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Hi, I'm a 4th year medical student and I have a 3-year HPSP commitment. I'm interested in emergency medicine and was hoping that someone could help me out with some questions and concerns...
I'm currently doing an EM rotation at Wright-Pat and I've put together the following story from a couple of the first year EM residents here:
A few years ago, some guy decided that the AF ERs were overmanned and they only allowed 12 ER residency slots total (military only, no civilian deferments were offered) for all applicants. This created a significant backwash of candidates who were shunted into transitional years. The following year the AF offered more slots, but since there was now a bunch of docs still wanting to do EM coming off their transitional year, these guys were given priority over the graduating medical students and only 1 graduating medical student got an EM residency slot. The AF still hasn't released the number of EM slots to be offered this year, but from the above story I'm guessing that whatever it is, my chances of getting a spot aren't good. I think I'd do well if I were just going into civilian match (Step 1 -229, Step 2 - 258, good clinical scores) but it sounds like my qualifications aren't a decisive factor.
I've read a great deal of the posts on this board, and I really wish that I could email this forum's threads to myself back when I was considering the scholarship. Anyway, this year the Air Force has instituted a policy whereby all students who are put into a PGY1 transitional year because they didn't get matched are automatically assigned to a 2-year Flight Surgeon tour, to make up for a personnel shortfall. So this looks likely to be in my future. I would really appreciate someone answering questions about this service:
- the way I understood it, the PGY1 doesn't count towards my 3 years of service, but the years as a Flight Surgeon would. So could I simply say okay, I'll do 3 years as a Flight Surgeon and then my commitment would be over? What about reserve time? I want to do something for my country and I've met a lot of great people in the Air Force and I do enjoy helping them, but not at the expense of my career. If I don't get to do EM despite working my ass off for 4 years and doing well, I would not consider re-applying for an Air Force residency - I'd just figured once burned, twice shy and finish off my contract as a Flight Surgeon. Any comments would be greatly appreciated!
I'm currently doing an EM rotation at Wright-Pat and I've put together the following story from a couple of the first year EM residents here:
A few years ago, some guy decided that the AF ERs were overmanned and they only allowed 12 ER residency slots total (military only, no civilian deferments were offered) for all applicants. This created a significant backwash of candidates who were shunted into transitional years. The following year the AF offered more slots, but since there was now a bunch of docs still wanting to do EM coming off their transitional year, these guys were given priority over the graduating medical students and only 1 graduating medical student got an EM residency slot. The AF still hasn't released the number of EM slots to be offered this year, but from the above story I'm guessing that whatever it is, my chances of getting a spot aren't good. I think I'd do well if I were just going into civilian match (Step 1 -229, Step 2 - 258, good clinical scores) but it sounds like my qualifications aren't a decisive factor.
I've read a great deal of the posts on this board, and I really wish that I could email this forum's threads to myself back when I was considering the scholarship. Anyway, this year the Air Force has instituted a policy whereby all students who are put into a PGY1 transitional year because they didn't get matched are automatically assigned to a 2-year Flight Surgeon tour, to make up for a personnel shortfall. So this looks likely to be in my future. I would really appreciate someone answering questions about this service:
- the way I understood it, the PGY1 doesn't count towards my 3 years of service, but the years as a Flight Surgeon would. So could I simply say okay, I'll do 3 years as a Flight Surgeon and then my commitment would be over? What about reserve time? I want to do something for my country and I've met a lot of great people in the Air Force and I do enjoy helping them, but not at the expense of my career. If I don't get to do EM despite working my ass off for 4 years and doing well, I would not consider re-applying for an Air Force residency - I'd just figured once burned, twice shy and finish off my contract as a Flight Surgeon. Any comments would be greatly appreciated!
