Anyone with advice on deferring Army residency?

[Fisk72]

I am a fourth year ARMY HPSP student interested in Ortho. I am wondering if I should try deferring residency (I will be competitive at some good programs and would love to stay near my home state). I have completed some ADT’s, and I generally liked the programs. I could be happy at several of the Army locations. However, on one of my interviews, an Army doc actually suggested that I apply for a deferral because, while the Army programs provide great training, the civilian programs may have better “name recognition” for future fellowships etc. My goal, like almost every applicant, is to get into the best possible program (both in terms of training and “name”). If I could stick around my home program, that would be icing on the cake. That being said, I would be fine going away to TAMC, MAMC, Brooke, etc. These are my specific questions:

• What is the deferral based upon? I have no small kids, dying relatives, etc. that tie me down at this point.

• Does applying for deferral hurt your Army application? If I apply but do not get a deferral, I would hate to hurt my application. I have a strong opinion about some of the programs and would not want to get the bottom of my Army rank list.

• What effect, if any, does an Army residency have on your ability to pursue academic medicine and/or fellowship after your commitment is complete.

I appreciate any and all advice, and I would also love to hear your thoughts on the strengths/weaknesses of the Army programs.

Thanks.

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[delicatefade]

I can't speak for ortho, but I was on an ADT this year and after talking to one of the residents I don't think anyone has any idea what they use to make their deferral list. This guy was a good student, had outstanding board scores, and had landed interviews at top civilian programs. He did an ADT, performed well, and flat out told them he wanted a deferral and was pretty much a shoo in at some top programs. You would think the military would want someone like that who would train at a top program and then return for an Army obligation. He didn't get the deferrment. But he knew people who did not do any military rotations, and after they had ranked their specialty goal and programs, got phone calls from military programs wanting to interview them. They didn't return the phone calls. And they got the deferrals. Go figure.