<p>To cover my medical school costs I was willing to apply for the Air Force Health
Professions Scholarship Program that requires my service to the military and commit every year that they paid towards my education(4 years, 4 years of service). However, I am constantly worrying about the specialty- can I pick my own residency/specialty or will the pick it for me based on the needs of the military at the time? I would like to go into surgery, genetics or even pathology.</p>
<p>If you’re accepted to the HPSP (and meet all physical, mental and other requirements), you will enter the military residency match at the end of medical school. You will need to do audition rotations during your 4th year of med school–just like everybody else–but will need to do yours at military locations.</p>
<p>You may select from any open residency program in that match. All the same specialties that civilian residency match has are available, but the number of slots per X specialty may be smaller or larger than those available in the civilian match. </p>
<p>Here’s a list of residencies available by service branch:</p>
<p>[Specialties</a> & Locations - Military Graduate Medical Education](<a href=“militarygme.org”>militarygme.org)</p>
<p>Pathology, for example, is low needs specialties so only a few residency slots are available. The Air Force only offers 2 pathology slots; the Navy offers 2, and the Army offers 6.</p>
<p>Also you should be aware that your years of residency or fellowship training do not count toward fullfilling your service obligation. Your service obligation begins after you’ve completed your all your medical training.</p>
<p>BTW, genetics is not a medical specialty.</p>
<p>The military “match” occurs before the civilian “match” so that those not selected for military GME still has time to apply for civilian GME. Applications begin to be submitted in September of the fourth year of medical school and must be complete before November. The Joint Service GME Selection Board (JSGMESB) will meet in late Novemberto decide where everyone will be going. Results are released in mid-December. Exact dates, deadlines, as well as applications, can be found on the service specific websites.</p>
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<p>Typical prospective students of USUHS or those considering a HPSP scholarship ask a variety of questions regarding residency options in the military. With this website, we intend to answer some of<em>the more common questions and dispel a few rumors. The most common question that we hear is, “Will the military force me to do a residency that I didn’t want?” The answer to this question is: No, not necessarily. Understand that there are residencies that are difficult to get selected for in both the civilian world and the military world. If you want to be a neurosurgeon, it is difficult to get that residency in the military. Likewise, it is also difficult to get that residency in the civilian world. So, unless</em>a student<em>gets mostly A’s in medical school,</em>they probably wouldn’t bother applying to whatthey know is a very competitive residency. Residencies that are considered “competitive” in the military are comparable to the residencies that are considered “competitive” in the civilian world. Additionally, military medical students who don’t get what the want right out of medical school can reapply the next year during their internship. Their applications often are scored in such a way that puts them at an advantage above the fourth year medical students applying that same year. This will be covered in more detail in the Selection Process section of this website. Bottom line: “Exceptional” medical students will eventually get the specialty that they want. “Average” medical students may not get that very competitive residency, but they are still left with several great options and multiple times to apply. This is not much different than in the civilian residency match.</p>
<p>The HPSP is a really attractive program for the financial reasons you listed, but the general wisdom is that one should NOT join the military just to pay for med school, and instead should be genuinely interested in joining the military before even considering the HPSP. </p>
<p>While there are undoubtedly tremendous financial benefits to be gained by joining the HPSP, it also has some drawbacks. Some of those include being limited to military residencies (there just aren’t a ton of military hospitals), delaying the start of your own practice until at least 4 years after residency, and the overall uncertainty of practicing in the military–that is, you could be transferred overseas or to other hospitals or war/disaster-torn areas at any time and for any length of time. </p>
<p>Works for some, but not for all. I know you haven’t even started college yet so it’s not like you’re filling out your enlistment papers, but still–this is something you need to think long and hard about!</p>
<p>I think one should question the general wisdom about not joining the military to pay for medical school. The financial risk benefits of college, graduate school, law school, medical school etc is changing. The investment adage of " past performance is no guarantee of future results" is good advice. There are definite potential drawbacks to military service but taking on 300-400K in debt in the face of declining reimbursements may be worse. It may be financially reasonable if one attends a public medical school and can come out of training with less than 200k of total education debt. Going to a private medical school with a yearly cost of attendance of over 70-75K is a different story. The total borrowed when you add in origination fees and the fact that interest now starts accruing at 6.8-7.8% can be huge. In the past the cost of education was so much lower and the interest rates in general were lower and did not accrue during your education/training. We also could augment our residency income by moonlighting. This option has been severely restricted by the weekly work limits. My advice would be to be very wary of debt as our income as physicians will IMHO continue to decrease in relation to inflation and the higher paying specialties will probably be hit harder than the primary care specialties.</p>
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Sometimes I wonder whether the percentage of med school students whose families could help pay all or most of the COA will increase in the face of rising COA and declining reimbursements. (Is this percentage about 20% now?) This could be especially true for those students who are more likely to pursue some lucrative specialty which requires a much longer training than, say, primary care specialty.</p>
<p>The other extreme case is that the students from some financially challenged families are more likely to select a “practical”/vocational major at a local community college because they can not afford to (or are not willing to) wait too long before earning money to support themselves or their families.</p>
<p>This should not be too shocking. In most of human’s history, who actually received higher education and who started to work when they are still very young? In the “dark age”, a person’s family background would influence his career choice even more. We have actually made a lot of progress in this area.</p>
<p>Sometimes I wonder whether the percentage of med school students whose families could help pay all or most of the COA will increase in the face of rising COA and declining reimbursements. (Is this percentage about 20% now?) This could be especially true for those students who are more likely to pursue some lucrative specialty which requires a much longer training than, say, primary care specialty.</p>
<p>I wonder what % of med students have parents paying most of the costs? (more than just a few thousand?).</p>
<p>As families become more aware of rising med school COAs (as high as $80k per year for privates and $50k for publics), those who intend to pay most/all costs for undergrad may try to strategize to pay less for undergrad so that they can contribute more for med school. </p>
<p>Few parents will want their child graduating with nearly $400k in med school debt. </p>
<p>Off topic: Does anyone know the % of med students who have at least one parent who is a physician? Just curious. Would there be a stat somewhere?</p>
<p>Just to chime in: my parents paid for undergrad and currently pay for rent “and stuff” (insurance, cell phone…). My car’s paid off. I have loans for med school tuition and fees, and estimate that I should graduate with ~140k of debt. </p>
<p>I’d guess that at least 30-40% of my classmates have parents who are docs. Probably more and I’m just not thinking of all of them. But out of my group of 8 (myself included), only one of us has a physician parent. Off the top of my head, the other parents are: stockbroker, retired airline pilot, dietitian, CEO, restaurant owner, teacher, magazine editor, farmer, car dealership owner.</p>
<p>OP: Back to basics. If you get the scholarship(by no means guaranteed with the threatened budget cuts) you will be in the military. So yes, it’s entirely possible that you may be directed to enter a certain residency program. This doesn’t happen often, but if you read the fine print, it’s within the military’s power to do so. I recommend that you decide if you want to join the military before applying for the scholarship.</p>