Military Health Professions Scholarship Program for Physician Assistants

[els022002]

Hello. I wanted to know if someone could please provide information about the Military Health Professions Scholarship Program for Physician Assistants or a contact person? Thanks.

[Koppma]

The Navy, Army, and Air Force does an HPSP. What happens is that you contact a healthcare recruiter in one of all of these forces depending on which branch you want to go to who specializes in this once you get your letter of acceptance. They really don't want to talk to you unless you have the letter in hand. From there they will give you an application that you must fill out, waivers for a back ground check, give transcripts, acceptance letter, 3 letters of recommendation that has been written within 6 months, and you must go to MEPS for a full physical that starts at 0400 in the morning and will be done about lunch time. After this is done they send your application to the boards to be evaluated against other applicants to see if you get a spot. Boards are held at various times of the year.

 

If you get selected you can accept or decline. If you accept they pay 100% of the school, pay all supplies, pay for boards and license, and give you a stripend of $2157.30 that is taxable. From there you just go to school and send transcripts to your case manager who will be a senior enlisted or an officer. Once school is done you take the PANCE and report to your case manager with that info. Then from there you go to a 5 week easy officer boot camp then off to your home base. I say it's easy because I did OCS with the Navy for general officer as Surface Warfare Officer and that was the hardest thing in my life where I had to eat with a spoon with my left hand for 9 weeks by a 7 count process and the last 3 weeks however I choose. The medical and staff officers got to eat with fork and spoon in 15 mins with out a number process. Note you will have to serve 3 years in service and note that while your in school it will not count towards your time in service, but the HSCP with the Navy will.

[Koppma]

Talk to the recruiter to see how many slots they have available they usually get the quota in July. Last year the Navy didn't have anything.

[Koppma]

Note that under HPSP they pay the school directly. HSCP you get e-6 pay with BAH and you pay the school directly out of that money. You also get full tricare with dental while you go to school. The time you are in school will count towards your overall service time. You can take HSCP and the GI Bill if you are a prior who hasn't used the GI Bill yet at the same time. You are still required to do your physical PT exam twice a year that includes a 1.5 mile run, 2 mins push ups, and 2 min situps. Only the Navy offers this.

[Koppma]

BAH is based on this zip code where the school is and you get a food allowance called BAS at the enlisted rate that is 300 some dollars. Note that these are not taxable. If you have no experience in the military they start you off as an e-6 with pay of 2357.10. Note that this taxable

[Koppma]

Once your done with school you will be an O-2.

[els022002]

I just wanted to say thank you for all the information. I hope I get one of the scholarships. Thanks again :-)

[SeLynne]

Best bet is to contact the Navy and they can direct to other branches if they don't have what you are looking for. 

[LT_Oneal_PAC]

The Navy, Army, and Air Force does an HPSP. What happens is that you contact a healthcare recruiter in one of all of these forces depending on which branch you want to go to who specializes in this once you get your letter of acceptance. They really don't want to talk to you unless you have the letter in hand. From there they will give you an application that you must fill out, waivers for a back ground check, give transcripts, acceptance letter, 3 letters of recommendation that has been written within 6 months, and you must go to MEPS for a full physical that starts at 0400 in the morning and will be done about lunch time. After this is done they send your application to the boards to be evaluated against other applicants to see if you get a spot. Boards are held at various times of the year.

 

If you get selected you can accept or decline. If you accept they pay 100% of the school, pay all supplies, pay for boards and license, and give you a stripend of $2157.30 that is taxable. From there you just go to school and send transcripts to your case manager who will be a senior enlisted or an officer. Once school is done you take the PANCE and report to your case manager with that info. Then from there you go to a 5 week easy officer boot camp then off to your home base. I say it's easy because I did OCS with the Navy for general officer as Surface Warfare Officer and that was the hardest thing in my life where I had to eat with a spoon with my left hand for 9 weeks by a 7 count process and the last 3 weeks however I choose. The medical and staff officers got to eat with fork and spoon in 15 mins with out a number process. Note you will have to serve 3 years in service and note that while your in school it will not count towards your time in service, but the HSCP with the Navy will.

Just to clear up a few things in this post

1) Army does not have an HPSP for PAs. Only navy and AF do, but the navy has cut the slots to 0 for two years running now. They have increased the number of HSCP slots to 15 now to compensate.

2) they will talk to you and start an application without an acceptance. I did with both the Air Force and navy. Only finished the navy app though.

3) My MEPS didn't start until 0700.

4) forgot to add that their are 2 interviews with MSC officers before it goes to the board.

[skyblue3]

this may be a naive question, but are you stationed at bases with the AF or navy after graduation? Or can you work for fed government bodies immediately after as a uniformed official? I currently work at a federal government agency and many of the MDs are public health commissioned corps, so I am curious if this works the same way.