Joining reserves at same time as application to med school

[combatwombat]

I'm in the process of applying right now for the second time, but was thinking about also joining the reserves, probably as a Marine Reserve Officer. Why? Well, 1) I've been having a hard time finding a good job for the glide year, 2) it's something I've wanted to do for as long as I can remember, and 3) I'm 27 now and will soon be too old to sign up.

I've done a few hours of surfing the web and I know to basics what goes into joining the reserves, but I was wondering if anyone here knows what would happen if I became a reservist and then got into medical school. Would my obligations as a reservist continue, without any changes whatsoever? Or would they be "put on hold" while I'm in school, and then resume when I finish residency? Would medical schools still take me, knowing that I could be called up?

Also, if I got in to USUHPS, what is the likelihood that my commanding officer in the reserves would release me to attend medical school there?

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[notdeadyet]

1) I've been having a hard time finding a good job for the glide year,

Definitely the worst possible reason to join the Marines and incur an 8 year commitment.

I was wondering if anyone here knows what would happen if I became a reservist and then got into medical school. Would my obligations as a reservist continue, without any changes whatsoever?

Yes, your obligations as a Reservist would continue. If you were in the Naval, Army, or AF reserves, you could put in a request for non-deployable status as a medical student, with a commitment to transfer to the Medical Corps (or non-Army equivalent) upon graduation. From what I've heard, this will not be possible as a Marine Reservist. You could possibly put in for a transfer to the Naval Reserve, but since they have the option of saying "no," that wouldn't be the wisest move.

Or would they be "put on hold" while I'm in school, and then resume when I finish residency?

You still serve out reservist responsibilities as a medical student, but you are non-deployable.

Would medical schools still take me, knowing that I could be called up?

Yes, but being called up has the potential of being pretty disasterous. Given the length of deployment for a Marine officer and the fact that they don't conveniently deploy on an academic schedule, called up will likely cause you to fall two years behind and possibly have to pay for one of those years (depending on your school's refund policy. Not sure if Reservists have exemption from paying for this).

Also, if I got in to USUHPS, what is the likelihood that my commanding officer in the reserves would release me to attend medical school there?

No clue on this, though there are loads of USUHS folks that can tell you about what happens to reservists when they try to attend USUHS.

 

[notdeadyet]

[*]Your fellow residents will have to pick up the slack and will hate you.

Sure. They'll also hate women who get pregnant. You have to pick up slack for others and they have to pick up slack for you. Such is the working world.

 

[Perrotfish]

Certainly someone else can give you better information, but I looked into this once and what I found was...

1. You will not be put on hold for medical school.
2. You can and will be called up during medical school.
3. You will likely have to repeat an entire year even if you've already done much of it.
4. In residency or in medical school, they have to "be ok" with you leaving to serve when you are called up, but that does not mean they will like it.
5. Your fellow residents will have to pick up the slack and will hate you.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

100% correct unless you switch into a different program like HPSP or go to USUHS, which they don't need to let you do. I have no idea what the odds are of them releasing you. Also keep in mind that Marine officer training is cloged with applicants right now, and is also an insanely long process even whe they don't have huge gaps between different kinds of training. Right now you'll spend 3 months applying to go to 10 weeks of OCS, then wait up to 6 more months to go to 6 month of TBS, and then wait who knows how long to actually go learn to to do whatever job the reserves will have you doing, and BTW they don't pay you in between OCS and TBS. And then, if you successfuly graduate, they WILL deploy you.

I was looking into the same option during my second application. I realized it was a bad idea pretty quickly. Spending 4 years on AD before medical school might be a good idea, depnding on your perspective, but this is just a bad idea.

 

[Perrotfish]

Sure. They'll also hate women who get pregnant. You have to pick up slack for others and they have to pick up slack for you. Such is the working world.

Of course accidents happen and no one can get annoyed at that, but if the woman got pregnant deliberatly and then expected everyone else to do the job she was no longer fully capable of doing I think they would be perfectly justified in being angry at her. All the residents are in the same situation and she's dumping her work on others who in no way consented to her plan to start a family. Now you're right that they couldn't legally fire her any more than they could fire the reservist, but you would have to serve out what is already the hardest part of medical training with colleagues that have no interst in helping you out and bosses that will put all of her mistakes under a microscope.

You still serve out reservist responsibilities as a medical student, but you are non-deployable.

This is not true unless you joined the reserves as a medical student through a program desigend to get medical students into the reserves If you joined the normal Marine reserves you would be 100% deployable. As you said, you could transfer to the reserves of a service with a medical core and then commit to joining the medical core upon graduation (if they let you) but this is a terrible deal since you're pretty much taking on the same obligations as joining the reserves through a medical student program but without the hundreds of thousands of dollars that they would pay you to do that.

 

[Slevin]

Oh and about being a Marine Reserve Officer, I looked into doing it when I was applying to college before I got out of the corps and you need to complete a tour of active duty in the Marine Corps prior to being able to serve as a reservist. I could be wrong, but that was how it worked 10 years ago