Hey all, it's me again. I've been reading the replies but I stayed away from replying before I happened to talk to a couple of the doctors and advisers again.
My MS1 anatomy lab partner was a USNA grad, oceanography major. Apparently not a lot of majors available that would get the med school prerequisites done. He said there were only a handful of people in his class who were OK'd to go to medical school ... 1% of the class is around 10 people I think.
Smart guy, think he ended up doing neurosurgery. With that long residency and long payback, he's looking at being retirement eligible about the time his payback is up. Obviously still young enough to work a long time afterwards though.
Each year there are 15 Middies who are selected to be allowed to go to medical school. Upwards of half go on to USUHS the others tend to go to high end medical schools. Occasionally there is a dentist or two thrown into the lot and they count against the 15 cap. More often than not there are other highly qualified candidates who could certainly get into a decent school who do not make the cut and must go off to the fleet for 3-5 years before they can try again.
When we are young and have never been turned down for anything for which we have applied, we always assume we will continue to be amongst the chosen. It does not always work out that way. Not trying to discourage the OP, just throw a little reality on the fire.
I couldn't recommend anyone going to the Naval Academy with any intention other than being a Navy or Marine Officer for a few years after undergrad.
Going to a military academy and serving as an officer for a few years is a great path for getting a solid education, scratch the itch to serve, mature a little bit, and build a solid foundation for a resume and medical school application.
Going to a military academy with the intent to continue immediately into HPSP or USUHS is a great way to set yourself up for disappointment, frustration, and needless financial and personal sacrifice.
Your goal right now is figuring out what your top goals for 1, 2, and 5 years from now are and figuring out the way to secure those things. Planning out a 12 year education and 20 year career in advance is futile. If your main goal is to be an academy grad and serve as an officer, go for it. If your main goal is to be a physician, then it's difficult to justify a route that puts needless hurdles in the way of going to medical school.
Every year you put off a goal is another year you may have permanently missed the boat. There are almost certainly 34 year old surgeons who realize they've probably missed their chance to be a fighter pilot and 24 year old Officers who wake up in a hospital bed to realize an IED in Iraq or a car accident in Colorado crushed their chances of being a surgeon...
I'm not trying to be so melodramatic. The point is that there's nothing wrong with taking the scenic route through life, but put the more important target at 25 meters and hope you get a chance to worry about the one at 50 meters.
1202 matriculated for the class of 2011, and they state about 80% complete, so that would be about 960 grads (to compare, the class of 1958 graduated 899, of which John S. McCain III was #894). So it looks like about 1 1/2%. And 1% is indeed 10, rounded up.
Well, I'll look at the published profiles of the students I guess and estimate where I could see myself graduating. I see your points though, as far as how being an officer in an unrelated field could slow me down from being a doctor, with that path being full of unnecessary hurdles and all.... I'm definitely not going to put all of my eggs in one basket when I apply to the USNA (I still will apply there, but put it towards the back of my priorities).
Yep, so at the age of 18, you're planning on signing away your freedom until the age of 51? You have absolutely no f'ing idea what you're doing! If you think that's remotely rational, then you have no concept of how your life will change in the future.
A far better "path choice" would be to keep your options open. Remember that military and medicine are both changing rapidly. Your experience in military medicine would completely different than the radiologists'.
First, you have to decide if medicine is your goal. If it is, then avoid any association with the military during college like the plague. Once you get into med school, the military will be throwing HPSP scholarships at you.
You're right about the difference in experiences....even I know a lot has changes since the 80's. Off the top of my head, I know that we don't have Reagan saying that we need to rapidly expand the Navy's tonnage anymore. But, I think that when the budget gets shorter, it's hard to say which will take more cuts, USUHS or HPSP.
17? Planning your fellowship? Get a life. Seriously. There is so much fun stuff to be doing right now, go do that and don't worry about this for at least 3 or 4 more years. Get good grades and don't get a criminal record. You can figure the rest out later.
While fellowship may be extreme, I don't think that it's fair that you're implying that I sit around with a ruler and some draft paper while plotting out my life, waiting for the tea leaves to dry instead of participate in many, many other activities.
If you get angry that I'm at least trying to have some guidelines for the future, then don't read the paper and get angry at "those dang kids that don't have any common sense" and just complain about my generation. Some of us do make an effort, but we can't all live life like Stand By Me.
OP, I am going to draw up a new Master Plan for you, right now. You are starting your senior year in high school, yes? Your assignment for the rest of the year is the following:
- Get good grades, do well on the SAT, get a scholarship, yadayadayada.
- Become really good with the ladies. Laugh if you like, but figure it out. This will serve you well in the rest of your life as well as the next phase of the Master Plan.
- Use your good grades and scholarship, etc., to convince your parents to let you go to Europe for the summer between high school and college. Feel free to mow lawns or something to help fund this. But do it. Go to London.
- Once in London, your one and only objective is to somehow make contact with Pippa Middleton. You know, the attractive (and single) sister of the new princess. This is where the ladies' man skills will come in handy. You will be a charming young foreigner and will have a better shot than you think. If all goes well, you could have a landed estate in York by age 23.
Report back in August 2012. If you do happen to succeed in your endeavor, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Godspeed.
i laughed
Best advice yet. I couldn't stand the kids in medical school who would go out and do things I did four years earlier in college. You're 17 years old, act like it. Do well and good things will come with options at each junction. Try and plan out your fellowship at 17 and you'll be the tool in medical school who thinks the best time ever in his life is the night after his gross anatomy exam.
I don't go around bragging it to people as if I already made the match. I just asked for some insight from people that already have hindsight behind them. And indeed, you do have a great advice to pass on, so thank you, even if it's just tips on how to be around other students.
Similar situation happened to me out of the Air Force Academy. Only 20 or so people were allowed to go to medical school, PT school, and dental school combined. I ended up doing 11.5 yrs before going to med school.
So, unless you want to do something in the line (e.g., USMC, NSW, aviation, subs, or {god forbid} SWO) I would NOT go to the Naval Academy. If your main goal is to become a physician as quickly as possible, I would recommend: (1) civilian state school for undergrad --cheaper and easier to get good grades (2) medical school anywhere. If you still want to do the whole military thing, then do either HPSP, HSCP, or FAP. Just my $0.02.
I think by now, it really sunk into me that just practically speaking, I have to use the USNA as a backup, rather than my primary choice. But, my main goal isn't to be a physician as quickly as possible, so I think that USUHS is still (forbidding anything else happens) on the table for me to consider.
Quoted for truth, emphasis mine. No one has ever asked me where I got my undergrad degree. Undergrad prestige is overrated.
Yeah, unfortunately nowadays it's a lot of a rat race, as least for higher tier schools
but it's not a big deal to me, only a scholarship would be nice.
True to some degree. But each step builds off the previous one. So if you want to get into a top tier medical school, you'll have much better chances if you go to a top tier school for undergrad.
I hear a lot of stuff from admissions officers that sometimes they even prefer grad students that didn't take undergrad at their university....might just be one of the University of California's pet peeves, but who knows if the sentiment goes elsewhere also.
While I am glad that I did HPSP and would do it all over again if I could, my advice to you is to be very careful. When I joined before medical school, my plan was to be career. Fast forward a few years and I got out after 4 years of GMO.
I am a very different person now then I was when I started medical school, and a drastically different person than I was before college. I think, behave, and vote completely differently now than I did as a 22 year old, let alone a 17 year old. The thought of being forced to live the life and career that I imagined as a 17 year old frankly scares me to death.
That is one of the greatest negatives of HPSP/USUHS, especially if done right after USNA or ROTC. Unlike virtually every other military program that I can think of, the medical programs are the only ones that require you to sign and commit years before you actually start to serve. The problem is that the time in between is (or has the potential to be) a life transforming educational experience. For most of us this period occurs during a decade in life when one's values and/or world view change dramatically.
Again, I'm a civilian now but am very glad that I did HPSP, and am actually grateful for the opportunities and experiences that the military gave me. That said, I was happy to move on with my life at the earliest opportunity.
You would be amazed at how much payback time some military physicians build up, especially if they started accruing it as midshipmen. I've seen residents who owe enough time that they will be retirement eligible and pushing 50 when their obligations are up. Imagine if you were in that position. You're 15 years removed from high school when you signed the ROTC or USNA contract and are only now starting to begin the payback. Around that time you realize that you aren't that psyched about being in the military or even being in medicine! You then look at your ROTC classmates who are either decorated veterans working on JD's or MBA's or are experienced line officers with multiple combat deployments under their belts.
Be careful.
I see what you're saying about how, for better or for worse, it's "backwards" in its process, but I can see why the military has to do that for something that requires so much training such as becoming a physician. So that's the name of the game, and I think that I have to take a risk just like anybody else and hope that I come out fine, even if I'll be taking a step into the unknown.
Like I said, thanks for all of the responses guys, even ones that notice that I'm a bit naive
