Military Background...

[DrSwede]

Does anyone have any thoughts/comments on how they felt their military experience affected their interview or application for medical school?

I just want to get the gist on how it is viewed by adcoms, etc...

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[Mr. Obsessive]

I was in the navy for six years. I took a bunch of special training and went through the nuclear pipeline. I used all of the schools,awards and commendations in my EC portion of my application (I couldn't use the schools in my academic portion, but I felt they were important experiences). I want to believe these made me stand out. I have know idea what the percentage of applicants have a military background. I think the same philosophy holds true in adcoms as in industry. They tend to favor military experience. Best of luck in the admissions process.

 

[efex101]

I think it was a major plus in my application and it did come up quite often. Military experience for most of us gave us a ton of leadership experience which is highly regarded among adcoms.

 

[DrSwede]

Excellent news to my ears hehe. Thanks so much, I feel much better about listing it on my app now.

 

[chopper]

I agree. Reformed nuke here as well getting ready to apply. I hadn't thought to put NPS on the ECs, but I think it might be a good idea. Such a big part of life, especially in shaping the people we are now. Thanks.
-chop

 

[pilotdoc]

All the schools LOVED (or at least seemed to) my military experience. I am an Army MEDEVAC pilot, heading to USUHS in a couple of months, and I don't think I would have received so much as an interview at these schools without my military time. I made it the point of my PS, and included any and all military accolades I could. I figured that there probably weren't alot of military pilots applying, and far fewer if any MEDEVAC pilots, so I used that angle to try and stand out. Every interviewer asked numerous questions about my military time and seemed genuinely interested in talking about these things. At one school (UAB), my first interviewer was a private pilot, so we talked about flying the whole time. Second interviewer had been an Army doc who did alot of work with Army MEDEVAC - again, all we talked about. Last interviewer, OK this is just dumb luck, was from the town over from my hometown in Massachusetts (mind you, we were in Alabama!) Anyway, highlight your experiences - be proud of them!

 

[Swiper]

Does anyone have any thoughts/comments on how they felt their military experience affected their interview or application for medical school?

I just want to get the gist on how it is viewed by adcoms, etc...

At no time in the process did I feel like it negatively affected my interview or application. I'm confident my time in the military was a big factor in gaining admission.

 

[Termwean]

I did 7 yrs in navy as corpsmen/ Resp Therapist and 3 years army national guard including deployments as combat medic to Desert shield/storm, bosnia, afghanistan. I accented my experience in my PS...I have been a RT for 10 yrs also...I hope this hepls me gain favor with adcoms...I'll let you know how it goes.

I was in the navy for six years. I took a bunch of special training and went through the nuclear pipeline. I used all of the schools,awards and commendations in my EC portion of my application (I couldn't use the schools in my academic portion, but I felt they were important experiences). I want to believe these made me stand out. I have know idea what the percentage of applicants have a military background. I think the same philosophy holds true in adcoms as in industry. They tend to favor military experience. Best of luck in the admissions process.

 

[mellantro]

I think alot of the older docs that interview more likely than not will have ties with the military. This old guy interviewed me at GW, and he graduated from Hopkins way back in the day and was a flight surgeon during WWII. I have no connections whatsoever to the military but it was really neat listening to his stories during the interview.