- Joined
- May 12, 2013
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Ive noticed that there is a lot of confusion and unanswered questions on how the MDSSP/STRAP programs works. Also, you will most likely be attached to APMC if you decided to join the reserves while in residency or dental school. I was clueless after I signed up and it seemed like I couldnt get any info on line and my recruiter didnt know much either so I am gonna break it down for yall.
First off, MDSSP. When you are in school you can sign up for the MDSSP. Every 6 months of pay = 1 year of service. So 4 years of d school =8 years of service ( this can change if you specialize, Ill get to that)
PROS:This is a stipend of about 950 every two weeks (I clam 0 defendants) along with 150ish bucks for your 1380s (Ill get to 1380s in a min). Tricare reserve select (health insurance) is 47 dollars per month. If funds are available from APMC (or your unit) you can get paid and have 2 CE conferences paid for a year (townie meeting?) Plus other military benefits, you get a military ID so you get everything else that comes with that. You get a "good year", what that means is your duty is to go to class and turn in your 1380s once a month. You "drill weekends" are sitting your ass in class, EASY. You get retirement points while going through school if you decide to do 20 years then this is huge. You qualify for 400 dollar one time uniform allowance
CONS: you CANNOT get loan repayment/bonus pay (once again there is a catch here Ill explain) until you are done with you MDSSP obligation. Another thing to remember, the army doesnt care if you are on summer break you still need to do your 1380s. For example, you are off for summer in june and july. You cannot have your school sign it off you need to do a real drill.
Okay lets clear some thing up on the above paragraphs:
1380s: these are the papers you fill out for your weekend duty. Remember I said that your weekend duty is to sit your ass in the class room? bingo. Have your admin sign the paper and you get paid. Easy. PM me if you need an example of a 1380 while in dental school. So now you have a 1380 in your hand but where does it go? Send it to your unit. If your unit is APMC send it to your training manager.
How many 1380s can you do? So a normal weekend will be 4x4hour drills. so 16 hrs of drill will take care of your obligation. But while going through school if you wanna make extra cash you can do a total of 9 drills. So a normal drill would be 4x4hrs, so you can max out in a month at 9x4hr drills. During school a good way to get more 1380s complete is to go to you recruiter and do HPSP and MDSSP events and help predent/med students with the process.
MDSSP/STRAP if you wanna specialize: This gets a little tricky. Ill explain by an example. A general dentist is a 63A, and endodontist is a 63E. Lets say you do an endo program that is 2 years long and you decided to take MDSSP for all 4 years of dental school. When you start your endo program you move to STRAP no longer MDSSP. So your MDSSP obligation is 8 years BUT the 2 years of endo count toward your 8 year obligation. YAY!!!....wait a sec. If you do endo and take the STRAP you will get rid of 2 years of MDSSP but add on 2 years from the endo residency. so now you still owe 8 years. BUT!!! you can only take STRAP if what you are specializing in is considered in shortage. Okay...lets clear this up. Lets say you did MDSSP and decided to specialize in dental anaesthesia, well that is not a specialty that the army is in need of so they will NOT pay you STRAP and you will have to start paying back your MDSSP time during residency. You will have to do your weekend drills and 2weeks active and hope you dont get deployed. Now, If you decide to take the Endo route (so you can do STRAP) you can also get loan repayment/bonus BUT you have to have the loans for a least one year. I hope this makes sense but my advice is to get explained to you for your individual situation.
Loan repayment/bonus pay: You HAVE to be on the "war time shortage list" this means if your job title is not on this list.... you're paying your own loans. So if you are going for this make sure your job qualifies. Your recruiter will tell you it does. MAKE SURE TO CHECK!
APMC SFRR: SFRR (solider focus readiness review): This is down in ATL at Fort Gillem. It is a 4 day event that will cover the basics you need to know about APMC and the reserves. Try to have your uniform ready to go (OCP) if you dont business casual is fine. All dental/med students didnt have their OCP so no big deal. Try and get your recruiter to help you get this taken care of before SFRR.
Day 1: Travel day. You will drive or fly to ATL and all expenses are covered. You will get you orders e mailed to you along with the schedule. Do NOT worry about DTS ( the traveling stuff) because they will go over this at APMC. You will be put up in a hotel all by yourself. BRING CASH! they make you pay for lunch upfront for all three days. Make sure to get there no later than 2000.
Day2: Wake up at 0445 and have breakfast. Its hotel breakfast so you gotta deal with that. I HIGHLY suggest bringing protein bars and fruit to eat as snacks throughout the day. The whole day will be power points. They will answer all the questions you have about the reserves, APMC, BOLC and everything else. They will explain the "round robin" This is when you will sit down with every department in APMC and take about you individual case. They had water and coffee provided and bring lunch at 1200.
Day3: These is the physical test day. You will be in your army work out clothes and will have a diagnostic physical test (you can choose to make it count) that will be push ups, sit ups, and 2 mile run. You will go back to the hotel, eat crappy hotel breakfast, and then chower up. Return to AMPC for the round robin. This is where they will sit down one on one with you. VERY USEFUL. Take advantage of this!!! Some people got screwed and had to take a BLS course. IF you done have you BLS card on file or can prove youve completed BLS they will make you take a 4 hour course. Have your BLS done
Day4: Civilian clothes! you will head to APMC and do nothing. If you didnt complete your round robin you will finish that. Other wise its some closing statements and pictures. I was out by 1000. If you drive its great because you can drive to APMC and leave from there. If not they will load everyone up on a bus and drop you off at the airport around 1300.
A couple more things: for reserves and NG there has been talk about an additional course in OK called direct commission course ( DCC, or something like that) Word on the street was if you swore in after 10/1/16 then you have to go to this 3 week DCC. YOU DONT NEED TO!!! straight to BOLC no need for DCC.
There is other threads about the MDSSP/STRAP and whether or not it is worth it. IMO if you take the MDSSP you cant do the loan repayment, BUT the benefits of being paid in school so you dont have to take out living expenses in the form of loans is huge. Do the math for yourself and see which route is best for you.
All of the benefits of the military are clear. MDSSP, loan repayment, HPSP, HCSP blah blah blah. The money is there not matter what you do but make sure you want to be in the military!! Most Docs I met at APMC are all great people that want different things from the military. One doc I met wanted to join an air unit and jump out of planes. Most people I met are total adrenaline junkies and loved being a part of a team like the reserves. I met one guy who made it clear is was in it for the loan repayment. Well what sucks for him is after med school he wants to go to pedo, well pedo is not part of the war time shortage and he will not qualify for STRAP or loan repayment....Surprise. He was not happy about that.
Overall I am very glad I signed up and if yall have any questions please feel free to PM or just ask.
Dave
First off, MDSSP. When you are in school you can sign up for the MDSSP. Every 6 months of pay = 1 year of service. So 4 years of d school =8 years of service ( this can change if you specialize, Ill get to that)
PROS:This is a stipend of about 950 every two weeks (I clam 0 defendants) along with 150ish bucks for your 1380s (Ill get to 1380s in a min). Tricare reserve select (health insurance) is 47 dollars per month. If funds are available from APMC (or your unit) you can get paid and have 2 CE conferences paid for a year (townie meeting?) Plus other military benefits, you get a military ID so you get everything else that comes with that. You get a "good year", what that means is your duty is to go to class and turn in your 1380s once a month. You "drill weekends" are sitting your ass in class, EASY. You get retirement points while going through school if you decide to do 20 years then this is huge. You qualify for 400 dollar one time uniform allowance
CONS: you CANNOT get loan repayment/bonus pay (once again there is a catch here Ill explain) until you are done with you MDSSP obligation. Another thing to remember, the army doesnt care if you are on summer break you still need to do your 1380s. For example, you are off for summer in june and july. You cannot have your school sign it off you need to do a real drill.
Okay lets clear some thing up on the above paragraphs:
1380s: these are the papers you fill out for your weekend duty. Remember I said that your weekend duty is to sit your ass in the class room? bingo. Have your admin sign the paper and you get paid. Easy. PM me if you need an example of a 1380 while in dental school. So now you have a 1380 in your hand but where does it go? Send it to your unit. If your unit is APMC send it to your training manager.
How many 1380s can you do? So a normal weekend will be 4x4hour drills. so 16 hrs of drill will take care of your obligation. But while going through school if you wanna make extra cash you can do a total of 9 drills. So a normal drill would be 4x4hrs, so you can max out in a month at 9x4hr drills. During school a good way to get more 1380s complete is to go to you recruiter and do HPSP and MDSSP events and help predent/med students with the process.
MDSSP/STRAP if you wanna specialize: This gets a little tricky. Ill explain by an example. A general dentist is a 63A, and endodontist is a 63E. Lets say you do an endo program that is 2 years long and you decided to take MDSSP for all 4 years of dental school. When you start your endo program you move to STRAP no longer MDSSP. So your MDSSP obligation is 8 years BUT the 2 years of endo count toward your 8 year obligation. YAY!!!....wait a sec. If you do endo and take the STRAP you will get rid of 2 years of MDSSP but add on 2 years from the endo residency. so now you still owe 8 years. BUT!!! you can only take STRAP if what you are specializing in is considered in shortage. Okay...lets clear this up. Lets say you did MDSSP and decided to specialize in dental anaesthesia, well that is not a specialty that the army is in need of so they will NOT pay you STRAP and you will have to start paying back your MDSSP time during residency. You will have to do your weekend drills and 2weeks active and hope you dont get deployed. Now, If you decide to take the Endo route (so you can do STRAP) you can also get loan repayment/bonus BUT you have to have the loans for a least one year. I hope this makes sense but my advice is to get explained to you for your individual situation.
Loan repayment/bonus pay: You HAVE to be on the "war time shortage list" this means if your job title is not on this list.... you're paying your own loans. So if you are going for this make sure your job qualifies. Your recruiter will tell you it does. MAKE SURE TO CHECK!
APMC SFRR: SFRR (solider focus readiness review): This is down in ATL at Fort Gillem. It is a 4 day event that will cover the basics you need to know about APMC and the reserves. Try to have your uniform ready to go (OCP) if you dont business casual is fine. All dental/med students didnt have their OCP so no big deal. Try and get your recruiter to help you get this taken care of before SFRR.
Day 1: Travel day. You will drive or fly to ATL and all expenses are covered. You will get you orders e mailed to you along with the schedule. Do NOT worry about DTS ( the traveling stuff) because they will go over this at APMC. You will be put up in a hotel all by yourself. BRING CASH! they make you pay for lunch upfront for all three days. Make sure to get there no later than 2000.
Day2: Wake up at 0445 and have breakfast. Its hotel breakfast so you gotta deal with that. I HIGHLY suggest bringing protein bars and fruit to eat as snacks throughout the day. The whole day will be power points. They will answer all the questions you have about the reserves, APMC, BOLC and everything else. They will explain the "round robin" This is when you will sit down with every department in APMC and take about you individual case. They had water and coffee provided and bring lunch at 1200.
Day3: These is the physical test day. You will be in your army work out clothes and will have a diagnostic physical test (you can choose to make it count) that will be push ups, sit ups, and 2 mile run. You will go back to the hotel, eat crappy hotel breakfast, and then chower up. Return to AMPC for the round robin. This is where they will sit down one on one with you. VERY USEFUL. Take advantage of this!!! Some people got screwed and had to take a BLS course. IF you done have you BLS card on file or can prove youve completed BLS they will make you take a 4 hour course. Have your BLS done
Day4: Civilian clothes! you will head to APMC and do nothing. If you didnt complete your round robin you will finish that. Other wise its some closing statements and pictures. I was out by 1000. If you drive its great because you can drive to APMC and leave from there. If not they will load everyone up on a bus and drop you off at the airport around 1300.
A couple more things: for reserves and NG there has been talk about an additional course in OK called direct commission course ( DCC, or something like that) Word on the street was if you swore in after 10/1/16 then you have to go to this 3 week DCC. YOU DONT NEED TO!!! straight to BOLC no need for DCC.
There is other threads about the MDSSP/STRAP and whether or not it is worth it. IMO if you take the MDSSP you cant do the loan repayment, BUT the benefits of being paid in school so you dont have to take out living expenses in the form of loans is huge. Do the math for yourself and see which route is best for you.
All of the benefits of the military are clear. MDSSP, loan repayment, HPSP, HCSP blah blah blah. The money is there not matter what you do but make sure you want to be in the military!! Most Docs I met at APMC are all great people that want different things from the military. One doc I met wanted to join an air unit and jump out of planes. Most people I met are total adrenaline junkies and loved being a part of a team like the reserves. I met one guy who made it clear is was in it for the loan repayment. Well what sucks for him is after med school he wants to go to pedo, well pedo is not part of the war time shortage and he will not qualify for STRAP or loan repayment....Surprise. He was not happy about that.
Overall I am very glad I signed up and if yall have any questions please feel free to PM or just ask.
Dave
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