted to reserve more spots for more competitive applicants this early on in the process. That may be why the recruiter told you to apply again in 6 months. It is still pretty early right now, any med schools have barely started sending acceptance letters out so they may. You still can apply for HPSP Army or Air Force if you would like.

Reapply in 6 months means no scholarship for him. Some sort of red flag is holding him back. My guess is the background check. The military usually requires a 10 year background check. It doesn't help that he has only been a citizen for less than 3 years while still holding a lot of ties to Vietnam.

 

[backrow]

It's probably your security clearance that's holding you back. You have too many ties to a Communist country.

There are more than a few recent immigrants among the HPSP. As long as someone is a US Citizen they are usually good to go. Having ties to any particular country does not rule one out. If it were a security issue the recruiter would know that and not imply that the denial was a result of a Board.

 

[backrow]

hey there, I have a pretty clean record, no ticket, no DUI, no criminal record. I have only asked the people I trust for references. I also had to submit all of my job's references for the past 5 years. I can't really say if there was anything bad about my personal record other than that I immigrated here from another country (Vietnam), but I already got naturalized back in 2012. Tomorrow i will talk to my recruiter and see if I can get some feedback from him.

Well that's good that you don't have any of those things, it may simply be the Board being tight this year with what they want to see for scores. I don't think your immigration would be an issue as long as you are now a citizen and willing to renounce any dual citizenship. I think talking with your recruiter is the best idea, they have seen lots of packages and may be able to point out what the issues were.

 

[kglahm]

I really hope that it is not my background. I just talked to the processor (not my recruiter, hes out of office today) on the phone and she said that I need to make my application more competitive, and she mentioned more references from academic advisors or physicians that I shadowed... I already turned in 2 physicians references (one was a physician I shadowed for 6 months), 3 professors references, and 1 navy instructor from my undergrad school. I thought those were strong enough for my application, unless I did poorly on my 2 interviews. Does anyone know if there is a magic number for references/ recommendation???

 

[kglahm]

new update: My recruiter said he didn't understand why my applicant did not get selected. When I asked what I could do to improve my chance, he said: "you can retake the MCAT (?!) or just do really well for the first semester and reapply." So in theory, even though I can reapply in April, the result probably won't change much (unless i retake the mcat?!)

 

[68PGunner]

I think it may be a combination of your mcat and gpa for the navy. Everyone dreams of the beaches, palm trees, and women in bikinis when they think of the navy. But the navy has 29 palms and other crappy places along with a required GMO tour.

My advice is to stop wasting your time and check out the other two branches namely the AF first and ARMY last.