MIlitary Experience and Med School Application

[Alex1125]

Hello everyone this is my first time posting on this forum. I was curious how much does prior military experience matter when applying to medical school?

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[denali]

It gives you something to talk about during the interview.

Which won't happen unless you have the GPA and MCAT score.

 

[Kilgoretrout 65]

Probably means more on a USUHS application.

 

[Qurmish]

It gives you something to talk about during the interview.

Which won't happen unless you have the GPA and MCAT score.

I would agree with this 100%. You won't get interviews to schools unless you have reasonably competitive stats. Anecdotally, I and a several vets in my class received invites to schools for which we were below the average GPA and MCAT score as non-URM. That might be the case for a lot of different kinds of non-traditional students though.

 

[DrMetal]

Probably means more on a USUHS application.

If you don't have the right numbers, not even the USUHS admissions commitee will care all that much about prior service. The majority of the student body in the last couple classes has actually been comprised of non-priors.

You might get an interview anywhere, for anything that looks good on your application. Keep in mind though that the interview is not a guarantee that you'll be admitted, nor does it even mean that you're "close" or 50/50 (this is a common myth amongst pre-meds). The interview is a part of the applicaiton process. Once it's complete, they still go back and review your entire application as a whole (numbers, essays, and interview).

We all know people who had crappy interviews because they have the personality of a door knob, but still got in b/c they had stellar numbers--unfortunately that's the way it goes. Conversely some have great interviews but get rejected per less than stellar marks.