All Branch Topic (ABT) HPSP with additional loans

[militaryPHYS]

Does anyone have statistics on the number of HPSP members who incur debt during medical school? Also interested in the average total amount of debt that HPSP person leaves medical school with. Thanks!

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[WernickeDO]

Are you asking about debt incurred while in med school or are you figuring undergrad debt in to the total number too?

 

[militaryPHYS]

Debt incurred during medical school by an HPSP person. Thanks for clarification. It won't let me edit survey questions for some reason.

 

[MidAtlantic]

Does anyone have statistics on the number of HPSP members who incur debt during medical school? Also interested in the average total amount of debt that HPSP person leaves medical school with. Thanks!

HPSP provided me $210K while in medical school. I dropped out because of a medical problem that developed in school. The US government charged me $80K penalty for dropping out of HPSP and gave me 3 YEARS to repay the total. That's $290K total! The way the HPSP program nails you with the debt is such that NO ONE will loan you money until this money is paid. So you can't just go get a student loan to cover it afterwards. If you have any problem during medical school, like I did, HPSP (any of the services) can be an absolute nightmare. Good luck.

 

[Helpful Troll]

HPSP provided me $210K while in medical school. I dropped out because of a medical problem that developed in school. The US government charged me $80K penalty for dropping out of HPSP and gave me 3 YEARS to repay the total. That's $290K total! The way the HPSP program nails you with the debt is such that NO ONE will loan you money until this money is paid. So you can't just go get a student loan to cover it afterwards. If you have any problem during medical school, like I did, HPSP (any of the services) can be an absolute nightmare. Good luck.

Did you graduate from medical school? How many years of HPSP tuition and stipend cost you $290K? Was the 80K penalty interest?

 

[militaryPHYS]

The way the HPSP program nails you with the debt is such that NO ONE will loan you money until this money is paid

Sounds horrible and sucks you had to go through that. I imagine that nobody would loan money to ANYONE with 290k of medical school loans with no degree in medicine. A lot of risk for the lenders which makes life impossible for you so I'm sorry you went through that.

Did they give you the option of coming on active duty in a non-medical roll to payback time and/or debt?

 

[pgg]

HPSP provided me $210K while in medical school. I dropped out because of a medical problem that developed in school. The US government charged me $80K penalty for dropping out of HPSP and gave me 3 YEARS to repay the total. That's $290K total! The way the HPSP program nails you with the debt is such that NO ONE will loan you money until this money is paid. So you can't just go get a student loan to cover it afterwards. If you have any problem during medical school, like I did, HPSP (any of the services) can be an absolute nightmare. Good luck.

That's pretty horrible.

Typically the government only does that when they determine the new medical problem was really a pre-existing condition that you failed to disclose, or when the medical condition is acquired due to misconduct (e.g. injured while driving drunk).

What kind of rationale did they give you?

If you don't want to discuss details that's OK. This just sounds far out of the norm.

 

[Gastrapathy]

I'm curious about the $80k penalty. That's a new one on me. What was the justification?

My understanding is that recoupment for HPSP = total paid x the percentage of time left on the obligation plus interest.

 

[pgg]

HPSP provided me $210K while in medical school. I dropped out because of a medical problem that developed in school.

In June 2013 you posted a comment stating you were "waiting on my CS exam before I can receive my orders to report to residency" - did you graduate? Off cycle? Pass the USMLE?

Just trying to understand what happened. I've known one person who was simply released from his obligation when he developed a disqualifying medical conditions, one medically retired (but he was already on AD post residency), and several who were allowed to remain on AD despite developing conditions that would have prevented entry.

 

[WernickeDO]

Debt incurred during medical school by an HPSP person. Thanks for clarification. It won't let me edit survey questions for some reason.

To answer your question I don't have any stats or averages on HPSP debt, but I can tell you that I incurred about 10K in debt during med school. I personally was finding that the HPSP stipend kept coming up just a little bit short for my monthly spending. I also had some expenses that perhaps the average med stud doesn't have, like a car payment, insurance, etc. By borrowing a few thousand a year I was able to not worry about meeting the monthly budget and there was a few bucks left over for an emergency. That load off of my mind was worth what I paid in interest. Once I graduated, I had both the med school debt and my undergrad debt (about 62K total) paid off in 3 years. So while I'm sure that some might disagree with my taking out loans while in med school I don't regret it at all.

 

[HighPriest]

I also incurred about 10g in debt during medical school. And I lived extremely frugally, in my opinion. The stipend at the time was just a little more than my rent, and I lived in an apartment complex from the 70s behind a shopping mall, 20 minutes from the school (on a good day). I had some savings which I used from when I worked prior to med school, and that helped. But, about a year after I took the scholarship, they upped the monthly rate and gave some ridiculous sign on bonus that would have paid for everything I needed the loan for....so there's that. I was able to pay all of that off, plus my leftover undergraduate loans, while a resident. Also by living frugally. Once that was done, I was able to save some money again, as a resident.

 

[militaryPHYS]

Thanks for responding. While HPSP is a great value, the stipend still may come up short for many med students. I'm now reaching out to the financial counselors at the big schools to get an idea of the need for loans in addition to stipend HPSP provides. I think this needs to be factored in to lifetime calculations for overall value of civilian/HPSP/USUHS/HSCP, etc as HPSP keeps coming out on top when looking at 10 years post-residency in my newest calculations. Mind you this is WITHOUT calculating these additional loans...hence my interest.

Thanks again.