National guard a year before medical school?

[Lollygag]

Please forgive me if this has been asked before but I couldn't find a thread that answered my specific question.

I graduate college this summer, applying to medical this summer as well and thinking of doing the NG split op. I have heard that when you are in the NG in medical school, they may be more understanding about drill weekends, and since it's difficult to take off an entire weekend while in medical school, I heard some units will allow you to skip certain drill weekends and make it up at a later time. This sounds great but also too good to be true, can anyone verify this?

Also, just out of curiosity, I heard it looks good to have military service on your application. Would it actually help my application though? Because I haven't worked out the dates yet, but I would be going to Basic Training a few days after I submit my application to be verified. I'm most likely enlisting in May.

Thanks!

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[DeadCactus]

No. Just no.

Get into medical school, then join through a medical student recruitment program or wait until you finish residency and join then.

Missing a drill weekend is the least of your concerns when your entire year of medical school get's thrown in the trash because you're pulled out for a 9 month deployment in the middle of it.

Military service looks good. Basic Training is not military service and won't impress anyone.

 

[Lollygag]

I've researched it heavily and weighed the pros and cons I honestly just don't feel like explaining my whole situation because it's long and boring. There are millions of reasons why I can't do HPSP FAP or USUHS. I just want to serve my country so if I can find a way to do that then I am going to but I appreciate your response.

So if anyone does have insight about the drill weekends please let me know!

 

[militaryman]

If you are not in the military as a medical student officer you are not likely to be granted flex training options. If you are joining as an enlisted soldier you will be expected to be at most drills and annual training and any deployments. Of course commanders can excuse you but I would not rely on it. If you are thinking about joining the military I would wait until you get accepted into medical school and than appoint as a 2LT Medical Student Officer. You do not have to take FAP or MDSSP as a medical student officer.

 

[notdeadyet]

Lollygag: joining the Reserve or Guard prior to med school with the intention of medical school would be extremely risky and of dubious benefit. What is your motivation for doing so?

Are you looking to improve your application? This would likely hurt as much or more than help. Admins at med schools will be divided into two basic camps: those that know something of the military and those that don't. Those that do will realize that if all you've done is signed on the line and possibly gone to basic, you haven't really done all that much other than show you don't have flat feet and passed a pi$$ test. Those that don't will worry that you can be deployed during medical school, in which they'll lose a tuition paying seat and be forced to take you back 1-2 years later and go to great efforts to do so. In fact, those that do will also have that fear.

Are you legitimately interested in serving? If that's the case, you need to ask what is more important to you: being a soldier or becoming a physician. If you're interested in just being a soldier, go ahead and sign. If you're really motivated to become a doctor, joining a year before med school is a bad idea and I'll explain why.

If you join before becoming a medical student, you will get essentially MOS qualified or essentially certified to do a certain job. This will likely occur before starting medical school. Once you start medical school, you can continue serving in this capacity and you will have duties and responsibilities to your unit. You can't just not show for drill because you have a very specific job. This will make medical school more challenging than it needs to be.

You can always request to have your status changed from your qualification to medical student, but there is no incentive for your command to do that. You can go to medical school and still occupy your specialty. The only difference is that by changing you to medical student MOS, you now have certain protection and serve no function to your unit. Why would they want that?

And if you do not change your status, you are DEPLOYABLE. If you get picked up for a deployment, you will get yanked out of medical school. Your graduation date for medical school will be pushed back 1 year (if it's a very short deployment and nicely timed) or 2 years. Your administration will possibly not be thrilled at the prospect of making special allowances to take you back (though they will be required to by law).

The smarter choice is to wait until you have been accepted to medical school and start the process of joining as a medical student. You will have the option of Flexi-Training in which you can drill as little as every other month to accommodate your medical school schedule. This is made easier by the fact that you do not have a role with responsibilities in your unit so you can duck out when you have a final or somesuch without it impacting your unit in any significant way.

If this at all unclear, feel free to fire back more questions...

 

[Lollygag]

Lollygag: joining the Reserve or Guard prior to med school with the intention of medical school would be extremely risky and of dubious benefit. What is your motivation for doing so?

Are you looking to improve your application? This would likely hurt as much or more than help. Admins at med schools will be divided into two basic camps: those that know something of the military and those that don't. Those that do will realize that if all you've done is signed on the line and possibly gone to basic, you haven't really done all that much other than show you don't have flat feet and passed a pi$$ test. Those that don't will worry that you can be deployed during medical school, in which they'll lose a tuition paying seat and be forced to take you back 1-2 years later and go to great efforts to do so. In fact, those that do will also have that fear.

Are you legitimately interested in serving? If that's the case, you need to ask what is more important to you: being a soldier or becoming a physician. If you're interested in just being a soldier, go ahead and sign. If you're really motivated to become a doctor, joining a year before med school is a bad idea and I'll explain why.

If you join before becoming a medical student, you will get essentially MOS qualified or essentially certified to do a certain job. This will likely occur before starting medical school. Once you start medical school, you can continue serving in this capacity and you will have duties and responsibilities to your unit. You can't just not show for drill because you have a very specific job. This will make medical school more challenging than it needs to be.

You can always request to have your status changed from your qualification to medical student, but there is no incentive for your command to do that. You can go to medical school and still occupy your specialty. The only difference is that by changing you to medical student MOS, you now have certain protection and serve no function to your unit. Why would they want that?

And if you do not change your status, you are DEPLOYABLE. If you get picked up for a deployment, you will get yanked out of medical school. Your graduation date for medical school will be pushed back 1 year (if it's a very short deployment and nicely timed) or 2 years. Your administration will possibly not be thrilled at the prospect of making special allowances to take you back (though they will be required to by law).

The smarter choice is to wait until you have been accepted to medical school and start the process of joining as a medical student. You will have the option of Flexi-Training in which you can drill as little as every other month to accommodate your medical school schedule. This is made easier by the fact that you do not have a role with responsibilities in your unit so you can duck out when you have a final or somesuch without it impacting your unit in any significant way.

If this at all unclear, feel free to fire back more questions...

I've never heard of Flexi-Training/joining NG after being accepted to medical school? Why isn't this option ever talked about the way HPSP and USUHS are because it sounds a little too good to be true. If I had heard about it I would definitely try to go that route but I've have really never heard about this before and I've been researching military medicine heavily.

Because at the end of the day I want to be a doctor man than I want to be in the military. It's just that my recruiter and other people I talked to who have served made it seem like being deployed isn't common and if it is it would be for maybe 2 weeks which during medical would suck but it seems doable. I know I've never been through medical school and yes leaving for 2 weeks sucks but stuff happens and I don't understand why missing 2 weeks would push me a full year back. They also said that I would be under a status that I'm not deployable while in medical school but I guess that's not right. Is this something that would definitely be true of the NG across all states?

 

[Lollygag]

And just one more question! What if I live in Georgia but I want to go to med school in New York? I would join the New York NG?

 

[The Beyonder]

Lollygag: joining the Reserve or Guard prior to med school with the intention of medical school would be extremely risky and of dubious benefit. What is your motivation for doing so?

Are you looking to improve your application? This would likely hurt as much or more than help. Admins at med schools will be divided into two basic camps: those that know something of the military and those that don't. Those that do will realize that if all you've done is signed on the line and possibly gone to basic, you haven't really done all that much other than show you don't have flat feet and passed a pi$$ test. Those that don't will worry that you can be deployed during medical school, in which they'll lose a tuition paying seat and be forced to take you back 1-2 years later and go to great efforts to do so. In fact, those that do will also have that fear.

Are you legitimately interested in serving? If that's the case, you need to ask what is more important to you: being a soldier or becoming a physician. If you're interested in just being a soldier, go ahead and sign. If you're really motivated to become a doctor, joining a year before med school is a bad idea and I'll explain why.

If you join before becoming a medical student, you will get essentially MOS qualified or essentially certified to do a certain job. This will likely occur before starting medical school. Once you start medical school, you can continue serving in this capacity and you will have duties and responsibilities to your unit. You can't just not show for drill because you have a very specific job. This will make medical school more challenging than it needs to be.

You can always request to have your status changed from your qualification to medical student, but there is no incentive for your command to do that. You can go to medical school and still occupy your specialty. The only difference is that by changing you to medical student MOS, you now have certain protection and serve no function to your unit. Why would they want that?

And if you do not change your status, you are DEPLOYABLE. If you get picked up for a deployment, you will get yanked out of medical school. Your graduation date for medical school will be pushed back 1 year (if it's a very short deployment and nicely timed) or 2 years. Your administration will possibly not be thrilled at the prospect of making special allowances to take you back (though they will be required to by law).

The smarter choice is to wait until you have been accepted to medical school and start the process of joining as a medical student. You will have the option of Flexi-Training in which you can drill as little as every other month to accommodate your medical school schedule. This is made easier by the fact that you do not have a role with responsibilities in your unit so you can duck out when you have a final or somesuch without it impacting your unit in any significant way.

If this at all unclear, feel free to fire back more questions...

I would also like more info about joining as a med student. What is the process? What is the commitment? What are your responsibilities?

 

[NavyCy]

If you want to be a doctor more than you want to be in the military there are plenty of ways to do that. If you decide you want to join the military later, there are plenty of ways to do that too, but you have to make a decision what you want to do. If you aren't totally sold on the military then do something else until you decide what you want to do. You'll have plenty of options to change you mind in the future.

Good luck. I hope that I'm clearly explaining why I think this is a poor option for medical school, but if I'm not, please let me know.

 

[NavyCy]

I would also like more info about joining as a med student. What is the process? What is the commitment? What are your responsibilities?

Beyonder, are you talking about USUHS, HPSP/HSCP or National Guard? What service are you interested in? What is your ultimate goal? Let us know and I'm sure we can help you.

 

[The Beyonder]

Beyonder, are you talking about USUHS, HPSP/HSCP or National Guard? What service are you interested in? What is your ultimate goal? Let us know and I'm sure we can help you.

None of those programs. Like notdead said, there is some program that allows med students to serve, while allowing med school to be their top priority. I am prior service and I would like to serve without deployments or shifting my attention to far from medical school.

 

[NavyCy]

None of those programs. Like notdead said, there is some program that allows med students to serve, while allowing med school to be their top priority. I am prior service and I would like to serve without deployments or shifting my attention to far from medical school.

USUHS, HPSP and HSCP (for Navy) all allow you to focus on medical school. None of these programs is deployable. I'll leave the NG program to someone else. Maybe notdeadyet knows something I don't.

USUHS is active duty, you get 4 years of credit toward retirement after you reach retirement eligibility (20 years), you get a salary and you owe 7 years after medical school not counting residency. Tuition and books are all taken care of by the military.

HPSP is IRR. You are not deployable. Truth be told, I'm not sure the Navy even knows I exist sometimes. I didn't have any communication with them my first two years outside of submitting a couple of reimbursement forms. You get a stipend, but no salary. In return, your tuition is paid for by the military. After med school you owe 4 years not counting residency.

HSCP is similar to HPSP except you are AD, draw the salary of an E-6 and are responsible for paying your own tuition out of your salary. If you happen to be an in-state student or your tuition is cheap it might work out better financially than HPSP. You'll have to do the math for your own particular school and situation. HSCP students have to do the PFT two times a year and have intermittent meetings with their assigned unit (usually a nearby ROTC unit) but really don't have a lot of connection or responsibilities outside of medical school. The trade off is that the 4 years in med school count toward retirement after you reach 20 years, just like USUHS. You would owe 4 years after med school, not counting residency.

Let me know what other questions you have. I was prior service also, as are a number of others here, so we've all be where you are.

 

[notdeadyet]

I've never heard of Flexi-Training/joining NG after being accepted to medical school?

Yes, flexi-training is the policy to allow folks in medical school (who are occupying medical student slots) a way to drill less frequently to accommodate their schedules.

Why isn't this option ever talked about the way HPSP and USUHS are because it sounds a little too good to be true.

Because the National Guard doesn't pay your tuition. You get drill pay as a medical student (a few to several hundred bucks per weekend). Or you can go on a program like MDSSP or STRAP in which you get $2K/month but with an extended obligation.

It's just that my recruiter and other people I talked to who have served made it seem like being deployed isn't common and if it is it would be for maybe 2 weeks which during medical would suck but it seems doable.

When you're in the Guard or Reserve, you typically serve one weekend per month plus 2 weeks per year for annual training. On Flexi-Training orders in a med student slot, you can waive that every other year to accommodate your schedule. You are protected from deployment as a medical student in a medical student slot.

Notice the frequency with which I say "in a medical student slot"? It's because if you join the National Guard NOT in a medical student slot (and get qualified in some field), they may NOT put you in that slot when you start medical school. If you're not in a medical student slot, you are not on flexi-training schedule and you are not protected from deployment.

I know I've never been through medical school and yes leaving for 2 weeks sucks but stuff happens and I don't understand why missing 2 weeks would push me a full year back.

If you get deployed, it can be for a year or so, and depending on when that deployment happens during your medical school schedule, it could set you back two years while you wait for the calendars to align. It depends on your school, its schedule, and its curriculum.

They also said that I would be under a status that I'm not deployable while in medical school but I guess that's not right.

If you join as a medical student in a medical student slot, you are protected from deployment.

 

[notdeadyet]

I would also like more info about joining as a med student. What is the process? What is the commitment? What are your responsibilities?

You have two options for joining as a medical student: you can take incentives or not take incentives.

If you do not take incentives, you receive drill pay, from a few to several hundred dollars per weekend (it depends on your marital status, if you're prior service, and the zip code of your school). When you join, you will have a six year drilling commitment.

If you do take the incentives, you can take MDSSP in medical school in which you are paid $2K/month and owe 1 year of drilling for every 6 months of benefits. This obligation is paid back after you finish residency. You can take STRAP in residency, $2K/month and 1 year of drilling for every 6 months of benefits. If you take both, the MDSSP is instead a 1 year:1 year obligation and starts to be paid back during residency.

For either path, you are protected from deployment while in med school and residency. Your responsibilities vary by location and unit. As a medical student, you tend to have minimal responsibilities, as you can not be depended on to attend every drill. As a resident, once you receive your license, you do a lot more work. The nature of that depends mostly on your specialty.

 

[notdeadyet]

If you join the NG in NY, you will be expected to be available in NY for drill. Do you plan to go home to Georgia over the summer? If so, you'll have to go back to NY on your break to make drill. Same problem arises if you join the Georgia NG except now you're going to have to figure out how to get back to Georgia every month.

No one does this. You just do an interstate transfer when you get in to medical school. I don't know anyone who moves back in with their parents over the summer between MS1 and MS2. If you did, you could SUTA for a couple months, I guess.

Not to mention, the weekend during medical school is often your sole chance to try and semi catch up with the work/studying that you didn't do during the week. Lose it and you just fall farther behind, and behind is a very bad place to be. Even if you can get out

Well, as someone who drilled for most of med school, it's not that big a deal if you're on Flexi-Training. For most folks I know who are med students, they aren't getting killed every weekend. The challenge is you don't know WHICH weekends you'll be getting killed. That's why Flexi-Training is nice. When drill weekend is on a quiet weekend, it's not a problem. And when it's on the weekend before a final or somesuch, you can bow out.

National Guard duty as a medical student is about as time consuming as a low-obligation hobby. With even a modicum of time management attempts, it can be done without negatively impacting your performance in school.

I don't think you understand the amount of information that you will get in medical school. If you miss two weeks you will not catch up. If you happen to be in a program that goes by organ system, you might as well plan on repeating that course the next summer. If you happen to be in a program that is still operating on a quarter/semester system with multiple classes per semester, you can forget all of those classes. If you can't make all of those courses up during a summer break, you could very well be held back a year to join the next class and repeat the quarter/semester that you missed. It happened to multiple people in my class and they weren't scheduling in missed time like you would be doing.

You do not do two week AITs if they interfere with medical school schedule. Some folks have done them between MS1 and MS2. Some folks have done them during MS4 year. Some folks get them waived and don't do them at all.

I have not heard of anyone who had gotten into academic problems due to a difficult Guard/Reserve schedule as a med student. I went to school with 5 Guardsmen and none of us had issues. I think you might be over-reacting a bit to the difficulty of the obligation.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm not sure you (or the OP) have a good grasp of what the obligation is or how it's handled. You might be a bit out of your lane here.

 

[NavyCy]

Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm not sure you (or the OP) have a good grasp of what the obligation is or how it's handled. You might be a bit out of your lane here.

No offense taken at all. I am familiar with a regular guard schedule, but not with the flex option. Thanks for the info. I'm sorry is I confused anybody. So OP, discount my thoughts and listen to Notdeadyet. I've corrected my previous posts and as Notdeadyet advised I'll "stay in my lane."

 

[notdeadyet]

No offense taken at all. I am familiar with a regular guard schedule, but not with the flex option. Thanks for the info. I'm sorry is I confused anybody.

No worries, NavyCy. There is a lot of bad information about how it works being a doc in the Guard or Reserve (much of it sadly coming from Guard and Reserve recruiters), so I try to chime in as much as possible to keep it real. It's confusing and often conflicting stuff.

 

[The Beyonder]

You have two options for joining as a medical student: you can take incentives or not take incentives.

If you do not take incentives, you receive drill pay, from a few to several hundred dollars per weekend (it depends on your marital status, if you're prior service, and the zip code of your school). When you join, you will have a six year drilling commitment.

If you do take the incentives, you can take MDSSP in medical school in which you are paid $2K/month and owe 1 year of drilling for every 6 months of benefits. This obligation is paid back after you finish residency. You can take STRAP in residency, $2K/month and 1 year of drilling for every 6 months of benefits. If you take both, the MDSSP is instead a 1 year:1 year obligation and starts to be paid back during residency.

For either path, you are protected from deployment while in med school and residency. Your responsibilities vary by location and unit. As a medical student, you tend to have minimal responsibilities, as you can not be depended on to attend every drill. As a resident, once you receive your license, you do a lot more work. The nature of that depends mostly on your specialty.

With the no incentive option, how hard would it be to drill during residency? What is the process to get the ball rolling? What are your impressions of the program?

 

[lp430]

I'm not trying to hijack the thread here, but could someone clarify something for me? Being classified as a med student within the ARNG means you are non-deployable and have the flexi-train policy to use, correct? Are you still paying off your MSO while being non-deployable?

 

[notdeadyet]

With the no incentive option, how hard would it be to drill during residency?

Whether you are incentive option or no incentive option really has no impact on your drill. When you join as a medical student, you hold a medical student slot, which doesn't really confer you with the ability to do much, particularly as you're not at drill as dependably as the others in your unit. Your actual drill duties vary by state and unit.

What is the process to get the ball rolling?

You can call 800-GO-GUARD and ask for your state's AMEDD Officer Recruiter. Or let me know what state you are and I might be able to help point you in the right direction.

What are your impressions of the program?

90% of the time its great and I'm happy I'm doing it, particularly once I received my medical license and had more responsibility. The other 10% of the time falls on inconvenient weekends that I wish I had off. I have enjoyed my time with the Guard and am happy with my decision, but I'm also very unentitled, flexible, and don't mind hardwork.

 

[notdeadyet]

I'm not trying to hijack the thread here, but could someone clarify something for me? Being classified as a med student within the ARNG means you are non-deployable and have the flexi-train policy to use, correct?

Correct. Keep in mind that flexi-training is a POLICY, which means it technically can be changed. In fact, flexi-training used to allow folks to drill as little as once q3 months but this was changed to once q2 months. It is also up to the discretion of your CO.

Are you still paying off your MSO while being non-deployable?

Yes. You start paying back your basic MSO as soon as you raise your hand and swear in.

 

[The Beyonder]

Whether you are incentive option or no incentive option really has no impact on your drill. When you join as a medical student, you hold a medical student slot, which doesn't really confer you with the ability to do much, particularly as you're not at drill as dependably as the others in your unit. Your actual drill duties vary by state and unit.

You can call 800-GO-GUARD and ask for your state's AMEDD Officer Recruiter. Or let me know what state you are and I might be able to help point you in the right direction.

90% of the time its great and I'm happy I'm doing it, particularly once I received my medical license and had more responsibility. The other 10% of the time falls on inconvenient weekends that I wish I had off. I have enjoyed my time with the Guard and am happy with my decision, but I'm also very unentitled, flexible, and don't mind hardwork.

Does it affect your residency choice? What happens if you have to move because of residency?

 

[notdeadyet]

Does it affect your residency choice? What happens if you have to move because of residency?

If you go into a residency the Guard does not have a need for (radiology, anesthesiology, pathology all come to mine), you will have to transfer to the Army Reserve.

If you go into a needed specialty and transfer to another state, you do an IST (Inter State Transfer) to an open slot in your new state. I have not heard of states turning away a transfer request for an incoming physician.

Why do you want to join?

 

[The Beyonder]

If you go into a residency the Guard does not have a need for (radiology, anesthesiology, pathology all come to mine), you will have to transfer to the Army Reserve.

If you go into a needed specialty and transfer to another state, you do an IST (Inter State Transfer) to an open slot in your new state. I have not heard of states turning away a transfer request for an incoming physician.

Why do you want to join?

Prior service, most of my friends are current or prior service. I like soldiers and would like to serve again without hurting my career prospects. One last question, what are the costs of taking the incentive? Do you think it's worth it?

 

[notdeadyet]

Prior service, most of my friends are current or prior service. I like soldiers and would like to serve again without hurting my career prospects. One last question, what are the costs of taking the incentive? Do you think it's worth it?

Which incentives are you thinking of? I listed a slew of them in the post above.

 

[The Beyonder]

Which incentives are you thinking of? I listed a slew of them in the post above.

MDSSP and STRAP, I have lurked the military medicine threads for a while. I know you went in under some kind of recruiter program that is no longer offered (lucky you). I just wanted your opinion on MDSSP and STRAP. 20k a year in school for two years of service does not sound like the best deal to me. I wanted an alternate opinion.

 

[notdeadyet]

MDSSP and STRAP, I have lurked the military medicine threads for a while. I know you went in under some kind of recruiter program that is no longer offered (lucky you). I just wanted your opinion on MDSSP and STRAP. 20k a year in school for two years of service does not sound like the best deal to me. I wanted an alternate opinion.

If you do MDSSP alone ($2k/month during medical school), you incur a 2:1 obligation. 2 years of drilling status post-residency for every year of benefits taken. The payback occurs immediately after residency.

If you do STRAP alone ($2K/month during residency), you incur a 2:1 obligation. 2 years of drilling status post-residency for every year of benefits taken. The payback occurs immediately after residency.

If you do BOTH MDSSP and STRAP ($2K/month during medical school and residency), you incur a 1:1 obligation for your MDSSP time, which is paid back immediately after medical school. You still incur a 2:1 obligation for your STRAP time.

The "payback" by definition is drilling status, no longer in flexi-training (in other words, you now need to drill monthly plus the 2 weeks of AT each year) and in deployable status.

Make sense?

 

[The Beyonder]

If you do MDSSP alone ($2k/month during medical school), you incur a 2:1 obligation. 2 years of drilling status post-residency for every year of benefits taken. The payback occurs immediately after residency.

If you do STRAP alone ($2K/month during residency), you incur a 2:1 obligation. 2 years of drilling status post-residency for every year of benefits taken. The payback occurs immediately after residency.

If you do BOTH MDSSP and STRAP ($2K/month during medical school and residency), you incur a 1:1 obligation for your MDSSP time, which is paid back immediately after medical school. You still incur a 2:1 obligation for your STRAP time.

The "payback" by definition is drilling status, no longer in flexi-training (in other words, you now need to drill monthly plus the 2 weeks of AT each year) and in deployable status.

Make sense?

Yeah, thanks for the info?

 

[kallen]

You have two options for joining as a medical student: you can take incentives or not take incentives.

If you do not take incentives, you receive drill pay, from a few to several hundred dollars per weekend (it depends on your marital status, if you're prior service, and the zip code of your school). When you join, you will have a six year drilling commitment.

***

For either path, you are protected from deployment while in med school and residency. Your responsibilities vary by location and unit. As a medical student, you tend to have minimal responsibilities, as you can not be depended on to attend every drill. As a resident, once you receive your license, you do a lot more work. The nature of that depends mostly on your specialty.

The Guard site mentions a commitment consisting of a 3 year drilling obligation, coupled with 5 years on IRR. Is that available for med student slots, or do you have to commit to at least 6 years drilling to get the med student slot? I'm thinking, as a more flexible alternative to MDSSP, 3 years drilling in med school in a med school slot but with no incentives, then 5 years IRR while in residency, then, if I want to continue, special pay for signing up for 1-3 more years drilling.I understand there is possible call up while on IRR.

 

[notdeadyet]

The Guard site mentions a commitment consisting of a 3 year drilling obligation, coupled with 5 years on IRR. Is that available for med student slots, or do you have to commit to at least 6 years drilling to get the med student slot?

I have heard of 3 year enlistments, but I have never heard of anything less than a 6 year drilling obligation for officers, and all med student and doctor slots are officer. You will need to sign up for a six year hitch, and part of that will be as a doc in residency, even if you don't take bonuses.

 

[Iron Man]

If you go into a residency the Guard does not have a need for (radiology, anesthesiology, pathology all come to mine), you will have to transfer to the Army Reserve.

I'm a first year medical student considering MDSSP through ARNG. Right now I have no idea what specialty I want to go into, so the idea of transferring to the Army Reserve concerns me. How does your MDSSP service obligation/payback change when transferred to the Army Reserve? Would I still be required to drill 1 weekend/mo, 2 weeks/year, or is the service obligation completely different at that point?

Also, how do I know if my specialty choice serves a need in the ARNG? Does the need change year to year?

Any thoughts?

 

[notdeadyet]

I'm a first year medical student considering MDSSP through ARNG. Right now I have no idea what specialty I want to go into, so the idea of transferring to the Army Reserve concerns me.

If you go into the Guard with your sights set on any subspecialty (or the potential for a subspecialty to be on your radar), you need to be comfortable for a transfer to the Army Reserve.

Some years ago, the decision was made for the National Guard AMEDD to no longer follow the model of setting up CSHs. This was transitioned to the Army Reserve. This is why in the National Guard you find surprisingly few slots for techs, nurses, anesthesiologists, radiologists, etc. The National Guard instead focuses on frontline combat support. Lots of generalists is the emphasis.

How does your MDSSP service obligation/payback change when transferred to the Army Reserve? Would I still be required to drill 1 weekend/mo, 2 weeks/year, or is the service obligation completely different at that point?

Your obligation from ARNG transfers directly to a Reserve commitment. The programs you're most likely interested in (flexi-training and 90 days boots-on-ground) are the same for ARNG and Army Reserve. When big army makes policies for the Reserve Corps (ARNG + Army Reserve), it tends not to differentiate between the two branches of RC. This could change, but I wouldn't sweat it too much.

Also, how do I know if my specialty choice serves a need in the ARNG? Does the need change year to year?

You basically have two issues to deal with: A) does the National Guard need my specialty and B) does my state have a slot for my specialty.

A tends not to change very much. If you ask your recruiter for the list of critical warfare specialties as shown across branches (s/he should have this), you'll see that there aren't slots for radiologists and the like in the National Guard, but are in the AR.

For B, there are lots of slots for internists, family practice, psychiatrists, etc. Also, the big distinction is that if you go into a subspecialty but are willing to function in a non-specialist capacity (e.g.: a cardiologist willing to function as a general internist), you can stay in the Guard and fill that role. Any other subspecialty role is extremely hard to find, if not impossible. I'm in a very big state with a big need for docs, and almost all slots for non-psychiatrists are Battalion/Brigade Surgeons. If you're looking to do a subspecialist role at a Level III, you would likely be better served by the Reserve.

Hope this helps and/or makes sense...

 

[pre-med444]

If you take mdssp and strap can you still qualify for the loan repayment (hplrp) and bonuses (special pay program)? Thanks.

 

[longdukdong]

Thanks, everyone.

 

[studocplsignore]

Bump.

So the wise thing to do would be to join once I'm actually in med school. But what if I fully intend to apply during the 2015 cycle and matriculate in fall 2016 (already have a bachelor's, taken the MCAT, and done everything else short of clicking the submit button in AMCAS)? Does the situation change much at all? Without a med student MOS, I guess I would run a greater risk of deployment between now and then and before/during interview season or the first day of school.

hmm...

Long story short, do not join until you have an acceptance in your hand and you are joining as an 00E67 (undeployable medical student). There is literally no other reason to join unless you want to **** yourself.

 

[notdeadyet]

Long story short, do not join until you have an acceptance in your hand and you are joining as an 00E67 (undeployable medical student). There is literally no other reason to join unless you want to **** yourself.

This. But would amend to saying do not actually APPLY until you have an acceptance in hand then join when you've matriculated.