Hi everyone,
I need some information, i am a freshmen undergraduate and will be starting my first semester 2011 fall at UNLV also i am going to enroll in the AFROTC, my major is Biochemistry im looking for information on how and what scholarships i should apply for, as i am going to be a pre-health student what steps should i take sense i am going to enroll in the afrotc.
Thank you for any advice anyone can give me.
Timothy vizza.
Also if i am posting in the wrong area please tell me so i can move this to the right place.
You should not enroll in the AFROTC as a prehealth student because:
1) Premedicine is a numbers game, schools want high GPAs and high MCATs and don't care at all if the odds are stacked against you in some way that lowers your GPA. The rigid graduation requirements of ROTC (get out in 4 years, spend your summers with us, do a bunch of military stuff during the school year) will hurt your GPA.
2) The average Med school matriculant these days spends two years improving their application between college and medical school. If you go with the ROTC you need to get into medical school your senior semester or they take you as a line officer and you don't get another chance until you finish your committment.
3) If you do get in to med school you need to ask the AF's permission to go. If they need line officers more than medical officers that year you won't get that permission and now you've turned down a medical school acceptance, which will be difficult to explain when you have to reapply in 4 years.
4) If you do get in and AND get to go you now have an insane obligation to the Airforce, since your medical school scholarship obligation will stack with your ROTC obligation. You will be serving 8 years after a residency, meaning the earliest you get out of the military is 2029. No one should ever tie themselves to any organization for that long at the age of 18. Also did I mention that you need to do your residency with the AF, which might not have the training you want? Sorry if you decide you want EM, it's as tough as ortho in the military. Have fun with 11 years of military Family practice.
5) If you get in AND get to go AND like the military AND get the training you want you're still going to get screwed with your pay. The military pays huge bonuses to doctors to make up some of the gap between military and civilian pay. However you don't get most of those bonuses until you finish your initial obligation, which you won't (to review) until 2029. You'll trade what might be a milliion in bonuses for not having undergraduate loans.
So, bottom line, if you want medicine don't do ROTC. If you want to be a line officer for 4 years before you go into medicine do ROTC.
