Military Member

[ATCNH]

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First off id like to introduce myself as I am new to this site/ forum. I am a military member in the Air Force and work as an Air Traffic Controller. Im 23 and have been in for over 3 years now and plan on doing 20 years and retireing from the military. I absolutely Love my job as an Air Traffic Controller, but I will not be able to do it for ever if I do 20 years i will be 40 years old when i get out which is over the age requirements to be hired for the FAA as a controller so my second love besides aviation has always been helping others and the medical field especially the pharmaceutical portion truly fascinates me.

So here is my question, I would love to one day become a doctor and hopefully be able to do this before I get out of the military right now I have around 16 1/2 years left so I fell this will be a good amount of time to accomplish this and am in no way in a hurry especially since I will not be able to do scholling full time. What do you think the best route to me becoming a doctor would be being in the military and having little to no Schooling?

 

[jayoh]

Hey, I was active duty Marines when I started my pre-med journey, so I may be able to help.

I would say... first, do your research into all of the medical jobs, and choose the one you find most appealing. If that's becoming a physician, then start taking classes in your spare time, work towards a degree and knock out the pre-reqs. In the meantime you would need to do some volunteering and shadowing. Take the mcat, do well, and you're ready to apply.

The good news, in my eyes, is that school is free while you're active duty, volunteering at military hospitals is WAY more hands-on than a civilian hospital, and military docs are generally very open to shadowing and such. Furthermore, there are a number of commissioning programs that you can do to have the military pay for the med school. There is even a military medical school where you're active duty the whole time.

The bad news is, and I know from experience, it's damn hard to take classes on active duty. One class is manageable, but any more and it becomes life-consuming. Maybe things will be different for you, but for me I barely had the time off to sleep. It could take you a very long time to finish your degree at that pace. But I guess you said you're not in a hurry, so go for it!