you guys are great

Hi everyone! I’ve been checking out this site for a few months while deciding to pursue a post-bac education for acceptance into medical school. I am a “non traditional pre-med student” at 36 years old and so I’ve obviously hit a few road bumps along my journey of getting into medical school. Coming to this site has really helped me stay on track. The advice given here is honest and yet also very uplifting and inspirational. It is comforting to know of others out there in similar situations that share this passion to become a doctor.


I am currently retaking all of my pre-med prerequisites (took them 10 years ago) and plan to be finished by the end of 2012. Then I’m on to MCAT and hopefully applications, etc. I’m not worried about getting good grades but the thing that scares me to death are all of these costs adding up in my head. A poster on this forums said they spent $6000 on applications and MCAT prep. Yikes! I’m not working right now in order to be able to focus on getting the best possible grades so this is a lot of money for me. I am also worried about going through all of this hard work, getting accepted into medical school and then not being able to afford it. Has anyone heard of this happening? Anyone have any advice on how others handle the financial piece of pre-med/medical school or where to go for straight forward guidance? I recently heard something about military scholarships in return for working at a military hospital afterward but I’m not sure how to qualify? Any help in relieving this anxiety would be much appreciated.


Thank you all!

  • premeddy Said:
I'm not worried about getting good grades but the thing that scares me to death are all of these costs adding up in my head. A poster on this forums said they spent $6000 on applications and MCAT prep. Yikes!



I personally spent $4600 (that did not include MCAT prep) during my application year, so that sounds about right. It's our unofficial mantra, "But if you aren't blowing huge wads of cash during application season, you ain't trying hard enough."

  • premeddy Said:
I'm not working right now in order to be able to focus on getting the best possible grades so this is a lot of money for me. I am also worried about going through all of this hard work, getting accepted into medical school and then not being able to afford it. Has anyone heard of this happening?



I have not, but that doesn't mean that it hasn't happened before. I put off applying to med school for 5 years to avoid this very scenario.

  • premeddy Said:
I recently heard something about military scholarships in return for working at a military hospital afterward but I'm not sure how to qualify?



It's not as simple as that. You must serve on active duty in the armed forces for a length of time that is determined by either:

1. length of scholarship (3 year minimum service requirement if you accept a 2 or 3 year scholarship with no signing bonus)

OR

2. length of GME x 2 (if the length of your GME* > the length of scholarship)

This means as little as 3 years of active duty following GME (if you took a 2 or 3 year scholarship with no signing bonus) & completed a primary care (the shortest) residency (3 years of GME for family med, internal med or pediatrics). If you do an active duty GME, this equals 6 years of active military service following med school - no small commitment!

On the other hand, if you decided to become a neurosurgeon (the longest residency with 7 years of GME), your service obligation would be 7 years of active duty following GME regardless of how many years of scholarship (2, 3, 3½ [Army only], or 4) and/or bonus you received. If you do your GME on active duty, this would add up to 14 years of active military service following med school.

If you are not prior service, you will need to be accepted into the program by age 35 (up to age 42 if you're prior service or with age waivers). In any case, you will need to graduate from med school before age 48. You will also need to be medically qualified for military service and need to allow time in the application process to obtain waivers for any potentially disqualifying health conditions (nearsightedness, for example). Then, you must be able to obtain a top secret security clearance since, as a doctor, you will be an officer and all officers require a top secret clearance. In short, there a lot of potential places in the process to be rejected from the military scholarship selection process. You must also be a US citizen and must attend a med school in the US.

*GME = graduate medical education = internship (PGY-1) + residency (PGY-2 & beyond)

Actually, I checked into age requirements for all services and for the Navy, it looked like the absolute age requirement is that you be able to complete your service commitment prior to age 60. SO…a lot more leeway there.


Kate

  • TicDocDoh Said:
  • premeddy Said:
I'm not worried about getting good grades but the thing that scares me to death are all of these costs adding up in my head. A poster on this forums said they spent $6000 on applications and MCAT prep. Yikes!



I personally spent $4600 (that did not include MCAT prep) during my application year, so that sounds about right. It's our unofficial mantra, "But if you aren't blowing huge wads of cash during application season, you ain't trying hard enough."



You will sepnd oodles of cash your application year and MCAT year, but by the time it gets that far you should be fairly certain that you are going to medical school. The first step is the pre-reqs, which you can take fairly cheap at a state school. I wouldn't worry about MCAT and App costs until you have taken a few classes and shadowed a Dr. or two to see how med-school sits with you.

When you get to the point where those of us who are applying this year are 6K is going to look ilke couch change when you are looking at Tuition and COA on the interview trail.
  • Kate429 Said:
Actually, I checked into age requirements for all services and for the Navy, it looked like the absolute age requirement is that you be able to complete your service commitment prior to age 60. SO...a lot more leeway there.

Kate



Well, not really as much leeway as appears at first glance.

If they're requiring completion of your initial military service obligation (MSO) prior to age 60, that means age 59. Let's assume you know you want to be a primary care physician (the least amount of GME). Let's also assume that you will be content with either a 2 year or 3 year scholarship and that you will also decline the signing bonus. You would theoretically have to:

1. be accepted to both med school & HPSP by age 43

2. matriculate by age 44 (1 glide year)

3. graduate by age 48 (4 years school)

4. complete residency by age 51 (3 years GME)

5. complete your MSO by age 59 (3 years active duty + 5 years reserves; all MSOs = 8 years)

However, the HPSP assumes the worst case scenario by allowing you up to an extra year to complete med school if: a.) you, your spouse, or a family member has an emergency that doesn't medically disqualify you from future service; b.) you enter a decelerated/extended program at a school that offers such an option; c.) you run into academic difficulties and have to repeat a year; d.) you were already accepted into a dual-degree program (e.g. MD/MPH) prior to your acceptance into HPSP. Having designed HPSP with these 1-year delay-in-graduation scenarios in mind, the military requires acceptance into HPSP & med school by December 31 in the year in which you turn 42. Thus, you could still hypothetically complete your MSO prior to your 60th birthday, consistent with what both of our respective recruiters have told us even if they may have phrased it differently by presenting it as age by which you must be accepted in my case or age by which service must be completed in your case.

As a matter of practicality, if you wanted to be a neurosurgeon or some other specialist with a long residency, or if you took a 3½-year (Army only) or 4-year scholarship, or took the $20,000 bonus, you would have to be accepted to both HPSP & med school before age 42 (ideally age 38 for neurosurgery). Thus the reality of getting age waivers beyond age 37 for non-prior service HPSP applicants is no easy task and would probably not happen even for prior service members beyond age 42 unless they were already doctors.

Welcome to OPM!

You could also check out National Health Service Corp. They offer both scholarships and loan forgiveness programs, but I think these are limited to primary care specialties. Address is nhsc.hrsa.gov

Thanks to all of you for this helpful info.