Any prior service active duty officers?

[Wintered]

Hello - new to the forums and just beginning my journey in pre-med (prior business major). I was curious if anyone shares a similar background to me (30s, 10 years active duty, attempting pre-reqs while still serving).

I'm currently taking a few online pre-reqs courses at a reputable school with the plan to finish the final half of science pre-reqs during a career intermission program. Would love to hear about anyone else's experiences, particularly if you ended up going to USUHS.

Thank you!

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[thedude6512]

Haha, you're actually in a really similar situation to me. I'm also in my 30's and have ~8 years of active service as an Army officer. I'm just finishing up my application season right now, so I was in pretty much the same position as you a year or so ago. So far, I've gotten into 2 MD programs, and I'm still waiting to hear back from USUHS post-interview. Not sure if I'll be doing HPSP or USUHS yet, but I've gone through the process for both.

Right now, it sounds like you've got a good plan for knocking out the pre-reqs. However, I would caution you to ensure that your online courses (and their lab components!) will count for the schools you'll be applying to. I definitely think it's a good idea to go into the career intermission while taking the upper level science courses and studying for the MCAT, as your success in these can make or break your application. Also, if you haven't already started getting some sort of clinical experience, I would start looking at ways to start getting hours as soon as possible. For instance, I took an EMT course at community college while taking pre-reqs, then worked part time at the ambulance service in my town.

In any case, I'd be happy to give you feedback or answer any questions you have. Good luck with everything, and let me know if there's anything I can do to help!