Did anybody here do Army ROTC?

[alferec]

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I'm in Army ROTC trying to get into optometry school and I'm just hoping to get accepted for an educational delay. Does anybody here know the chances of getting the ed delay for optometry? Even if you know somebody that is going for/is in optometry school, I would really appreciate your help.

 

[polkadot]

did you try the military medicine forum? They might be able to help there. I know Navy ROTC is pretty good about giving deferments, but with Army stop-loss right now, I don't know if they'd be so inclined.

 

[alferec]

what do you mean by the "army stop-loss" by the way?

 

[polkadot]

Stop-loss can be invoked in times of crisis by the armed forces to extend service obligations. Following Sept. 11th, all services used some form of stop-loss, but I believe only the Army and Air Force issued another one when the Iraq War started. I don't know the exact details of this stop-loss, but last time everyone in the Army was required to stay on active duty one extra year no matter what your specialty. I don't think this time is the same bc I know an Army intelligence officer who just got out, and I have no idea how this would affect ROTC cadets, especially if you haven't selected your branch yet. You might want to contact the branch manager for medical services and see what they say.

 

[alferec]

Thanks for the info polkadot...i was just wondering what's your military background? And what relation do you have with optometry?

 

[polkadot]

I did Navy ROTC and was stop-lossed in 2001. I am starting optometry school next fall! 😀

 

[polkadot]

Hey alferec,

I saw you didn't get any responses in the military md forum. That's the problem with the military: a whole lot of people wanting to grouse about their problems, but no one with any answers! 🙄
You might also want to try Army Knowledge Online (I think the site is www.ako.army.mil, but I'm sure you can google it). If it's like Navy KO, there are branch-specific forums, often moderated by the branch managers themselves. (I hope I'm getting the terms right; I'm trying to translate into Army-speak)

Good luck in your quest for info!
-p.dot

 

[alferec]

Thanks for the info again...btw I am on AKO already and I'll take a look at those forums.

I saw an annual report on the med services corps homepage, which summed up the MS corps activities and achievements. On there I saw that the mission for how many optometrists the army wanted was 11 and they overbooked it for 14 (2003 figure). I'm wondering why they would do something like that. Also they noted that optometry is one of their high priorities. Do you have any idea what that would mean? Does it mean that 11 was their -minimum- mission and they actually needed more?

I hope you don't mind me asking so many questions!!! Thanks!

 

[tamathat]

I haven't been able to get a recruiter to call me back... I'm seriously thinking about it so that when I get out of school I won't have to worry about that debt!

 

[polkadot]

Okay, the number math in the military is always a little hazy...

The reason why they may have taken 14 instead of their 11 quota might be because they suddenly had a change in funding (this happens all the time, believe it or not) or some other reason. But in reality, it's only 3 more people than their quota for the whole Army, which in the scheme of things is not a lot of people.

The Army has projected out how many optometrists they'll need four years from now, based on how many are in the Army now, how many are in school, how many they expect to leave, how many they expect to apply, etc. If it's an undermanned specialty now, your chances of getting a deferment may be better.

I will say that the military is never good at projecting these numbers; when I was an undergrad, the Navy was 50% undermanned for nurses (so they were giving out nursing scholarships like it was a bread line) and by the time I graduated they were 200% overmanned. It's a lot like reading tarot cards.

-p.dot