Medical School Deferment and Military

[tradkeke]

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Hey guys, posted a question over the the pre-med forum and got some very insightful answers but had a question I felt might be best answered here where people are much more knowledgeable of military practices.

My question was essentially whether or not it was a viable plan to serve in the military before med school (national call to service) where it would be only be around 2 year ADSO then switch to guard. That isn't my question here in case you are one of the individuals who gave me advice over there (thank you for the advice by the way). Essentially all of the advice was saying it would be a challenge to be admitted to a medical school after a layoff due to instances with timing and MCAT scores expiring etc. I am aware that I can serve as a physician but for the sake of this question I ask that you consider it from the path I'm asking about, even though the serving as a physcian makes much more sense from a logistic standpoint.

My question is, if I apply and get in while I am in undergrad, as if I were to go straight into med school and get accepted. If I applied for a deferment to serve in the military would they be able to legally rescind my acceptance due to not being able to matriculate due to military service? I will obviously be honest and upfront with them from the beginning, but if worst case scenario I have to stay in 4 years (which I personally would be fine with) could they rescind the acceptance? When initially applying for deferment I would let them know that if I was granted it I would be signing a military contract, I'm not trying to game the system or screw the med school over.

I ask because I know it is illegal to be fired from a job if you are say deployed from the reserves or in the guard so I wondered if this would be similar.

Link to my other thread if you want the long version:

Military between undergrad and med school? Looking for opinions

Thanks for the help.

 

[Onefellswoop87]

Being activated from the reserves and deploying vs. commissioning into the inactive ready reserve (as you are in HPSP) are two completely different things. Being in the IRR as a part of HPSP protects you from being activated during medical school, not giving you an allowance to be deferred for any amount of time you ask for.

I never asked for a deferment, so I don't know much about this. I assume each medical school has it's own rules and policies about this, but I'd be very surprised if any school would defer you for more than a year. And don't most want to know why they should offer you a deferment? Saying something to the effect of "I want to enlist/commission and see what happens" doesn't sound like a recipient for success.

 

[tradkeke]

Being activated from the reserves and deploying vs. commissioning into the inactive ready reserve (as you are in HPSP) are two completely different things. Being in the IRR as a part of HPSP protects you from being activated during medical school, not giving you an allowance to be deferred for any amount of time you ask for.

I never asked for a deferment, so I don't know much about this. I assume each medical school has it's own rules and policies about this, but I'd be very surprised if any school would defer you for more than a year. And don't most want to know why they should offer you a deferment? Saying something to the effect of "I want to enlist/commission and see what happens" doesn't sound like a recipient for success.

Thank you for the response. Sorry if I wasn't clear enough, maybe I should have elaborated a little more. I was speaking with a recruiter and I could enlist as an E4 and go 68W. With this after training (which would be shortened since I'm already EMT-B), I would owe 15 months ADSO. After that I would go into the guard or reserves for 24 months then IRR. Since I graduate early if I went to Basic after I graduated my total time would be up in July or August before I matriculate.

So when applying for deferment I would ideally only be delaying it for a year if everything was perfect and 2 years worst case scenario. I have not confirmed this yet but my recruiter told me if I enrolled in MDSSP I could just tack on whatever I had left to the obligation I incurred from MDSSP, meaning I would not be able to be activated in med school or residency. So, according to him, the max I would have to defer is 2 years.

Basically, if I explained this to a school and they said yes (which I'm not asking if they would say yes, I understand it's a long shot but this is truly has just always be something I want to do) if I was unable to matriculate after my year deferment because I was in the military could they rescind my acceptance?

So basically: I get deferment for 1 year thinking I will be on track to matriculate in one year --> I can't due to some reason, that would be military related that could not have been foreseen --> can they then take my acceptance away due to this?

I haven't heard of any school granting 2 year deferments, but if that was possible I would probably just request that to be sure I have everything in order. Although I haven't heard of anything like that.

 

[deleted480308]

Thank you for the response. Sorry if I wasn't clear enough, maybe I should have elaborated a little more. I was speaking with a recruiter and I could enlist as an E4 and go 68W. With this after training (which would be shortened since I'm already EMT-B), I would owe 15 months ADSO. After that I would go into the guard or reserves for 24 months then IRR. Since I graduate early if I went to Basic after I graduated my total time would be up in July or August before I matriculate.

So when applying for deferment I would ideally only be delaying it for a year if everything was perfect and 2 years worst case scenario. I have not confirmed this yet but my recruiter told me if I enrolled in MDSSP I could just tack on whatever I had left to the obligation I incurred from MDSSP, meaning I would not be able to be activated in med school or residency. So, according to him, the max I would have to defer is 2 years.

Basically, if I explained this to a school and they said yes (which I'm not asking if they would say yes, I understand it's a long shot but this is truly has just always be something I want to do) if I was unable to matriculate after my year deferment because I was in the military could they rescind my acceptance?

So basically: I get deferment for 1 year thinking I will be on track to matriculate in one year --> I can't due to some reason, that would be military related that could not have been foreseen --> can they then take my acceptance away due to this?

I haven't heard of any school granting 2 year deferments, but if that was possible I would probably just request that to be sure I have everything in order. Although I haven't heard of anything like that.

If you are just bleeping determined to go army before school, go into the reserves or guard. Then you can immediately commission to med student officer once you start school without an ADSO and go nondeployable until end of school. Just know taking a commission has it's own minum time commitment

Being active makes it potentially more complicated

Know idea if it's legal to rescibd an admission offer because you technically aren't a student until day 1 from what I understand

 

[tradkeke]

If you are just bleeping determined to go army before school, go into the reserves or guard. Then you can immediately commission to med student officer once you start school without an ADSO and go nondeployable until end of school. Just know taking a commission has it's own minum time commitment

Being active makes it potentially more complicated

Know idea if it's legal to rescibd an admission offer because you technically aren't a student until day 1 from what I understand

Thanks again for the advice (and for being so patient)

While I definitely see how your plan is feasible, what would be the point of joining the reserves/guard and then immediately going into med school/commissioning as a med student officer? I understand how it would allow me to be in the military and be in med school, just as MDSSP or HPSP (kind of) would, but my issue is I want to serve in a different capacity to being a med student officer at this moment. That's not saying I would never go the officer route, but I want the other type of experience as well.

There are MUCH easier ways for me to join the military, I'm just trying to figure out how I can serve in the capacity I'm wanting to and try to keep my chances at med school from severely diminishing. I've considered reaching out to my home schools institution to ask them about deferments for something like this because if I got in that is likely where I would get accepted (they have like a 90% accept rate for students from our school with above 3.5 per the premed advisor). Do you think this would be my best route to see if my plan is even possible?

I'm not totally discounting the physician officer route and it's one I might love to take, but I want another type of military experience than just that.

 

[deleted480308]

Thanks again for the advice (and for being so patient)

While I definitely see how your plan is feasible, what would be the point of joining the reserves/guard and then immediately going into med school/commissioning as a med student officer? I understand how it would allow me to be in the military and be in med school, just as MDSSP or HPSP (kind of) would, but my issue is I want to serve in a different capacity to being a med student officer at this moment. That's not saying I would never go the officer route, but I want the other type of experience as well.

There are MUCH easier ways for me to join the military, I'm just trying to figure out how I can serve in the capacity I'm wanting to and try to keep my chances at med school from severely diminishing. I've considered reaching out to my home schools institution to ask them about deferments for something like this because if I got in that is likely where I would get accepted (they have like a 90% accept rate for students from our school with above 3.5 per the premed advisor). Do you think this would be my best route to see if my plan is even possible?

I'm not totally discounting the physician officer route and it's one I might love to take, but I want another type of military experience than just that.

Good luck

 

[xffan624]

Hey guys, posted a question over the the pre-med forum and got some very insightful answers but had a question I felt might be best answered here where people are much more knowledgeable of military practices.

My question was essentially whether or not it was a viable plan to serve in the military before med school (national call to service) where it would be only be around 2 year ADSO then switch to guard. That isn't my question here in case you are one of the individuals who gave me advice over there (thank you for the advice by the way). Essentially all of the advice was saying it would be a challenge to be admitted to a medical school after a layoff due to instances with timing and MCAT scores expiring etc. I am aware that I can serve as a physician but for the sake of this question I ask that you consider it from the path I'm asking about, even though the serving as a physcian makes much more sense from a logistic standpoint.

My question is, if I apply and get in while I am in undergrad, as if I were to go straight into med school and get accepted. If I applied for a deferment to serve in the military would they be able to legally rescind my acceptance due to not being able to matriculate due to military service? I will obviously be honest and upfront with them from the beginning, but if worst case scenario I have to stay in 4 years (which I personally would be fine with) could they rescind the acceptance? When initially applying for deferment I would let them know that if I was granted it I would be signing a military contract, I'm not trying to game the system or screw the med school over.

I ask because I know it is illegal to be fired from a job if you are say deployed from the reserves or in the guard so I wondered if this would be similar.

Link to my other thread if you want the long version:

Military between undergrad and med school? Looking for opinions

Thanks for the help.

If you want to serve, just serve and apply while you are in. It's not the end of the world and the time frame you are talking about will not diminish you as an applicant enough to do some elaborate deferment plan. Plus you want to get at least 3 years AD if you're going to doing this. That will fully qualify you for Post 9/11 GI bill and pay for the majority of your medical school.

Deferments will be dependent on school. I knew someone in AD accepted to medical school who had trouble getting out of her ROTC obligation to switch to HPSP and the school had allowed her to defer for 2 years, but that's one school. It's probably variable.

 

[tradkeke]

If you want to serve, just serve and apply while you are in. It's not the end of the world and the time frame you are talking about will not diminish you as an applicant enough to do some elaborate deferment plan. Plus you want to get at least 3 years AD if you're going to doing this. That will fully qualify you for Post 9/11 GI bill and pay for the majority of your medical school.

Deferments will be dependent on school. I knew someone in AD accepted to medical school who had trouble getting out of her ROTC obligation to switch to HPSP and the school had allowed her to defer for 2 years, but that's one school. It's probably variable.

This was my original plan, however I didn't know if the fact that I could be deployed or not allowed to take leave for interviews would be possible. As I have never served in the military I have no idea how it works but I'd imagine it would be pretty hard to just be like "Yeah, I need Saturday off.". Do you see a problem with this?

Thanks for the insight

 

[Atlas Shrugged]

Medicine is hard enough without self-imposed roadblocks. If you join the military without directly commissioning into the medical corps, the military gives zero cares whether you ever become a doctor.

If you want to do the military thing, do it, get out and apply to medical school. It is impossible to get a two-year ADSO. A medical school will absolutely rescind your acceptance if you cannot join for four years. It is hilarious that you are questioning the legality of this. Until you are a board certified physician, you are not a person. Any step of the way they can take everything from you. This is why you see threads on here (not the milmed forum, SDN in general) questioning whether and attending pushing (assaulting) them is normal.

I am going to be blunt. This question is so asinine I question whether you have any understanding of the implications of what enlisting/commissioning entails. You sitting in Iraq or Afghanistan is going to make interviews improbable. Have people done it? Yeah. But they are the incredible minority. You may not even deploy, but your PTDY to go to an interview is dependent on your CO's whims. He says no, you don't get to go.

There are so many layers of bull**** that you will not understand until you are in. I am only a student, relatively shielded from most of this, and I still have entire days dedicated to training that doesn't matter, created by someone who is so out of touch with medicine that they thought having physicians function as gate guards (you know, the guys who check your identification to get on a base) would be an effective use of their time.

Man it is amazing what a few years can do to you. What happened to me?

I will say though, overall I am still happy with my choice.

 

[xffan624]

This was my original plan, however I didn't know if the fact that I could be deployed or not allowed to take leave for interviews would be possible. As I have never served in the military I have no idea how it works but I'd imagine it would be pretty hard to just be like "Yeah, I need Saturday off.". Do you see a problem with this?

Thanks for the insight

It's not easy, but you will see military people applying to medical school. It can be done. I applied while serving active duty while stationed overseas (not deployed, which is different). It required significant leave and some expensive overseas flights, but I attended 4 out of 6 total interviews that I received.