As promised, I was going to post about some of the ways pre-dental students can navigate the rising tuition costs of dental school. One of the ways is the military's Health Professionals Scholarship Program (HPSP). If you did not already know, this is what I am currently applying to. I will put a lot of headings in this thread, but please let me know in the comments if you would like me to expand on anything or write about something I missed. Disclaimer: This is based on my research alone. Some of the information may be incorrect, so please do your due diligence and fact check what I say. Additionally, what I state is from either my own personal experience, online forums, and talking to individuals. Take what I say with a grain of salt.

• Why do you keep mentioning the HPSP?
  • Although getting into the health sector/dental school is the hardest step and is one most people focus on, being financially aware is just as important. Student debt is a real problem and it’s better to tackle it before it’s too late. This is one of the best ways (from what I know) to mitigate the problem.
  • If I really knew how expensive dental school was before this whole journey, I may have actually reconsidered my career path. This is how expensive it's gotten!
• What is the HPSP?
  • HPSP is called the Health Professionals Scholarship Program
  • It is not specific to Dentists, but "offers prospective military physicians (M.D. or D.O.), dentists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, optometrists, psychologists, pharmacists, and veterinarians” a scholarship to go to their respective school in return for a set number of years in military service. Basically, if you're a health professional, there is most likely a HPSP available for you. The programs do differ for each field, so look into the respective program you hope to attend.
  • It’s not necessarily a scholarship; it’s essentially a contract where you get schooling paid for in exchange for military service.
  • It is offered by three branches of the military: Army, Navy, and Air Force. Each branch differs in their own ways. I would encourage you to research this.
  • You get a monthly stipend while in school (~$2300) and get all tuition and necessary supplies paid for through the armed forces. There is no cap to how much the tuition is… a huge plus if you go to a private/expensive school.
  • While you are in school you are not in the military. You become active duty very soon after you graduate. Most people then go through officer training and start their years of contract as pay back.
• How do you apply?
  • At this point you may be interested in learning more. Here is what to do next:
  • You apply the same time as you would medical/dental/graduate school. You can either reach out to a recruiter by finding one online by typing HPSP and the branch name, or they may contact you after taking the specific test (MCAT, DAT, OAT, etc.) I recommend you reach out to a recruiter as soon as you have any interest whatsoever.
  • After you’ve reached out you will have to meet with said recruiter and go over paperwork regarding your health, legal history, schooling, and other information. This process takes a while.
  • Note: I was scared about this, but you are in no way signing up for the military at this point. You are considered a non-applicant throughout this process. It is only until you receive the scholarship and swear an oath that you are considered a military person.
  • You will also need to find about 5 people to write a letter of recommendation. I’ve talked to individuals online, and it seems that the military wants a sense of leadership and strong morals.
• What are the pros and cons of the program?
  • Pros
    • Besides getting school paid for, you come into the military as an Officer. This is a much higher rank that only about 1% of military personnel reach. As such, you are treated as so and have a leadership position within the military.
    • Get standard military benefits as well, GI bill, discounts, etc.
  • Cons
    • As a member of the military you no longer are a civilian. You are "military property"
    • Your salary most likely will be lower than in private practice, but you did get all that debt paid off...
    • Move every year/two years which makes it difficult if you have a family/SO
    • Different patient base than civilian life
• How selective is the process?
  • As long as you don’t have any huge medical concerns that will disqualify you at MEPS, from what I know, if you are a competitive applicant for your health program, you are a competitive applicant for the military. You may even be more qualified for the military/the military is less selective.
  • For dental school it’s been getting quite competitive. Each branch only has an X amount of spots available, with the army having the most spots for each profession, followed by the navy and air force. The reason for this is just based on manpower.
  • You must be accepted into a medical/dental school in order to be considered. Remember that this is a long process, so get paperwork done before this point.
  • It really depends on your profession as well for selectivity/YMMV.
• What is MEPS?
  • MEPS stands for Military Entrance Processing Station
  • Something that may take the longest in your application process is MEPS. It takes place at designated sites around the country. In Minnesota this is at Fort Snelling. It’s a long process as there are a lot of things medically that may get you disqualified from military service. If you do get disqualified you will need to do paperwork and hope it gets waived. These waivers are on a case to case basis. Good luck with this but once you’re done, the worst part is over.
  • Friendly overview of the process – you stay at a hotel overnight near the facility and wake up at 4:30 a.m. the following morning. You get breakfast, get sent to the processing station and do a bunch of sitting and waiting while performing physicals and other medically related tests. At the end of the day you find out you are clear/disqualified.
  • Contact me for my personal experience

So say you do get the scholarship. Congratulations! Here is what may be in store for you:

• Life as a student
  • You will not be required to do any military related activity while in school. You pretty much live like a civilian albeit your school is being paid for.
  • There is something called Officer Training (ODS) for each branch. I was told that the Navy has the most in-depth training compared to the other two branches. You either can do this during a summer break or most likely after you graduate
    • This is not like boot camp, you may get a little taste of it for a week, but will not last months.
    • Is about six weeks long, where you wake up early to go to class about the branch you signed up for.
    • Much better info found at public.navy.mil/netc/NSTC/otcn/ods_program_overview.aspx
• Life as a military doctor/dentist
  • You will have the ability to work as a doctor in your profession. Not sure about medical school, but for dental students you are a dentist basically. You get an assistant as you would in civilian life.
  • How does it differ from civilian dentistry?
    • Much slower paced
    • Clients are typically of one demographic of soldiers ages 17-25
    • Get paid by salary based on rank (i.e. O-3) not based on production and types of treatment
  • Opportunities:
    • AEGD is offered which is a residency for more complex cases. However, it doesn’t count towards payback in terms of service. It just pushes the payback back another year.
    • During your first year it’s like a mentorship where you spend time with specialists to make sure you are equipped to work by yourself. In other words, they don’t want to get sued for your lack of knowledge.
  • Where do you work?
    • You work at one of the military bases your branch offers. You get to pick a list of top 5 choices and they try to match you to one of them. From what I’ve heard you typically get something you asked for.
    • You get put at a location based on billets which are like stationed contracts. There are blue side and green side billets but that’s to the extent I know. As a dentist you get a 1 year billet to make sure you are trained and then can go on a 3 year blue side or 2 year green side billet to a location. I believe the billets are specific to the Navy.
  • What does your day look like?
    • Start day about 0700 end day at 0400 like any other day job. May have time built in for PT and classes (CE)
    • Have some afternoons for presentations/classes to keep you sharp.
    • Just a typical day as a doctor. I do want to say that doctor’s might have a faster pace than a civilian work place (medical doctors).
    • About a 45 hr work week for dentists.

Miscellaneous:

• I heard of something called the HCSP, what is that?
  • This is another military scholarship program. It is a little different from HPSP as you are considered reserves while in graduate school, you get a stipend for living, but the amount of scholarship is set at XXX amount (maybe 50,000/yr?). I don't know as much about this but do your research!
• Are there other opportunities to pay for dental school besides HPSP or the military?
  • NHSC - National Health Service Corps Scholarship: Non-military scholarship. Work in an underserved community for each year you get schooling paid for. Highly competitive. I will link a post once I do some research on this and make a new blog post.
  • Income based repayment programs - You pay a certain amount each month after you graduate for an X amount of years. At the end you eat a tax-bomb. Really don't know much about it but if you're interested, I would look up this term and 'dentistry' to learn more.

I know that is not all the information, so let me know what else you want to hear about! This information may be changed periodically. Ta-Ta!