Susannah
Any health professional student who has been through the Junior COSTEP process willing to answer my questions about certain parts of the application?
Hello,
I am a pharmacy student interested in doing the Junior COSTEP program with the Public Health Service. I just started the application, but I am confused and struggling to fill-out some parts. I have emailed AES and COSTEP but have yet to hear anything. Does anyone mind if I ask them questions or willing to answer to the best of your abilities?
Here are my questions:
1. For education, do we complete state the colleges, universities, or institutions we have attended/ attending? It seems to have a character limit which is odd?
2. Also, for semester credits, do we put all the credits earned if we completed a program? Idk how to go about this sections, I wish there was examples to reference too.
3. Will my references have to send me their completed PHS-1813 form to submit or will they submit it on their own?
4. Should I have a physician or any provider fill-out my medical form or is it okay if I fill it myself? Please elaborate which parts DD 2807-2 form I should fill-in and what parts my provider must do.
Any suggestions, advice, or solutions are appreciated!
2 answers
Wala'a B
Wala'a’s Answer
I hope you are doing great!
I will gladly help you to the best of my ability. I'd recommend editing your inquiry with the questions you have so that anyone who is available to help and is knowledgeable about the subject would be able to answer in record time. This way, anyone who knows the answers can get back to you quickly.
Let us know,
Wala'a
Thanks, Wala'a! I will edit my inquiry.
Susannah
Michelle M.
Michelle’s Answer
I would be happy to advise you on this, however, it is never helpful to ask anyone except the representative of the place you're applying to how to complete their forms. That being said, some of your questions seem routine and I hope that my advice can help, but you really need to ask about the application requirements by calling a representative at the Junior Commissioned Officer Student Training and Extern Program. Call them if they do not respond to an e-mail.
Yes, many applications have boxes and sometimes the words do not all fit in the boxes provided. You will have to abbreviate the best you can the names of all the schools, colleges, etc. that you've attended. Read the places' websites to see what the accepted abbreviations are. For example, say that you're attending the Georgia Institute of Technology and there are not enough boxes to spell out the whole name. You can put Georgia Inst of Tech. Find a way to abbreviate it if there isn't enough space and spell it out if there's enough room.
Since you are a pharmacy student already in college, you will need to state how many credits YOU HAVE ALREADY COMPLETED. Not the ones you haven't completed. Only the ones that appear on any college transcript already. Are they asking for high school credits ? I assume you mean college credits. If it's your first semester and you do not have any completed credit from the academic level they are asking for, put "0". Do not put any credits that have not been given to you yet, just the ones you took in the past.
Regarding the PHS-1813 form, most applications do include instructions, however, tell your references to complete the form and give it back to you completed. Hold on to those completed forms because everything most likely will be needed to be submitted together at the same time. That's how it is with applications that require additional documentation.
For the DD 2807-2 form, it says right on the instructions that you complete Section one, questions 1 to 11 and include 4a, 4b and if you're ASAF 8a or if you are Reserve then fill in 8b.
Those are the questions you've asked. After actually seeing the application instructions, my experienced eye can say this is indeed a very intricate and intense application. The url for the instructions in pdf form is way too long to paste here. My advice ? Bring the application to someone at your on campus Career Center so they can assist you in person. The questions you've asked here are more technical but you will need to understand all of the sections of the application and there are a lot. If you can take the application to someone in person, that would be the best place to go for assistance with this.
For what it's worth, I hope this was a little help and I wish you all the best moving forward !
Thank you Michelle! I appreciate you taking the time to answer this. Unfortunately, I am unable to find a number to call, but I never thought of contacting my school's Career center. I will try to get in contact with them right away.
Susannah
You are very welcome, Susannah !
Michelle M.