Loan & Students

Any military programs are only available to US citizens.

The Health Professions Scholarship Program, or HPSP for short, is available through the military. You choose to enter the Army, Navy or Air Force. All of the branches have to offer pretty much the exact same incentives and benefits, with minor difference, so the program is almost exactly the same no matter which branch you choose.

Military scholarships pay for your tuition, fees, books, and anything else that is directly related to medical school. They also pay you a monthly stipend while in medical school. The stipend can be around $1400 or so per month (in 2005).

In return for getting your 4-year medical education paid for, the military expects 4 years of active duty medical service after residency and 4 more years of reserve duty. It's a year-for-year payback. If you only use the HPSP program for 3 years, you only owe 3 years of military service. The minimum payback is 3 years, regardless of how many years you use the program.

Also, if your medical school allows it, you are expected to serve four 45-day Active Duty Tours during medical school. These are similar to shadowing and medical school rotations, which allow you to get involved in military medicine.

So, this is what typically happens for the HPSP program:

1. You graduate from undergrad with a 4-year degree.
2. You apply for the HPSP scholarship program through your military branch of choice (Army, Navy, Air Force).
3. They review you application and approve your application.
4. You attend the medical school of your choice that you selected just like you would without the military scholarship. During your medical school experience, you are not in uniform, but are a student like everyone else. You receive a monthly stipend and all school expenses paid for. You spend the first summer at a military hospital for shadowing or at Officer Indoctrination Training (learning how to be an officer).
You have to go through officer indoctrination training for 45 days - they try to get this done the summer before medical school (and that is an advantage since you gain some additional officer benefits and pay from that).

5. When you graduate from medical school, you apply for residency through the military match (different from the civilian residency match). In some cases, you can go through the civilian match and complete a civilian residency but for the most part you are expected (with little choice) to enter a military residency. From day 1 of residency, you are an officer and paid as such with vacation, benefits, etc. Pay (officer's pay) is slightly better than resident pay in civilian residencies. Military Residencies are completed in and around military hospitals - prominently where big bases are - Bethesda, Maryland being the largest, for example.
6. After residency, you pay back your 4 years of service obligation. Pay is considerably less than for civilian doctors, but still fairly decent.

7. After 4 years of active duty service in the military, you can leave the military (or stay by choice) and work as a civilian physician like any other private physician. You are still considered "reserve" for 4 years and can be called back up for active duty whenever needed. You need to check what implications that may have - to see if this route is a good one for you.