Prior military experience on med school application?

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mkmiller

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I have a question in reference to volunteer work and extracurricular activity for being a competitive applicant. I’m active duty in the air force as a fire fighter / EMT right now, I joined the military to help pay for college, needless to say I’m hard pressed to find the time to take college classes let alone volunteer at the base hospital. My question is, would having military experience with my job as a fire fighter / EMT help make me a competitive applicant for med school? Or would I have to take a year off after my enlistment is up to volunteer more?
 
It's definitely a strong EC, but don't solely depend on it. GPA and the MCAT matter too.

I'm not sure how sufficient firefighter/EMT is in terms of clinical experience... Perhaps a brief summary of what your job entailed, what you actually did, what you got from it, etc... might allow others to give you a better answer.

I'd put +1 for uniqueness though. 🙂
 
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I was a medic in the Army. Trust me it helps! Don't take advice from anyone on this topic that is not prior service. I would suggest trying to shadow a couple of docs if you haven't. As long as your volunteering isn't completely blank you will be more than fine. I had very little volunteering compared to other applicants and it was never discussed in an interview after seeing I was a prior service medic.

Edit: Definitely take LizzyM's advice. Nobody here could answer that question better than an ADCOM member.
 
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I think the military nearly always looks great on an app, provided that you have the stats too. I'm not sure if it would entirely replace volunteering, because while you are serving our country (thank you!!) technically you're getting paid. Being an EMT is definitely clinical experience if you are seeing patients, so any volunteering you do on top of that doesn't need to be clinical. Even just volunteering somewhere on base, like tutoring kids, for a couple of hours per week might help. But I'm sure there are some military applicants who could chime in and give you better advice than I can!
 
You volunteered for military service and you have served. Believe me, that far outweighs most mundane college volunteerism.

The military also offers fine opportunities for leadership; step up to the plate if the opportunity arises.

Every grade counts so take classes if you can do well. It might be best to take whatever VA benefits you get after your enlistment is finished and go to school full time to finish up.

Thank you for your service to our country!
 
Being an EMT covers your need for clinical patient experience. You'll still need a bit of clinical environment experience in a hospital or clinic, nursing home or hospice, if you don't already have some at the base hospital or ER. And I'd recommend some physican shadowing beyond an ER doc, like an office-based physician and maybe a hospitalist or surgeon to get some other perspectives on how medicine is practiced in America. I agree that you have the volunteerism/altuism expectation already well covered.
 
I want to join the Army as a physcian🙂

I almost enlisted last year as an Intelligence Analyst (35F) but i scored extremely well on the MCAT (getting a 99 on the ASVAB boosted my confidence for standard testing lol) and decided to apply to medical school...then join during the start of my third year. 🙂

But people tell me to keep my ambitions of serving the country on the d/l because during residency it can work against you if you want to join???? They say that the schools want to have residents that after graduation stay in the local area/state of the school. Advice please!
 
How would wearing your dress uniform to interviews be seen? Welcomed, or just unnecessary?
 
RisinOutlaw said:
How would wearing your dress uniform to interviews be seen? Welcomed, or just unnecessary?
Click to expand...

Again, no experience, but I think it would be a little excessive. Makes you look cool though. 😎
 
RisinOutlaw said:
How would wearing your dress uniform to interviews be seen? Welcomed, or just unnecessary?
Click to expand...

If someone wore their dress uniform to an interview that I was attending I would probably be scared ****less. So it would at least be an excellent intimidation factor. :laugh:
 
I know someone who went 7 for 7 wearing a miliary uniform to med school interviews including several top 10 schools. (of course, the rest of the application was good, too)
 
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