Military Residency Choices?

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JHUBlueJay

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Hey again all,

I was wondering if anyone had any knowledge of how the Army military match honestly works.
I've heard everything ranging from no one gets the residency they want, to sometimes the most popular civilian residencies like derm and plastics don't even fill.
Does the army have enough residence so that everyone gets one? or are some people forced to go civilian or not have a residency at all?
I'm particularly interested in Plastics/Reconstructive/Burn Surg/ Gen Surg/ Trauma Surg/ and Emergency med. Will it be difficult to score one of these?

I heard the army only have about 4 surgical programs. In the civilian world a typical program has 5 residents. Does that really mean the army only offers 20 surgery spots or is it even less? Or perhaps is 20 a lot for the number of applicant.

I honestly know nothing please inform me. Thank you so much

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I was wondering if anyone had any knowledge of how the Army military match honestly works.
I've heard everything ranging from no one gets the residency they want, to sometimes the most popular civilian residencies like derm and plastics don't even fill.

It's different every year, but sometimes those things do happen. Anyway, within the Army match, you have five spots. First, you pick a desired specialty and then you have to rank all of the locations that have that specialty. If your specialty has less than 5 locations, you must then put a transitional year as your next choice followed by a subsequent specialty. So, for example if you pick EM, which has 3 locations, you would rank the locations in order of preference, then put a transitional year as your 4th spot, then put another specialty (IM, Peds, whatever) as your 5th spot. Regarding interviews, you schedule interviews at all of the locations you are interested in. It's not like the civilian match where you wait for an invitation.

Does the army have enough residence so that everyone gets one? or are some people forced to go civilian or not have a residency at all?

Yes, there are enough residencies for everyone. However, there may not be lot of spots in the residency you desire. There is a possibility of a civilian deferral if you are not accepted into a military residency. However, deferral is not as common as it used to be. If you do not match, you will do a transitional year and either try to match again (much like the civilian match) or go GMO.

I'm particularly interested in Plastics/Reconstructive/Burn Surg/ Gen Surg/ Trauma Surg/ and Emergency med. Will it be difficult to score one of these?

Yes. Looking at the list of residencies, Plastics is not among the army residencies you can match into. Burn and Trauma (possibly Plastics?) are fellowships which would be done at civilian locations - I cannot speak as to which fellowships the Army allows you to participate in. Hopefully someone else can help out with that. GS and EM are available, along with Urology, Neurosurg, Ortho, and ENT.

I heard the army only have about 4 surgical programs. In the civilian world a typical program has 5 residents. Does that really mean the army only offers 20 surgery spots or is it even less? Or perhaps is 20 a lot for the number of applicant.

There are 6 GS programs and a total of 29-ish slots (according to PPT). (Tripler, National Capital Consortium/Walter Reed, Madigan, Beaumont, Eisenhower, Brooke). If I remember correctly, Tripler takes 5 residents, NCC takes 5, Madigan takes 5, Brooke takes 3, Beaumont takes 5, and Eisenhower takes 5. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

I honestly know nothing please inform me. Thank you so much

Do a search. A lot of your questions have already been answered in one form or another.
 
Hopefully I get this right, I'm not actually in yet:

1) You have to participate in the match for military residencies. Your recruiter will make it sound like if you have the right to choose a civilian residency if you prefer. Actually they have to allow you to participate in a civilian residency, and they are not very likely to do so.

2) The competitiveness of military residencies varies from year to year, that's one of the main complaints about them. If the Army decides it needs a lot more orthos you may actually have an advantage over those trying to match as civilians, other years they might not even offer a slot. Usually somewhere in between.

or are some people forced to go civilian or not have a residency at all?

3) People aren't 'forced' to go civilian, if they go civilian it generally means they want it and fought for it. If you overestimate yourself, try for an competitive residency and fail to match you can get stuck doing a GMO tour. GMO tours mean you do a 1 year internship, then start working as a military doctor. You have to come back to residency later. This is rarest in the Army (probably won't happen unless you really overestimate yourself) and most common in the Navy (currently 50% do a GMO tour for at least a year, though supposedly they're phasing this out in five years).

I heard the army only have about 4 surgical programs. In the civilian world a typical program has 5 residents. Does that really mean the army only offers 20 surgery spots or is it even less? Or perhaps is 20 a lot for the number of applicant.

I think in the Navy they give out 250 HPSP scholarships a year (or tries to, they actually give away about 120). Add USUHS and you still have less than 400 (maximum) people competing for residency slots.
 
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Hopefully I get this right, I'm not actually in yet:

1) You have to participate in the match for military residencies. Your recruiter will make it sound like if you have the right to choose a civilian residency if you prefer. Actually they have to allow you to participate in a civilian residency, and they are not very likely to do so.

2) The competitiveness of military residencies varies from year to year, that's one of the main complaints about them. If the Army decides it needs a lot more orthos you may actually have an advantage over those trying to match as civilians, other years they might not even offer a slot. Usually somewhere in between.



3) People aren't 'forced' to go civilian, if they go civilian it generally means they want it and fought for it. If you overestimate yourself, try for an competitive residency and fail to match you can get stuck doing a GMO tour. GMO tours mean you do a 1 year internship, then start working as a military doctor. You have to come back to residency later. This is rarest in the Army (probably won't happen unless you really overestimate yourself) and most common in the Navy (currently 50% do a GMO tour for at least a year, though supposedly they're phasing this out in five years).



I think in the Navy they give out 250 HPSP scholarships a year (or tries to, they actually give away about 120). Add USUHS and you still have less than 400 (maximum) people competing for residency slots.

Perrotfish, please stop quoting numbers.

1) Yes, all military members must apply for the military match. Depending on service, you may or may not be granted a deferment but this is at the need of the individual service. Recruiters may often make this sound automatic, it is not.

2) True, but if a residency is competitive out of the service, it will be so in the service. An exception is Peds. It is less competitive on the outside, but very competitive in the service.

3) I will agree with most of this. Some like to think they are competitive when they are not. In the Navy at this time, none are forced to train in the civilian sector.

Finally, Navy HPSP has never reached the depth of 120 and USU students make up about 50 per yer.
 
I was wondering if anyone had any knowledge of how the Army military match honestly works.

:D

Anyone else like the use of terminology? Sorry, couldn't resist.
 
Hey again all,

I was wondering if anyone had any knowledge of how the Army military match honestly works.

The generals get together for casino night at Walter Reed and place roulette where the numbers are substituted with applicants' names. Wherever the ball lands, that's where you go for residency. To make the game interesting, the generals get drunk first and throw the ball blindfolded into the wheel.

There's an application form that is supposedly tied to a point system in determining the ranking of applicants. No data has confirmed the existence of such a ranking system. I think the form is meant to keep students busy during the month of September.
 
The generals get together for casino night at Walter Reed and place roulette where the numbers are substituted with applicants' names. Wherever the ball lands, that's where you go for residency. To make the game interesting, the generals get drunk first and throw the ball blindfolded into the wheel.

There's an application form that is supposedly tied to a point system in determining the ranking of applicants. No data has confirmed the existence of such a ranking system. I think the form is meant to keep students busy during the month of September.

I imagine a gigantic board of the game Risk, and each applicant is assigned a country. Then all the program directors fight it out for their countries/applicants. The crappy programs end up with Madagascar.
 
I imagine a gigantic board of the game Risk, and each applicant is assigned a country. Then all the program directors fight it out for their countries/applicants. The crappy programs end up with Madagascar.

Ah, but Madagascar is easily defended. Not as good as Austrailia, but dump a bunch of armies there and ........
 
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