army pays for med school?

[JunkintheTrunk]

i got this email a while ago, after i got my mcat scores (i'm sure tons of other people got it too) saying that if accepted to the program, the army would pay for your entire med school education.....with the stipulation that you serve the military somehow for like 4 years or something. has anyone you know done this? and there's GOT to be a catch....or i'll end up as a doc in afghanistan....eeek

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[ATPase]

Check the military residencies forum. This will give you a pretty good idea of the pros and cons of the military scholarships.

 

[Pikayou]

Not to cast doubt on the utility of the military scholarships, but came across a jarring story in the San Francisco Chronicle last year about a guy who did that with the Navy. He thought he was all set for a decent job at a naval hospital, but instead got transferred to the marines where he became a forward combat surgeon. He was flying in medivacs right at the front lines during the Iraq war...probably not what he had in mind when he signed up. Anways, from what I've heard, the Air Force is the way to go if you never want to actually see combat, from what I've heard.

 

[evines]

The "catch" is that you aquire the 4 yr obligation after residency. But you already knew that. And you don't have to be Army if for some reason you'd rather be Navy or Air Force.
I think it is a great opportunity, especially for anyone who's paying out-of-state or private tuition. It's not for everyone, but if military medicine sounds ok to you (at least for 4 yrs), look into it. I would have gone that route if I hadn't been accepted to USUHS.

 

[JunkintheTrunk]

zoinks....yeah, i guess navy would be the way to go, my mom would kill me if that happened, hehe. thanks dudes

 

[evines]

Originally posted by Pikayou
He thought he was all set for a decent job at a naval hospital, but instead got transferred to the marines where he became a forward combat surgeon. He was flying in medivacs right at the front lines during the Iraq war

. . .sounds like a great experience to me . . . but again, not for everyone. This is all part of the commitment, and should be considered before signing up.

 

[JunkintheTrunk]

can they put you anywhere they need you though? or do you get to chose?

 

[JM.]

I do it. I like it. Thus far.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

You could probably pay off your loans if you worked for 4 years as a doctor.

 

[Docgeorge]

If you're doing it just for the money you are going to be sorry. If you're doing it because you want to serve your country or do something fun and exciteing then it will be worth it. Oh yeah as far as AF docs not having to do combat that bull. The trend now is to have integration espicially in the field.

 

[idq1i]

Originally posted by jmwalker
I do it. I like it. Thus far.

Let's see if you still like it after this summer

 

[Swiper]

Originally posted by JunkintheTrunk
can they put you anywhere they need you though? or do you get to chose?

You get to pick where you WANT to be. The military will then place you where they NEED you to be. Sometimes, it works out that it's the same place. Other times, it's not.

 

[AverageMan]

Now, the payback requirement is 1 to 1 for how long you take the scholarship. However, I've heard something about how if you do this program, the military can exert some kind of force on you to make you do your residency at a military hospital, and the only way to not do that is to specialize in a field that the branch approves of, but that doesn't have a residency program established at any of their own hospitals. How true is that? I don't know much else about this, other than the 2nd hand speculation I've heard, so if anyone has any info on that, it'd be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Spitting Camel]

You also have to have a BMI either less than 30 or less than 25... 25.1 to 30 is overweight and 20-25 is normal. Anything over 30 is considered obese. I was ruled out right away!!

 

[JM.]

sh1t, I forgot. I have to lose weight.

 

[Rendar5]

It'd be a great opportunity to live in Okinawa for a few years. Can someone tell me if I would have to do Navy or Air Force for that? I forget which divisions of the armed forces are stationed there. Of course, it'll suck if anything bad happens with N. Korea. Though I'm honestly not too sure how serious I am about it.

Don't do it just to pay for medical school, though. You will have a lot less control over your life, and you can pay off loans in 4 years once you get past residency, anyway.

 

[NDESTRUKT]

My dad did the navy thing and he wanted to be a radiation oncologist while they Navy wanted him to be an OBGYN. I don't know how it worked but you compete for residencies within the military...he however appealed and got to do a civilian RadOnc residency and then did his 4 year obligation in San Diego. But trust me, the appeal process was seriously lucky and he totally lucked out on not having to go on a ship or tour of duty.

If you wanna do armed forces, the Navy and Air Force seem nicer. The navy is cool since you get to be on the coast and most cities where there are military bases are nice ones - Baltimore, San Diego, Florida, etc. If you're in the army you could end up in freakin' Oklahoma or Iowa or one of the plains states - which for myself, I'd rather just get loans. But everyone has their own preference. I just wouldn't wanna be an Asian in the middle of that place - not very fun lol.

 

[Swiper]

Originally posted by Rendar5
It'd be a great opportunity to live in Okinawa for a few years. Can someone tell me if I would have to do Navy or Air Force for that? I forget which divisions of the armed forces are stationed there.

Marines, so you'd have to go the Navy doc route.

***EDIT*** Oops, I forgot Kadena Air Force base is there as well... So, I suppose you have your pick.

 

[Swiper]

Originally posted by NDESTRUKT
The navy is cool since you get to be on the coast and most cities where there are military bases are nice ones - Baltimore, San Diego, Florida, etc.

I don't think Baltimore is an option, but D.C. (Bethesda, MD) is. Of course, with the growth in between those two cities, it's all pretty much one big metropolitan area now, anyway...

 

[EvoDevo]

Originally posted by Rendar5
It'd be a great opportunity to live in Okinawa for a few years. Can someone tell me if I would have to do Navy or Air Force for that?

Also don't forget that there's a (small) Army base there as well (Torii Station?? Been a while). So I'd say Army too.

 

[bewitched1081]

i heard from an administrator at one medical school that according to the army, your four years turns out to be eight because of breaks or something like that. anyway, it sounds vague but when she was explaining it, she sounded like she knew what she was talking about. by the way, she was the head of financial aid or something and had experience with students who did the army thing.

 

[JohnHolmes]

Originally posted by JunkintheTrunk
i got this email a while ago, after i got my mcat scores (i'm sure tons of other people got it too) saying that if accepted to the program, the army would pay for your entire med school education.....with the stipulation that you serve the military somehow for like 4 years or something. has anyone you know done this? and there's GOT to be a catch....or i'll end up as a doc in afghanistan....eeek

I would advise this to no one.

The problem is the military will restrict your choice of specialties. Even though they say this isn't the case, there is STRONG presure to do not just primary care, but family health. I have heard of many times the military pulling people out of their choice residencies and forcing them into primary care service.

Your four years doesn't start until AFTER you have completed residency.

You are obligated to apply to military residencies. Proponents of this will say "well you CAN do civilian residencies" but it's not that easy. You have to be rejected from your military residencies first. Think its hard to get a dermatology residency in the civilian world? It's a cakewalk compared to getting one in the service.

After your four years in service, where you will be placed in a position of need for the service, not your first choice, you will be required to fulfill four years of reserve duty, for a total of eight years.

A BETTER option, I believe, is to go through school get your debt and then if you can't afford to pay it off, join the National Guard or military then. They have strong payback programs for debt and my cousin did this and managed to pay off 100k of debt in three years.

The beauty of this is, again, you have much more leverage to negotiate your contract at this point. And yes, you CAN negotiate military contracts...especially as a physician.

Coops

 

[JohnHolmes]

Originally posted by idq1i
Let's see if you still like it after this summer

OBS is going to smack you around. I did Basic Training as an enlisted soilder. Think you like respect? Think again.

Coops

 

[idq1i]

Originally posted by Cooper_Wriston
OBS is going to smack you around. I did Basic Training as an enlisted soilder. Think you like respect? Think again.

Coops

Haha! We have OBS for medical students. Think 1/10 the square root of basic training. 1 week of field training.

 

[ek6]

To Cooper Wriston - are there really ample opportunities to apply to these programs AFTER your 4 years? I'm thinking about HPSP and think that that idea isn't so bad since by then, you might know better whether or not you will do family practice or primary care.

Also, do any of you guys know if this HPSP application is binding? - AS IN, if you get accepted, you can turn down the scholarship - BEFORE you begin medical school. (and yes, I know the whole app process is a pain in the ass to go through to turn it down in the end - still want to know though if it's binding)

 

[militarymd]

Originally posted by ek6
To Cooper Wriston - are there really ample opportunities to apply to these programs AFTER your 4 years? I'm thinking about HPSP and think that that idea isn't so bad since by then, you might know better whether or not you will do family practice or primary care.

Also, do any of you guys know if this HPSP application is binding? - AS IN, if you get accepted, you can turn down the scholarship - BEFORE you begin medical school. (and yes, I know the whole app process is a pain in the ass to go through to turn it down in the end - still want to know though if it's binding)

It is not binding until you sign the contract. You can apply for military programs after you have trained, but that is a different program...where they give you a stipend while in civilian residency in return for service as a specialist.

Most of the posts about the military is correct. Getting into the residency of your choice can be a very iffy thing. First, the military must decide that there is a projected need for that specialty. Because, there are certain military residencies in place already, there are certain specialties that will have residents each year. However, there seems to be more applicants than spots for most of the competitive specialties, so you either train in something you don't really want, or become a GMO.

GMOs can be fun if you're into that sort of thing....walk-in clinic everyday, but I personally would rather get trained, and get on with life and the practice of medicine.

PM me if anyone has questions. I 've been active duty for 11 years, and I regret most of them.

 

[Homunculus]

militarymd i *think* is navy, so if you pm him remember that it's the navy side of the house. personally, i don;t know why anyone would do navy over army or air force, but that's just me

my nutshell HPSP

navy = GMO's, boats, and crappy student support
army= lotsa residencies, lotsa locations, deployments
air force= fewer residencies, "cushier" lifestyle

 

[Mirror Form]

Originally posted by Cooper_Wriston
I would advise this to no one.

The problem is the military will restrict your choice of specialties. Even though they say this isn't the case, there is STRONG presure to do not just primary care, but family health. I have heard of many times the military pulling people out of their choice residencies and forcing them into primary care service.

Your four years doesn't start until AFTER you have completed residency.

You are obligated to apply to military residencies. Proponents of this will say "well you CAN do civilian residencies" but it's not that easy. You have to be rejected from your military residencies first. Think its hard to get a dermatology residency in the civilian world? It's a cakewalk compared to getting one in the service.

After your four years in service, where you will be placed in a position of need for the service, not your first choice, you will be required to fulfill four years of reserve duty, for a total of eight years.

A BETTER option, I believe, is to go through school get your debt and then if you can't afford to pay it off, join the National Guard or military then. They have strong payback programs for debt and my cousin did this and managed to pay off 100k of debt in three years.

The beauty of this is, again, you have much more leverage to negotiate your contract at this point. And yes, you CAN negotiate military contracts...especially as a physician.

Coops

I can't speak for the navy or chairforce, but I disagree that the army will seriously restrict your choice of specilaties. I'm gearing up to apply right now and have every specialty option that civilian candidates have. Furthermore, if anything it tends to be easier to get competitive specialites in the army (although this is highly variable from year to year and from field to field). But as an example, last year the army had 19 applicants for 19 slots in ortho. Whereas, in the civilian match, you need to be in the top of your class to even bother applying for ortho since it's extremely competitive to match into. Although, it should be noted that if you do a residency that is 6 years or longer (including internship), it will increase your obligation.

 

[bustbones26]

I know a guy who is in an FP residency program right now and he thougt he was big $hit because he joined the guard after med school. I think they pay back like 50K plus of your loans and then give you a stipend every month, captains pay as long as you do your one week per month duty.

Now this guy did it strictly for the money. He bragged that with his obligation he would never get deployed.

after hearing this, I thought, why did i do HPSP if I could have just joined the guard after school and get loan payback and never get pulled out for deployment?

Turns out this idiot was dead wrong! You can get deployed as a guard physician and he just found this out the hard way, and believe me, he went kicking and screaming!!! He actually tried to get out of his deployment by arguing that he has a wife that is pregnant and a kid at home! Stupid idiot! How many people over in Iraq are in the same situation, he should have thought about this before he signed up for the guard. Worse yet, they wanted to deploy him to a location within the united states. What an a$$!!

Bottom line is this, if you ever join the military, there are benenfits, great ones, but it is an obligation, there is no easy way out. You can't join the guard and think you're gonna live on easy street. It is a committment.

I am army HPSP, but for the Navy guys, I belive, and somebody here can correct me if I am wrong, they are required to do a GMO year whether they want to or not and they know this when they sign up. So for those guys that end up combat surgeons or on a damn boat, they knew it would happen, they should not whine about it!

Military has some great benenfits, my fav is being able to retire after 20 years of service if you want to stay on that long. But be aware, it is an obligation. nobody should cry or complain when they have to do some dirty work that they were warned they might end up doing.

 

[Homunculus]

Originally posted by bustbones26
Worse yet, they wanted to deploy him to a location within the united states. What an a$$!!

after speaking to several active duty docs, this is actually a fairly common occurence. i think they call it "backfilling" where they pick up slack for the docs that are deployed overseas. it really doesn't sound like a bad deal at all.