National Guard to pay for pre-meds??

[Daniel312]

Hey yall... I'm still in my undergrad- but I'm considering joining the National Guard as enlisted to help pay for my undergrad... now, I know this would be a 6 year commitment... and I'd still be enlisted duty even thur med school... has anyone done this? Do you know if they are willing to relocate you to where your med school is at? I was looking at taking a medicine job (medical specialist, laboratory specialist) or what have you also in hopes of boosting my chances at getting into med school.

Thanks,
dan

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[MaximusD]

Hey yall... I'm still in my undergrad- but I'm considering joining the National Guard as enlisted to help pay for my undergrad... now, I know this would be a 6 year commitment... and I'd still be enlisted duty even thur med school... has anyone done this? Do you know if they are willing to relocate you to where your med school is at? I was looking at taking a medicine job (medical specialist, laboratory specialist) or what have you also in hopes of boosting my chances at getting into med school.

Thanks,
dan

Ask the following: Is there a possibility of me being deployed during medical school? If the answer is yes, look elsewhere.

 

[solumanculver]

Hey yall... I'm still in my undergrad- but I'm considering joining the National Guard as enlisted to help pay for my undergrad... now, I know this would be a 6 year commitment... and I'd still be enlisted duty even thur med school... has anyone done this? Do you know if they are willing to relocate you to where your med school is at? I was looking at taking a medicine job (medical specialist, laboratory specialist) or what have you also in hopes of boosting my chances at getting into med school.

Thanks,
dan

Hi,
If you want to be non-deployable during medical school, you have to be a commissioned officer in the medical service corps. The program is called MS-to-MC.

If this is what you want to do, join your army ROTC at your college. Sign an ROTC contract and request a GRFD number. That means guaranteed reserve forces duty... Once you have a GRFD number, contact your regional national guard medical recruiter and tell them that you're planning on going to medical school... You're not going to get into the program until you have a medical school acceptance, but when you get one send it to them. Once you have a medical school acceptance you will be guaranteed to branch med service, and you'll go directly into MS-to-MC.

When you're MS-to-MC you skip BOLIC (not sure how to write that... BOLC?) and go straight to the MC OBC.

You're technically non-deployable until you've finished your internship, but since you're drilling while you're in medical school you're obligation is counting down. If you want, you can have the guard pay for medical school as well, but it gives you something like a 12-year obligation, so I don't recommend it.

The reason that you'll be non-deployable has to do with your MOS identifier... technically you're not fully trained as an MS-to-MC officer until you've finished medical school and internship, so the army can't legally deploy you unless they manage to change your MOS... they could probably do that, but it seems pretty hard to do without your consent, unless you do something bad, like fail out of medical school or something...

 

[Boon Doctor]

I'm in the same boat. I joined the National Guard to pay for college (FTA, GI Bill etc) and I'm now deployed to Iraq for a year. I had the chance to contract ROTC but I waited too late and my Commander didn't sign off on it. Either way, I don't hate that I'm here. I enlisted into a Medical Company as a 68W (medic, officially termed "health care specialist") so I work in a Combat Support Hospital and I love the on-the-job training that I'm getting - I get to do things that interns or junior residents don't get the opportunity to do back in the States, giving me a huge advantage when I get into medical school and residency. If that kind of thing appeals to you and you don't mind being deployed, join the Guard. If you want to finish college uninterrupted and you're considering a career in military medicine, join the ROTC. It really is that simple if you cut through all the fluff from the recruiter.

A key point, 90% or more Medics do not end up working in a hospital, be careful which unit you join if you should decide to enlist.

 

[EZRico]

Look into MDSSP. This is a program in the guard that I am currently looking into. Basically, they give you a stipend while you're in school and you owe them time at the end. From what I understand you do your weekends in a med unit shadowing doctors or studying, and you're non-deployable throughout your internship and residency, but that time counts toward paying them back. Anyway, look into it

 

[NuclearWhammy]

Being a student, you are not deployable IF in Med school. My question is that will HPSP And Guard duty work together?