Pre-med, ROTC and Reserves?

[stbwo95]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I'll be starting my freshman year in Sept 2013 as a pre-med student, as well as an ROTC cadet. I'll be taking part in the SMP program (being part of the Reserves and ROTC). I'm officially enlisting around Sept or Oct 2013, and doing the Split Op, where i'll leave for Basic in June 2014 and AIT June 2015. I won't be deployed because I'll be part of ROTC during college, but what about during medical school?

My #1 question is, what are my chances of being deployed? I don't want to be deployed until after my residency.

How can I avoid being deployed? Should I get a scholarship or should I go to USUHS?

Please help, i'm lost and I have no idea what to do.

 

[xffan624]

I'll be starting my freshman year in Sept 2013 as a pre-med student, as well as an ROTC cadet. I'll be taking part in the SMP program (being part of the Reserves and ROTC). I'm officially enlisting around Sept or Oct 2013, and doing the Split Op, where i'll leave for Basic in June 2014 and AIT June 2015. I won't be deployed because I'll be part of ROTC during college, but what about during medical school?

My #1 question is, what are my chances of being deployed? I don't want to be deployed until after my residency.

How can I avoid being deployed? .

This is the reason why medical folks don't respect from the grunts in the military. If you don't want to deploy, DON'T JOIN THE MILITARY!

Although by the time you're done with college, medical school, and residency (10+ years) our footprint in Afghanistan will likely be small, who knows where we'll be at that point.

When I was a freshman in college talking to a recruiter about the reserves in early Sept 2001, the idea of going to war with the Army reserves seemed unlikely... until a week later when Sept 11 happened.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I think the OP's question has more to do with not wanting to be deployed DURING medical school rather than not wanting to be deployed in general...

 

[Mr Avante]

Although by the time you're done with college, medical school, and residency (10+ years) our footprint in Afghanistan will likely be small, who knows where we'll be at that point.

Waging war against the galactic empire

 

[xffan624]

I think the OP's question has more to do with not wanting to be deployed DURING medical school rather than not wanting to be deployed in general...

Mea culpa. I did misread it, but I think the general sentiment is correct.

If you're part of the reserves, they can/will send you whether you're in school or not (unless part of USUHS or HPSP). I knew a guy in college in the Marine reserves who missed 6 months of school to go in on the initial invasion of Iraq.

Easy way out of deployment... develop sleep apnea It's a non-deployable condition, although the way the military is sizing down they might start booting out the non-deployables at some point.

 

[stbwo95]

I know that SMP cadets are undeployable. But I'm guessing I'll go for the scholarship or USUHS for med school. Thanks for the help 🙂

 

[yesbutno]

You will have to compete for an educational delay as an Army cadet to go to medical school (GPA and PT score make up the lion's share of the ranking for this).

It's extremely unlikely that you'd be deployed as a cadet or medical student, regardless of whether you have a scholarship or not. You're more useful to the military after finishing training, so there isn't much incentive to pull you out of school. I've certainly never heard of it happening.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=815138

 

[deleted530324]

i'm lost and I have no idea what to do.

What do you WANT to do? Get that figured out. Don't be worried that maybe you don't know at the moment. There are a lot of people in your boots right now, just look around at your fellow freshman. However, being lost and joining the military with the mindset of not wanting to be deployed is backwards, friend.

I'm assuming you want to be a doctor, since you've posted here, and because you don't want to be deployed it seems you don't want to be anything but a doctor in the military. Your primary concern should be getting into med school then. Once you've achieved that, you can make your commitment to the service.

If being a doctor is what you want, why give up your ability to pursue any and every avenue to that end? In ROTC you'll have two options, get into medical school the first time, or do it after your commitment is over. Moreover, why do the SMP program? Although I really don't know anything about it, it sounds like it's intended to make more well rounded officers by giving them *some* enlisted experience. But you want to be a doctor, not a platoon leader, right?


Anyway, that's my spiel. If you have other (not financial) reasons for ROTC, go for it. Be advised, it takes up a lot of time that you may wish you could use to bolster your med school application with more relevant experiences.

Also, check out the Military subforum here:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forumdisplay.php?f=72
There's a wealth of information there regarding what military medicine would be like, and people more experienced than me to give you their opinions.

 

[jayoh]

This post is kind of confusing, because it sounds like you want to use every military scholarship available without having to deploy or go active duty. If you go reserves and ROTC, and they pay for undergrad, then you SHOULD have to deploy and go active duty.

If you want to be a physician in the military, though, there is the HPSP, HSCP, and USUHS. All of which will pay you, let you finish med school and residency before any deployment, and have some active duty commitment associated with them.

You should really double check to make sure that it is even possible to do the ROTC/reserves thing during undergrad then go straight into a different scholarship/usuhs without ever having paid your commitment for undergrad.

I have respect for you for wanting to serve, as I am a veteran myself, but I can't help but feel like you don't understand what serving really is.

 

[jayoh]

I didn't see anyone being an "anti-military knucklehead", and I certainly hope you weren't referring to me.

 

[deleted551990]

If you do the ROTC thing, you can't just take another scholarship to get out of serving your commitment when you graduate. You'll likely be deployed and whatnot just like every other reservist

 

[deleted530324]

If you do the ROTC thing, you can't just take another scholarship to get out of serving your commitment when you graduate. You'll likely be deployed and whatnot just like every other reservist

Not necessarily.

With ROTC you'll have an opportunity to apply to medical school directly from college, but if you don't get in, or aren't ready to apply, you're chances of going are almost zero until your commitment is up. You really only have one shot to apply during the summer after your Junior year.

The commitment is stacking, as well. So for ROTC cadets who are already looking at 4-5 years of active duty commitment (I'm not sure what SMP could add), plus adding at least 4 more from medical school, you're looking at committing to at least 8 years of active duty service. None of those years start counting as service until after your residency. You should expect to be in the military until you're 38 years old. And if you've been ironing your uniform for twenty years since you started ROTC, you might get a bit perturbed that you've only really put 8 years into that 20 year requirement for retirement benefits.

If you're 18 now, have no idea what to do, and don't want to be deployed, I suggest taking the road that leaves the most doors open so you can choose what to do once you do know.

Don't make commitments to do something 4 or 12 years from now. If you do your research you'll find a lot of viable options which allow you to sign up after college or after medical school and offer to pay off your student debt completely if you're smart and don't go to a private or out of state school like I did. Now, there's no way of knowing what programs will still be available in the future, especially considering this post-war era we're going into in which government spending is being cut as much as possible.

Anyway, everything I'm saying is based off the research I did which was relevant to myself a few years ago. Things change. I consider my estimates to be on the kinder side, assuming everything goes right and none of the administrative military folks mess up your paperwork and have you sitting around and waiting.


As an example of something I'm considering, check out this link to the Navy's Health Professions Loan Repayment Program (HPLRP):

http://www.med.navy.mil/sites/navmedmpte/accessions/Pages/LoanRepayment.aspx

You join after med school. Every year you serve, they pay off a year of your debt, roughly speaking.

 

[Lil Mick]

If you plan on attending medical school, do not involve yourself with the ROTC. Instead, I recommend researching the Healthcare Professionals Scholarship Program. It's a scholarship program, offered through all three branches of the military, that will pay for 1-all years of medical school. In addition to full tuition, the program offers a $20,000 sign on bonus, $1,200/year for books, and a little over $2,000/month as a stipend. The drawback: you have to serve as many years as you had the scholarship cover your tuition for. If they only paid for two years, you'd serve two years, all four years, you'd serve four years, and so forth. This seems like a small price to pay, once you've considered the accumulated debt you would have after four years of medical school.

Additionally, the Army will match you to one of their residency programs months before civilian residencies are matched. This means that, if for some reason you didn't get matched to one of the many Army residencies, you would still have an opportunity to be matched to civilian opportunities.

Furthermore, after you've finished your residency, you get employed at a military hospital immediately as a Captain in the US Army. What this means is that you are gaining valuable experience while your civilian colleagues are chasing down fellowships and/or attempting to work with other doctors in the practice.

Don't let the anti-military knuckleheads here get you down. You need to do all your research before committing to anything military related. The Army does have great options for aspiring docs, and they typically excess slots open for applicants.

These are probably your better options. Reserves will call you up if needed--had one of my buddies go through that three times while he tried to finish undergrad before medical school. ROTC is great (but I might be biased). However, nothing is too certain after you sign on and don't get into medical school, and it is a big time commitment while you are in undergrad trying to get good grades and gain experience in the medical field. There are many options to serve later during medical school in a capacity that will allow you to serve as a doctor (scholarships and the service academy).

Send me a PM if you want to talk more.

 

[BLACKMD]

Lots of bad info here! I am a ROTC premed. I'm applying for the HPSP next year along with USHUS when I apply to med school. If you get in they simply take your initial ROTC pay back requirement (4years) and tack it on to your HPSP/USHUS time (avg 4-7 years). So by the time I finish residency I am looking at 8-11 years of service obligation. This is fine with me though. I've already served 7 and this gets me close to my Army retirement. If you have any questions feel free to pm me.

 

[BLACKMD]

Also.... NONDEPLOYABLE while under educational contract (ROTC or HPSP). But know this, your first day out of residency you can be deployed for however long they want. You have to be okay with that.