I have been very quiet about this whole medical school process on my blog b/c everything was so up in the air,
I didn't want to confuse people and make them worry or wonder about possibilities that
might not happen. But now that it's all said and done, here is the skinny:
I am SO very proud of Jordan b/c last June he applied to all 7 medical schools in
Texas (excluding Baylor) and starting last August
he got interviews at ALL 7 schools:
UT Houston, UTMB Galveston, Texas A&M, Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas Tech in El Paso,
UT Southwestern and UT San Antonio!!!!!
God completely blew us away and blessed us beyond anything we could have imagined.
I know Jordan will not like me sharing this about him, but its ok b/c I'm his wife, so I can
talk about how proud I am of him for getting all those interviews!!
Needless to say, we had some serious decisions to make
as far as which one he wanted to put at the top of the list for the computer MATCH (where
basically they tell you which 1 school out of those 7 you will be going to-held on Feb 1st). After
much prayer and consideration of all the pro's and con's of every school, he finally made his
decision and decided on:
UTMB GALVESTON!!!
Those are a couple pictures 1-of the teaching hospital, the other 2-of the island-and UTMB is that
main big building structure in the middle.
For those of you who don't know or haven't heard about the Air Force Medical Scholarship situation, here is the information about that:
About three months ago Jordan received an email from an Air Force Health Professions recruiter in San Antonio, his name is Sgt. Lochrie. He told him that he is automatically accepted for the medical school scholarship b/c of his good GPA and high MCAT score, which is kind of a cool thing for him b/c the AF is the hardest to get the medical school scholarship (its called the HPSP) and they only are giving out 190 this year. Jordan and I did a conference call with 2 different recruiters to get the story straight, as well as driving to San Antonio 2 different times over the Christmas break to meet with the recruiter, finish the physical exam, fill out paperwork, etc. on what all is involved, and then after much prayer and consideration, we decided to move forward with it.
Now for the details I know you really want to hear. This is basically what we get/what it is:
-ALL medical school tuition is PAID for in full by the AF (he can still go to UTMB and the military basically doesn't 'touch him' as they say or bother him the whole 4 years of school-they want him to finish so he can be useful=).
-ALL books and lab fees, school supplies are paid for
-We both get free medical insurance and any other dependents he has in the future ;) also get it
-He gets a large signing bonus paid in full starting august 2010 (which we will be saving for when we start out family-we'll definetely need it then!)
-He also gets a monthly stipend that is basically his 'salary' all 4 years he is in school. Its less than a teacher salary, but still-its WAY better than nothing.
-Every summer he will get research/rotation opportunities that last 45 days that he will get paid extra money to do.
-When he starts his residency in 4 years, he will get $10-15,000 more than a civilian will get paid and he will have a wider range of choices, and first pick before civilians get to apply.
-When he is serving as a doctor, if he is doing it for the military he won't have to pay ANY malpractice insurance or stuff like that.
What we have to do as far as 'paying them back':
After his residency,(so like in 8years) he will owe the AF 4 years of active duty service in a military hospital on a base somewhere. It might seem daunting, but it will actually give him some great opportunities to do things most people won't get to do, plus they will be paying him a LOT more money during this time, and paying a housing allowance, food, etc. so it is well worth it! Deployment, yes during these 4 years he might get deployed, but the AF is a lot better than the other branches as far as 'not deploying as much'. They also can't deploy you for more than 6 months in an 18month period. Plus in 8 years the country could be in a totally different position as far as the war goes, so who knows what kind of things will be going on, but we know its not something to worry about now.
After those 4 years are up, he can choose to stay in the military and retire, or he can go do whatever he wants.
So that is basically it. They pay for your 4 years of medical school and you give them 4 years of service when you're done with all your schooling/residency. Then you can choose to do what you want: stay in or get out.
He is thinking right now he might stay in to retire (if all goes well) b/c if you do choose a military residency, that counts towards your 20years to retirement. So say that is 4 years of residency, and then the 4 years of active duty you owe them-that's 8 years towards your retirement...if he stayed in, he would only have 12 years left to retire, plus they give you another huge bonus to stay in and finish. so its really a good deal, especially when we want to do medical missions-that would really enable us to do that!
I was very hesitant and scared about it at first (and I have been for many years actually, b/c he's brought this up for years) but now that I know everything about it and how it works, and after much prayer=) I realize it really will be a good thing for us and we are very excited.
OK-as if that isn't enough information for everyone. Obviously I don't want to bore anyone with all the
details, but I know some people want to know all the answers to questions, and know what
its all about so I wanted to lay it all out for everyone.
I will write later more about all of this obviously. But for now just wanted to write about Jordan
and in praise of what the Lord has done in our lives-he has been working towards
this for over 5 years now!
Congrats to him, I knew when I married him he would do great things for Christ!!!!
