Thanks for doing this!
Which branch of the military are you going into and why?
What specialty?
Are your classes and rotations any different than they would be for a civilian med student?
Are you restricted at all as to where you're allowed to do residency?
What types of ECs might make an applicant stand out to the adcom at USUHS?
Hey Orville,
Glad to do it.
So before going into USUHS you choose a branch. I chose the Army for a couple of reasons. Each branch has there own "stereotype" or association. For example the Navy will have the best locations because they tend to be by a body of water (i.e beach front!), but you have to be willing to be on a ship because there's always a chance you'll be assigned to one. Personally, I did the army because I knew that if I were to get deployed- I wanted to be close to the brave young men and women putting their lives on the line. I knew I couldn't do what they were doing, but that I could do medicine. Other factors to consider include residency spots (there are residency spots in the Army because its the bigger branch) and General Medical Officer (GMO- its when you go become a doc for a battalion/group right after internship for 1-2 yrs before going back to do residency. The army RARELY if ever does it. I think you have to volunteer to do it as they prefer to have attendings. Airforce has minimal GMOs and Navy does 40-60%) tours. I can't lie, however, after hanging out with GMOs and talking with several Navy attendings who have done them- I seriously considered volunteering for one. I mean being a doc for an apache wing or F18 pilots (Navy flight docs/GMOs get some serious flight time:
http://www.med.navy.mil/sites/nmotc/nami/academics/Pages/FlightSurgeon.aspx) is pretty sick! There are other reasons, but those are the main considerations.
Our general curriculum is 1.5 yrs classroom -> wards (1 yr) -> step1 -> advance clinicals/interviews (take step2 somewhere in between). Our medical classes are the standard civilian load+. We do an organ based system of fundamentals, MSK, CPR (cards/pulm, renal), Neuro, GI, Endo/Repro, ID and eerthang else. We get extra classes in between that include military history, disaster planning, and we have field exercises as well. We have TONS of patient interaction from our first week, and the military loves its simulators/simulations. We've gotten certified in ACLS twice and BLS twice (one more than most med schools). We are also the only medical school allowed by the ACS (American college of surgeons) to be accredited in ATLS (advance trauma life support). We do tons of U/S- from eyes to OB to F.A.S.T exams you name it. We get to do cool summer operational experiences (some people flew with fighter jets, some did mountain medicine, some stayed and did research, some did combatives, others went to DR or Honduras, etc).
Rotations are different in that we get to do them all over the country (if you chose)! We get to rotate at the military teaching hospitals which include Hawaii, San Diego, Seattle (more by Tacoma), San Antonio, DC, etc. For electives we get to rotate at smaller military hospitals (locations like Spain, Germany, Japan, Korea, Africa) AND civilian hospitals...if you can set it up you can most likely do it. Some of my classmates with families chose to do most of their rotations locally (i.e in the DC area) and for the most part were able to do that for the past 2 yrs (save for a rotation or 2). Personally, I've done 95% of my rotations around the country!
Residency. You can chose what residency you want to do, and if you're a good applicant, will most likely get your 1st choice specialty. I need to get the exact numbers from one of our staff, but I think 1st choice specialty + 1st choice location is something around a 91% match rate. Then 1st choice specialty + 2nd location is like 96/97%. Lemme get better numbers for ya! The Army only allows you to do residency training at Military teaching hospitals. The Navy and Air Force are different in that they do let students out, depending on student competitiveness and need, to civilian programs. Our applicants that go civilian for residency tend to match really well. Fellowship- the military lets folks train at civilian hospitals and in some cases even have partnerships with other universities. Civilian programs like military docs cause a)they're free to them, b) they know they'll work hard/have leadership experience, and c)they're free to them. The attendings I've worked with have trained at MGH, Hopkins, Mayo, UCSD, University of Washington, Duke, etc.
ECs. I think it's just like every other medical school. Volunteer, research, sports, etc. But I think if you hold leadership positions then you give yourself a leg up (which it should in other schools as well, but particularly in the military).
Hope this helps!!! I tried to give the general answer, but there are some nuances and so many things to say!
