All Branch Topic (ABT) Army rotc

[rylersmaxfield]

I am currently a high school senior, and I’m also earning my associates degree through a program offered at my school. By the time I graduate I’ll have my diploma and an associates of liberal arts and sciences.
I was thinking of going into Army Rotc, then going to med school. My current GPA is. 3.6. Should I do it?

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[AvoidMilitaryMedicine]

I am currently a high school senior, and I’m also earning my associates degree through a program offered at my school. By the time I graduate I’ll have my diploma and an associates of liberal arts and sciences.
I was thinking of going into Army Rotc, then going to med school. My current GPA is. 3.6. Should I do it?

Hard to say -- it's definitely worth reading through this forum, to get a different perspective.

My personal opinion...

If you want to be a military officer who dabbles in medicine, the military MAY be a good fit for you. Provided that you are also indifferent/neutral to: lower pay, lack of control over your practice/vacation time, living situation and don't mind periods of family separation and/or risking life/limb.

If you want to be physician >/= officer, then myself and many of my colleagues would contend that the military is absolutely NOT the right place for you. Additionally, in my opinion, it'd be a waste to spend so much time, money and energy going to med school and fighting through residency to not be able to practice in your specialty, but not everyone feels that way.

Refer to the 'Thinking About HPSP/USUHS,' thread for a lengthy discussion on the topic.

 

[Gastrapathy]

Do you want to be a line officer?

 

[militaryPHYS]

Agree with @Gastrapathy. The big takeaway from your question is realizing that by doing ROTC specifically, the only thing you are guaranteeing is your pathway to a line officer. Very few people get selected to be “released” from the line and allowed to go train in medicine.

 

[rylersmaxfield]

Do you want to be a line officer?

No.

 

[TheEarDoc]

No.

Then I would say NO to ROTC. I would research this forum for all the programs for medical students offered through the military and then make a decision. If you have a desire to serve, but want to serve as a medical officer then ROTC is definitely not going to be the way.

 

[rylersmaxfield]

Then I would say NO to ROTC. I would research this forum for all the programs for medical students offered through the military and then make a decision. If you have a desire to serve, but want to serve as a medical officer then ROTC is definitely not going to be the way.

My rotc director said that after I graduate from Rotc and college he would partner me with AMEDD? What is that

 

[HighPriest]

My rotc director said that after I graduate from Rotc and college he would partner me with AMEDD? What is that

That's your ROTC director giving you lip service. He's saying that he can maybe help you get into Army Medical in the future if he "pulls some strings." The problem with this is:
1 - There's no guarantee he can actually do that.
2 - Just being associated with AMEDD has nothing to do with being an actual physician. You could be an MSC officer and still associated with AMEDD. What you need to be a physician is med school, and beyond ROTC looking nice on a resume, or maybe a nice letter of recommendation, the ROTC director has no say in that.
3 - It's actually not hard to get associated with AMEDD if you have a medical school acceptance letter. At least, not traditionally. So you don't really need his help there.

 

[SirGecko]

Definitely don’t do ROTC unless you can honestly say that you are interested in being a line officer. The program exists to produce line officers, if it happens to make a few staff corps types along the way so be it but that’s not what it’s there for. If you think that you are interested in medicine at this point you can still think about ROTC but only if you have a desire to be a line officer before going to medical school or at the very least your answer to the question “what do you want to do if you don’t go to medical school?” Is join the military as a line officer.

 

[deleted480308]

The army will gladly make you a medical officer the second you have a med school acceptance if you want to be an army doc

Rotc has a very high risk of making you not a doctor but definitely an army officer somewhere else.

 

[TheEarDoc]

My rotc director said that after I graduate from Rotc and college he would partner me with AMEDD? What is that

Umm well yes you could join AMEDD (Army Medical Division). This is a huge umbrella of various fields and services. I am a 72C audiologist and I am in AMEDD. So are microbiologists, optometrists, etc.. so are 70B which are basically people with a college degree who are commissioned officers in AMEDD.

If you want to be part of AMEDD as others have said it's quite simple. Don't do ROTC. Finish college. Get into medical school. Then join either Army or guard or reserves and then you'll be in AMEDD. The problem with ROTC as others have said is it's a pipeline traditionally to produce line officers (ie. usually combat arms such as infantry) and not for medical officers. What would happen most likely is you would do ROTC. You would then be regular Army and probably be placed in infantry or deployed and put your post grad education/medical school on hold. Horrible idea if you want to become some type of medical professional. There are tons of other ways to be a medical professional and serve in the military as a direct commissioned officer (search the forums for these).

 

[Helpful Troll]

OP - The first year of ROTC with or without a scholarship incurs no obligation. If being a military officer is a close second to being a doctor in your career interests right now (as a HS Sr) go ahead and do the first year of ROTC. A large percent of students going to college thinking medicine is their future change their mind. Go to a college you can afford without an ROTC scholarship - you might love the school but not ROTC.

Assess your career interests, GPA, and time constraints of ECs (shadow a Dr. and volunteer in a medical setting) again after the first semester or 3/4 of your first year of college. At that point you will have a better idea how you like Chemistry, Biology, and whatever other premed courses you take. If medicine is still your passion drop ROTC and continue the marathon to medicine. If you change your mind about medicine and have no interest in serving as an officer in the military drop ROTC.

ROTC, even first year, can be a time sink and if you can't manage your time well don't do it even if you plan to drop it after first year. The service obligation of ROTC and HPSP (if you took that too) is very long for an 18 year old to commit to.

 

[SirGecko]

ROTC, even first year, can be a time sink and if you can't manage your time well don't do it even if you plan to drop it after first year.

This is something that I feel should be stressed. I don’t think people really understand what a big time commitment ROTC can be if they haven’t done it. It takes a lot of time to be a good premed and it takes a lot of time to be a good cadet/midshipman.

 

[Trefoil]

I did ROTC. In the past, a good medical school applicant could get a deferment to attend medical school easily, those days might be over, but it is hard to say with all of the DHA changes mentioned on the other threads. ROTC was a huge time sink, and made my premedical curriculum very difficult to manage from a time perspective. Imagine you have a big test coming up next week. It’s curved, so you are compared directly to your peers and not judged based on your raw score. The weekend before your test, you are completing a field training exercise which means you are out sleeping in the rain without time to study for the entire weekend. You come back the following week exhausted only having had 5 hours of sleep each night. Do you think you will perform as well as you could have on that curved test? It’s really makes things a lot less pleasant.