How will finishing med school in 5 years affect residency, promotions, etc?

[regulardiet]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hi all. Due to academic and personal life difficulties I have failed some classes in my first semester of medical school. The dean has allowed me to continue on, but on the 5 year track. I'm also on the 4 year Army HPSP scholarship. From my knowledge I know I will have to pay my extra year myself. However, I am not too sure how my extra year and failures will affect things like residencies, promotions beyond captain, and other things. Obviously I know neurosurgery and other competitive residencies are out the window, but will I be automatically assigned to GMOs? Will my medical school failures reflect badly for future promotions if I decide to stay in? If any one has a similar experience such as mine, I would love to connect with you. Thanks in advance.

 

[armytrainingsir]

My educated guess is it won’t affect anything military at all.

You don’t promote until after you graduate for medical school and then you are compared with that peer group. Promotions are based on time in grade and your officer evaluation reports leading up to the promotion board. Nobody cares about medical school five years down the road when you’re in the zone for 04 promotion.

Your most important task at hand is to do is as complete an academic turnaround as possible to be competitive for a decent internship.

And I wouldn’t completely discount doing anything competitive. If could pull off a turnaround, be successful in internship, be a stellar GMO, you could get picked up for something competitive down the road.

And while it’s hard not to concentrate on the future, what you need to be concentrating on right now is medical school. The better you do tomorrow will determine what three, four, five, ten years from now looks like.

Good luck.

 

[DrMetal]

Hi all. Due to academic and personal life difficulties I have failed some classes in my first semester of medical school. The dean has allowed me to continue on, but on the 5 year track. I'm also on the 4 year Army HPSP scholarship. From my knowledge I know I will have to pay my extra year myself. However, I am not too sure how my extra year and failures will affect things like residencies, promotions beyond captain, and other things. Obviously I know neurosurgery and other competitive residencies are out the window, but will I be automatically assigned to GMOs? Will my medical school failures reflect badly for future promotions if I decide to stay in? If any one has a similar experience such as mine, I would love to connect with you. Thanks in advance.

It's hard to say for sure. It depends on how well you do from here on out. There's plenty of examples of doctors who took an extra year in medical school, and ultimately got the residency fellowships of their choice.

 

[DrMetal]

My educated guess is it won’t affect anything military at all.

Quite true. You're not even really in the medical corps When you're a medical student, you're in a reserve type status.

I know people as medical sutdents who failed, got DUIs, Committed adultery, Ran crypto scams . . . And still got the training of their choice, While promoting on time.

Go nuts as a medical student! (I guess)

 

[afteranesthesia]

Hi all. Due to academic and personal life difficulties I have failed some classes in my first semester of medical school. The dean has allowed me to continue on, but on the 5 year track. I'm also on the 4 year Army HPSP scholarship. From my knowledge I know I will have to pay my extra year myself. However, I am not too sure how my extra year and failures will affect things like residencies, promotions beyond captain, and other things. Obviously I know neurosurgery and other competitive residencies are out the window, but will I be automatically assigned to GMOs? Will my medical school failures reflect badly for future promotions if I decide to stay in? If any one has a similar experience such as mine, I would love to connect with you. Thanks in advance.

you are still a student and can still get out of HPSP. Get out of it and then you can do the residency you match into and then contract with a hospital for loan payoff in return for X years. This is easy to find, or you can do PSLF.

 

[pgg]

You'll be fine if you do well from here out.

Residency will depend 1st and 2nd on your board scores, 3th on your gpa, 4th on your references / audition rotations, and 5th on the fluff that rounds out your application (e.g. the BS research that med students do to "show interest"). Your gpa has taken a hit, but it can be overcome.

It will have zero impact on promotions - as noted, you'll commission as an O3 the day you graduate and it's a blank slate from there. You'll promote to O4 on time, the same year as everyone else in your year group who has a pulse, has no felony convictions, and is within weight standards.


I graduated on the 5 year track 22 years ago. Missed a large chunk of my MS1 year due to several factors that don't sound very different than yours - personal illness (doctor advised me to take a couple months off then got more serious when he found out I was a medical student), my wife's complicated pregnancy required months of bedrest prior to delivery, and I admittedly did not do a great job managing my time in the face of those issues. It all worked out. I restarted as a MS1 the next year, and did well thereafter. I did GMO time (Navy), but virtually everyone did in those days. Whatever your struggles were, just make an honest assessment of their causes and take deliberate steps to fix them.

Just be cognizant that you've used up your room for error or other life emergencies ... schools want to see their students graduate, and will work with you. Unlucky events can happen to anybody, once. Twice it's probably not just bad luck. It's not uncommon for people to recycle for a year. It's uncommon for people to recycle for two. Make the most of your second chance and you'll be fine.

 

[narcusprince]

You'll be fine if you do well from here out.

Residency will depend 1st and 2nd on your board scores, 3th on your gpa, 4th on your references / audition rotations, and 5th on the fluff that rounds out your application (e.g. the BS research that med students do to "show interest"). Your gpa has taken a hit, but it can be overcome.

It will have zero impact on promotions - as noted, you'll commission as an O3 the day you graduate and it's a blank slate from there. You'll promote to O4 on time, the same year as everyone else in your year group who has a pulse, has no felony convictions, and is within weight standards.


I graduated on the 5 year track 22 years ago. Missed a large chunk of my MS1 year due to several factors that don't sound very different than yours - personal illness (doctor advised me to take a couple months off then got more serious when he found out I was a medical student), my wife's complicated pregnancy required months of bedrest prior to delivery, and I admittedly did not do a great job managing my time in the face of those issues. It all worked out. I restarted as a MS1 the next year, and did well thereafter. I did GMO time (Navy), but virtually everyone did in those days. Whatever your struggles were, just make an honest assessment of their causes and take deliberate steps to fix them.

Just be cognizant that you've used up your room for error or other life emergencies ... schools want to see their students graduate, and will work with you. Unlucky events can happen to anybody, once. Twice it's probably not just bad luck. It's not uncommon for people to recycle for a year. It's uncommon for people to recycle for two. Make the most of your second chance and you'll be fine.

This individual is the gold standard of turning a difficult situation into a successful career. Still count this guy as a trusted resource to this day. Sometimes difficult situations can mold you into better people. Pressure makes diamonds!