Got into USUHS!!!

Well, it looks like all the hard work paid off. My dh got his first acceptance the other day!
We still haven't decided if USUHS is our top choice or not. I don't know how we'll ever decide if he should go military or civilian. At first we were crunching the numbers ($$) but then we realized that was dumb and that it was more important that we were choosing a lifestyle and we should be looking at that. You'd think we'd have some insights seeing as he has spent 6 years in the navy, but I think that just muddles it more.
Anyway, I don't know what I'm so stressed about- we're just deciding how the rest of our life is going to be.
AND....the decision may be out of our hands if USUHS is the only place he gets in after all!

[Auspicious]

Congratulations! That first acceptance makes all the difference, doesn't it?

It really does make all the difference! Now, at least we know that he WILL be in med school next year and we don't have to stress about a plan B.
Thanks for the congrats!

[peggyfromwastate]

Hi Steen-- Congrats to you and your husband! My DH is currently a first year at USUHS, and he really enjoys it. He got into 6 schools before he stopped interviewing, but he ended up choosing USUHS and at this point we are really comfortable with that decision, because the difficulties of military medicine are yet to come! We are in the golden years! Anyway, if you have any questions, feel free to ask! It's nice that you are already familiar with the military lifestyle, b/c then I guess you know more than some (more than I) what you're getting into! Keep us posted as to if you decide on USUHS or any other school!

[DCJenn]

Congrats!

My husband is a USUHS grad of 2000 and we're back in DC as he's doing a peds neuro fellowship at Walter Reed and Childrens.

If it helps at all, military medicine is completely UNLIKE the regular military, according to my husband who was Army enlisted (Infantry). He had several classmates who discovered the same thing after their prior service (AF, Navy and Army). So, that has it's pluses and minuses but on the whole, my husband is very happy with his choice and once the payback is done, when you factor in prior service and USUHS- he'll be ready to retire- so, don't forget to factor that in to your decision making- a pension to count on, plus NO DEBT!

Do keep us posted-

Jenn

[peggyfromwastate]

I also have to add that since your husband is prior service he'll be paid more by salary and more by BAH, even though he'll take a pay cut from his 0-3 pay now... Still, we live fine (barely within our means, but so much better than if we were in civilian) and we have 3 kids, one more on the way, I'm a SAHM, and we bought a townhouse, and my husband is paid about $600 less per month than your's would be... Plus, wouldn't your husband be just about eligible for retirement after finishing his payback from USUHS, if he were to go that route? All I know is that not having to worry about money and debts so much is really a blessing, because if I had to stress about that at this point in time, I would go insane (well, more insane than I am...)

Thanks for the replies and advice
We've looked into most of the benefits that y'all mentioned. He will be in 6 years this summer. So, he will get 6 years for pay purposes (O-1 with 6), 6 years toward retirement, and 3 years toward promotion. I think we figured out that he'd have at least 16 or 17 years in before his commitment would be up, so obviously that'd be a career. I guess that's what's making the decision so stressful....committing so much time! My kids will be grown, etc.... A huge factor for me right now is that I LOVE where I live and I really don't want to move. I know that sounds kinda petty, but this is where I'd like to raise my kids. That's just one part of the whole decision. Our time in the military has actually been pretty good (okay, not the separations ) so I'm confident that it'd be a great decision. There's just a part of us that wants to do our own thing. And then there's the part of us that knows the military and knows that the lifestyle is fine for us.

A couple Qs, Peggy: First, about bah, are you sure that as prior service we'd get more? I ask because I know there is O-1E but I thought that was just for people who had prior enlisted service. Do you know? If that is true, that's the best news I've received all year (yuk yuk yuk). Second, where'd you buy your townhome? We have been up in the area and it seems a lot of students live north of Bethesda (270?) and we were thinking we'd probably live up there. Do you know anyone who lives in housing? It all seems SO far, that it wouldn't make much sense. And I have to worry about schools too since my DD would be going to school the 2nd year. And do the public schools have pre-k? Gosh so many Qs....LOL.
THANKS!!

[DCJenn]

Thought I'd jump in here-

BAH will increase (significantly) but not because of rank but because it's so freakin' expensive here.

There isn't any housing so you are left on your own. Most people with kids live in the Rockville, Gaithersburg, Germantown area and Metro in to school whenever they can. We lived in (and returned to) SW Washington and my husband would Metro every day. He also lived in Kensington during his 3rd year.

I grew up here so I'm somewhat biased but I love DC and the DC area.

Jenn

[peggyfromwastate]

We live in a townhome in Gaithersburg, MD. My husband doesn't do well in traffic, so he takes the bus to the metro station, then takes the metro to USUHS, and the shuttle from the metro stop to USUHS. The whole trip takes him from 45 min to 1 hr. He could drive to the metro station, but then he'd have to pay $3.25 a day to park there, and that's not worth it! He gets metro farecards for free (I'm not sure, but I think that all federal employees get them? Jenn?) so this form of commuting is economical, at least! He studies on the metro, too. Anyway, many of his classmates drive, and that takes about 25 minutes in the morning (if they leave before 6:30 am) and may take 45 minutes to more in the evening, depending on accidents, weather, construction... We know people who live in Silver Spring, too. We chose Gaithersburg b/c the public schools are good, there is a low crime rate, and it's packed with townhomes and stuff, so there are lots of options as far as finding a nice place to live. We know some people who live in Germantown, which is nice, but even if they take the metro to school, they still have to deal with more traffic headaches on the drive home from the metro stop (Shady Grove stop is in Gaithersburg, red line, and it's the last one out our way...). My husband even knows someone who lives in Baltimore and commutes in every day. It just depends.

I don't know about the BAH thing. I thought from the BAH calculator that it gave more to prior service people, but I'm not sure. I'm not extraordinarily savvy with military stuff yet...

My oldest is in the public school here, and she likes it. She's doing well and I find that there are lots of programs that she enjoys, such as extra curricular art classes, extra help math classes, etc. The schools are pretty diverse. That's great for us, especially since the town we moved from was not very diverse at all... It's neat that our kids will grow up at least for a while in such an international area. The school has pre-K programs, but I haven't looked into them. From what I can tell, they are well-funded in the area of early education here in Montgomery County, and there seem to be lots of private or co-op type of preschool programs around as well.

Anyway, as far as lifestyle, I think that living here is great, but really really different from out west. We're used to lots of space between houses, towns, what have you. There's no space to spare out here! When we had to decide whether to go to U of Washington or to USUHS, (all our family lives in Washington, pretty much) we had to look at how stressful living off of financial aid and family loans would be. We also had to consider the health insurance problems in Washington state. And we also knew that we'd have to move away from home someday, because probably my husband wouldn't be offered residency at UW, and then we'd be moving far away, etc. Plus, I don't really like the town of Seattle for living in (I know lots of people are dying right now, but it's true... for me Seattle just doesn't work).

Anyway, I know this is a tough decision. Has your husband been accepted to state schools yet? Let me know if you have any other questions!

Peggy