my recruiter told me the same thing (i'm wondering if we have the same recruiter)....
but anyways, i was told before applying that because i have a 4 year acceptance- i could apply for the air force. however, if i get into UOP i could try and convert it into a 3 year scholarship... but this is so extremely confusing because to my knowledge, the 3 year scholarship are taken by 1st year dental students.
however, when i went to UOP, the financial aid person told us that there are a handful of students in the UOP class that have scholarships....
i'm so lost!
and when i had my interview with the air force dentist, he told me that there are more 3-year scholarships than 4-year scholarships? and people who aren't offered 4-year scholarships will be offered 3-year scholarships?
can i get some clarification please???
There are significantly more 3-year scholarships than 4 year. If you are applying for a 4-year scholarship, you need acceptance to a 4-year school. If you are going to UOP (a 3-year school), you need to apply for a 3-year scholarship.
Hey, I know this is a little late for some of you guys, but I hope I can try to clarify a few things on here about the AF HPSP and UOP. Im currently nearing the end of my 2nd year at UOP and I was granted the HPSP scholarship right out of undergrad like many of you are asking about.
There is one other AF guy in the class above me, an army and navy student in my class, and a few more in the other classes as well.
How it worked for me 2 years ago (not sure if it's changed since then, AFDDS may have the more recent protocols) was complicated. It took a lot of phone calls and a lot of pushing to finally get a recruiter that wanted to work for me. You have to remember that some of the recruiters (not all) don't know how it all works and sometimes only know the answers that are in the book given to them...I don't think there is a special chapter on UOP, so this situation is most likely not in the book. I went to Undergrad in the midwest so the recruiter had no experiece at all with UOP. What helped me some was to contact the recruiter in the San Francisco area who had a lot more experience with UOP and was able to get the ball rolling. Ultimately I had to transfer back to the recruiter in the midwest to sign all the paperwork, etc., but getting it started in SF i think helped.
The final realization was that to apply for the 4-year scholarship, it doesn't matter where your acceptance letter is from, as long as you have one. It can be from UOP, a 4-year school, 3-year, doesn't matter, it is only a prerequisite so they know you are in somewhere. Once they decide to give you the scholarship, then you decide where you want to apply it.
In my case, I both sent in a UOP acceptance, and applied it there. I double checked my paperwork and double checked again to make sure it said a 3-year scholarship with a 3-year payback. That is exactly what it said. They essentially took a 4-year scholarship and changed the numbers.
The problem with applying for a 3-year scholarship is that it was essentially impossible. A prerequisite for the 3-year scholarship is either a letter of good standing from you current dental school or an acceptance letter from the dental school. Neither of which is possible since the board for the 3 year scholarships meets in November and acceptance letters are not allowed to go out until December 1.
Unless something has changed, for UOP, which is a very expensive school and is nice to have it paid for, the way it worked for me was to apply for a 4-year and they switched it.
If you have any questions, im happy to answer them. Hope this clarifies a few things.