 The military. So with this video, I'm going to talk about five ways to get your PA school paid for. For our military options, one is not a military option. The way I did it, which is kind of a weird way to do it, definitely not the most common way to do it, the story of my life, is going to be last. Okay, so number one, the non-military option is the NHSC, the National Health Service Corps, which gives you $50,000 for a two-year commitment. And the way this works is that once you graduate from PA school, you take a job in a clinic or a hospital that serves an underserved population, such as refugees, rural patients, something like that, and you have a contract with that hospital or clinic for your salary, your benefits. So it's basically a normal PA job. And then in addition to that, you have your contract with the NHSC, which pays you $50,000 towards your student loans in addition to the salary and benefits that you receive from working at that hospital or clinic. So it's a pretty good deal, and the biggest advantage is, you're not in the military. You get to live and work in the United States and basically have a normal PA job without getting deployed and all that good stuff. The disadvantage is that $50,000 probably isn't enough to cover your tuition and living expenses for the entire duration of your PA school. And so most people probably will not have their student loans completely wiped out in that two-year commitment. Now I think you can actually do another two years for another $50,000 towards your loans, but I'm not certain about that. And the link in the description for this video will have much more information. Okay, number two, the HPSP, the Health Professions Scholarship Program. And that's just the first of many military-related acronyms. If anybody's been in the military, you know the military freaking loves acronyms. And this is just one. So get used to it. Anyway, the HPSP, the Health Professions Scholarship Program through the U.S. military or the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, something most people actually don't know about, is that you can do this and be active duty military, or you can work for the VA. I personally think this is the best deal on this list if you can get into it, because I know spots are limited. So this program pays completely for your PA school tuition, books, materials, and gives you a housing stipend so you can have money to live on for rent, food, and things like that while you're completing your PA school. And then once you graduate, you commit to serving two years or however long your program was, so 28 months, 30 months, 24 months, whatever it is. Really as long as you're on the scholarship, that's how long of a commitment you make to the military. And you commit to serving that time in the U.S. Army, the Navy, or the Air Force. Or you can work as a PA for the VA, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, at a location determined by the VA. And of course, if you choose the military option, you become a commissioned officer and you have to go through ODS, Officer Development School, but you can cross that bridge when you get there. And as a PA working for the VA, the Department of Veterans Affairs, you're not a commissioned officer in the United States military. You're just a civilian working for the VA. But like I said, it's at a location determined by the VA so they can put you anywhere. And most likely it's going to be a place that they can't really find providers to go to, so that's why they're offering you the scholarship. So it could be somewhere super desirable, like, you know, Hawaii, New York, Miami, whatever. Or it could be the middle of Idaho. Not hating on Idaho, but you know what I mean? It could be anywhere and it's not up to you. It's up to the VA. And so the only real disadvantage of the VA option is that since the VA sends you anywhere they need you and not anywhere you want to go, you might have to spend two years living somewhere you don't really want to live. Of course, that applies as well to the active duty military option. It has the same disadvantage as the VA, plus you may have to get deployed on a ship or even in a war zone or something like that. And you have to be active duty military, which could be a good thing or it could be a bad thing just depending on who you are and how much you want to serve your country and how much you like that lifestyle. But of course, the massive advantage here is that you're going to PA school for free and you're getting all of your expenses while you're in PA school covered. And so housing and food costs are things that people don't typically factor into the cost of their education. But even if you live in a cheap apartment or share house with some people, living expenses over two years can easily add 30 to $50,000 to your student loans. And depending on how bougie your lifestyle is during PA school, you may be closer to that extra $50,000 mark, which can add up really quickly. So having your tuition and living expenses completely covered during PA school is huge. And also unlike the NHSC, which you apply for while you're looking for a first job as a PA either during your last year, like I am, or once you graduate from PA school. So unlike the NHSC, the HPSP is something you apply for once you get accepted into PA school. So before you even start. And so if you get the scholarship, you'll be going to PA school from day one knowing that all of your expenses and your tuition are covered, which is an extremely comforting feeling, allowing you to just focus on school and not how much debt you're piling up every single day you're sitting in that classroom. Okay. Number three, this is the military's loan repayment program. So this can be a really good option in two different situations. One, if you're in PA school or you've graduated from PA school and you want to serve in the military as a PA and you didn't get the HPSP scholarship, which like I said, there's very limited spots. So if you still want to be a PA in the military and you've graduated, this might be a good option for you. You can just talk to a military officer recruiter, specifically a military medical officer recruiter. And when they draft your contract, make sure to negotiate student loan repayments into that contract. Now, this right here is just a personal example from a friend I had while I was in the service. And this person came into the service with a ton of student debt. She actually went to medical school, but for certain reasons she didn't finish. So she wasn't a doctor, but she had all the student debt to pay back. And there was almost no way to do it. It was like hundreds of thousands of dollars. And so when she joined the military, she actually negotiated to have a lot of that debt paid back with the student loan repayment program in exchange for her GI bill. So basically they took the GI bill off her contract. She's not eligible for that benefit, but they added a lot of student loan repayment. I'm not promising that everybody can get this, but she was able to write that into her contract. So maybe you can as well. And what they can and can't do with contracts is determined by a huge number of factors. The military is a giant bureaucratic organization. So why they can and can't do things at certain times is really beyond me. And sometimes this makes no sense, but the worst they can say is no. So if this is something you're interested in, just talk to the recruiter. See if it's something that can be added to your contract is a student loan repayment. And if you're anything like my friend, number three can also work for you. Even if you didn't graduate from PA school and you're watching this video or maybe you never went to PA school and you just have a ton of student loans and you think the military would be a good option for you. This can work for you as well. I'm not saying this is for only medical officers. If you go in as an enlisted person, as any other officer, contracts are contracts and they can write in student loan repayment into any military contract. So you should probably ask your recruiter about that. And the worst they can say is no. Now the big differentiating factor here is whether or not you completed a bachelor's degree. If you did, you may be able to go in as an officer and have more responsibility, cooler jobs, potentially higher pay, things like that. But if you didn't, you can always enlist. And there's a lot of really good jobs on the enlisted side too. I can attest. But just make sure if student loan repayment is important to you, make sure it's in black and white. It's in that contract before you leave for bootcamp or OCS or ODS or any of that. Because once you're on that bus and that contract is signed, you are the property of the United States government. So make sure it's in your contract. Number four, and I said there's going to be more acronyms. Number four is the IPAP, the Inter-Service Physician Assistant Program, which is available to all active duty enlisted personnel. And then there's the MSCIPP, the Medical Service Corps in Service Procurement Program, which is only for active duty enlisted personnel in the Navy. So these programs are only for people who are currently serving in the US military in the enlisted ranks. And they're basically a way to have the military take you out of your enlisted job and pay you to go to PA school. So you remain on active duty with your full pay and benefits while you're a full-time PA student, which is a really, really good deal. And then, of course, once you graduate, they commission you as a medical officer in the United States Navy, Army, Air Force, whichever branch that you joined. And then you're just working in the military as a practicing PA on active duty. Now, if any of you watching this video is in the US military and you're enlisted, first off, thank you for your service. Second, you're eligible for this. And please see much more information about this program and the information for this video. I just very quickly mentioned the IPAP and the MSCIPP because it's just so specialized. And it's not really for most people watching this video. But if that is you, definitely see more information because this is an amazing program. And finally, number five, how I ended up getting my tuition for my post back and my PA school and all my living expenses completely paid for. And that is the GI Bill. The GI Bill is an educational benefit that every honorably discharged US military veteran is eligible for and it's amazing. That means that if you serve in the military and you don't do something stupid and get in trouble and get discharged with an other than honorable or dishonorable or basically anything that's not an honorable discharge, as long as you don't do something stupid and get in trouble, you get this amazing benefit. The post 9-11 GI Bill gives you 36 months of tuition, a yearly book allowance and a monthly housing stipend that's proportional to the cost of living in the area where your school is located. So if you're going to school in the middle of Nova, Ohio, your housing stipend might be a little bit lower than if you're going to school in Manhattan or Hawaii or San Francisco or one of those really high cost of living areas. And by a little, I mean a lot, but don't let that determine where you go to school, go to the school that's best for you educationally, not just so you can scoop up the most BAH, which is basic allowance for housing, which is what you get, but that's more acronyms for more videos and I'm not gonna talk more about it. And so anyway, my post back was about nine months. My PA school is 24 months. And if you do the math, that basically means I still have three months on my GI Bill benefits to get training in whatever it is I feel like and everything that I've done so far has been completely covered. Tuition, housing expenses, food, books, everything. I've been able to go to school for post back and my PA school completely debt-free and I'll be graduating completely debt-free, which is incredible. And also just like I mentioned in number two, going to school knowing that you're not racking up student debt and having money for housing and food is amazing. And it really takes a lot of stress away during grad school where there's enough stress as it is. So taking that little bit of financial stress away really makes a difference. It's kind of like being one of those really lucky people who have a rich family, except your rich family is America. So if you're currently in the military and you want to get out and go to PA school, this is an option for you. If you're not currently in the military and you want to go to PA school or any grad school, but you just don't see yourself taking out another $100,000 or more in student debt, this is an option for you. It's definitely not a fast track to becoming a PA because this option is going into the military doing something other than being a PA. But it could work out for you in the end exactly like it did for me. And like I said, if you have a bachelor's degree, the officer route might be good for you. If you don't have a bachelor's degree or even if you do, you can always enlist. I mean, I enlisted after college. Maybe I could have gone the officer route, maybe not, but I ended up enlisting and it was a pretty good experience overall. You know, no complaints. And another thing, if you enlist, you can select a medical job like a US Navy corpsman, which is just the most bad job on the planet. And you can rack up thousands and thousands of high quality patient care experience while you're serving your country, getting paid, possibly traveling, learning to have a greater work ethic and discipline. And of course, earning that GI bill that you can later use for PA school once your enlistment is up. So especially some of the younger folks watching this video, this could be an incredible option for you. You know, spend four or five years in the military, get that amazing experience as a corpsman or an army medic, and then of course go to school for free, maybe knock out some bachelor's classes while you're enlisted. And I've heard of people getting out with like half a bachelor's degree or more from just one enlistment because the military pays for your college while you're in, if you have time to take courses. And that's not even using your GI bill benefits. That's using a whole different benefit that I'm not talking about right now. So if you're a younger person or even if you're not, this is an amazing option to get your bachelor's and your master's basically for free and also rack up lots of high quality PCE hours in the process. And hey, if you're enlisted, you might just qualify for the IPAP or the MSC IPP, like I mentioned earlier. So what I ended up doing in hindsight probably isn't the most efficient way to do it, but it worked out really well for me. I could have probably gone officer. There were a few reasons I chose to enlist. I enlisted in the Navy and signed up to be a corpsman. The enlisted medical job in the Navy that can serve a role similar to kind of a medical assistant or an LPN, or they can go out in the field and be attached to a Marine unit and be a combat medic. But during boot camp, I actually ended up getting recruited by the US Navy Presidential Ceremony Guard, which was really cool, and spent a couple of years basically marching around Washington DC, doing really high visibility ceremonies, and then eventually coordinating those ceremonies and being in kind of a logistics leadership role, and then eventually getting sent to Hawaii to complete the rest of my enlistment. So like I said, life is good. It ended up working out for me. Anyway, guys, that's the video. I really hope you learned something. I really hope you got some good ideas out of it. And for more information on all these programs that I mentioned and some programs that I didn't have time to mention, take a look at the info for this video just down below. Please like this video, share this video, subscribe to my channel. Please help me get to 1,000 subscribers. And of course, ask me any questions you have for me down in the comments below, and I'll do my best to answer as many as I can. If you'd like to get my help personally with your PA school application, just go to BorisThePA.com, click on the services tab and book whatever service is best for you. Follow me on Instagram to keep up with my day-to-day, more like week-to-week life. I don't post every single day, but if you wanna see what I'm doing, that's where I put it, and I'll see you in the next video. So in this video, I'm gonna, oh, all right, that's a little better. Yeah.