Ed Delay without HPSP

[NewMedStudent11]

Hello All,

I took a Army ROTC scholarship to pay for undergrad. I have now been accepted to medical school and start this year. However, prior to commissioning I discovered that I had to submit a medical waiver which may delay my commissioning.

Now I am stuck because I have to lock in my component (ed delay, active, guard, or reserves) but I may be unable to commision in time to receive HPSP for this upcoming year of medical school. So if I choose ed delay and incur the ADO from ROTC after I complete medical school I will be stuck with the 80,000 dollars in loans I have to take for my first year of medical school.

So my question is, I do the ed delay but then don't do the HPSP scholarship. How will that timeline work? I understand that I will incur a ADO to due to my ROTC contract. Will I still have a choice of doing a military vs civilian residency? Will my ADO still only be 4 years after completion of residency or will I potentially build more time somewhere?

In this scenario I would have over 350,000 in loans compounded with interest but would take advantage of the 10 year Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program through residency and during my ADO. Has anybody ever heard of doing it this way? Appreciate all advice as I have to make a decision in the coming days.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Trefoil]

Hello All,

I took a Army ROTC scholarship to pay for undergrad. I have now been accepted to medical school and start this year. However, prior to commissioning I discovered that I had to submit a medical waiver which may delay my commissioning.

Now I am stuck because I have to lock in my component (ed delay, active, guard, or reserves) but I may be unable to commision in time to receive HPSP for this upcoming year of medical school. So if I choose ed delay and incur the ADO from ROTC after I complete medical school I will be stuck with the 80,000 dollars in loans I have to take for my first year of medical school.

So my question is, I do the ed delay but then don't do the HPSP scholarship. How will that timeline work? I understand that I will incur a ADO to due to my ROTC contract. Will I still have a choice of doing a military vs civilian residency? Will my ADO still only be 4 years after completion of residency or will I potentially build more time somewhere?

In this scenario I would have over 350,000 in loans compounded with interest but would take advantage of the 10 year Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program through residency and during my ADO. Has anybody ever heard of doing it this way? Appreciate all advice as I have to make a decision in the coming days.

Well, another consideration is that you are pretty early in the medical school cycle, so I imagine you still have time to be accepted by a cheaper med school?

Anyway, yes I’ve heard of people intentionally doing this, and honestly it’s not a bad way to go. In short, you will owe 4 years ADSO after residency. You will commission at the end of medical school, and you will have to participate in the military match. The educational delay is to attend medical school not residency. The main downside I see is your away rotations for the military match. You will need to rotate at the locations of your preferred residency of choice. Most training locations are at BAMC, MAMC, and WRMMC. The away rotation duration is typically 1 month. So that is a minimum of two months living out of a suitcase and at a hotel or Airbnb. Pretty expensive, but I guess a drop in the bucket overall. The good news is that your time in accumulates during medical school. That means you commission as a Captain with 4 years, which gives you a pretty nice pay bump during the residency years. At least that is my understanding.

After you complete residency, you will owe 4 years active and 4 years IRR.

Hopefully that was helpful!