ROTC? Best way to get into USUHS?

[ijustwannasaveppl]

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[ijustwannasaveppl]

I did ROTC to medical school and I would advise against it. While it helped with my resume to get me into a great medical school, the situation is strongly stacked against you in terms of time commitment, scheduling difficulties, and of course the wills of the Army.

I would only do ROTC if you are comfortable going into the military directly after college as a line officer. There are many threads on SDN that explore the situation further, but a good next step if you are looking to follow this path is to contact the ROTC program at the university that you are considering and ask to speak with pre-meds in the ROTC program/medical students who graduated from the program. If they are conspicuously absent or unreachable, take it as a red flag. Questions to ask: how many people have gone through the program to get to medical school? How many have tried and failed? Is the ROTC program supportive of the pre-med situation?

Also consider that ROTC covers tuition, some small expenses, and a miniscule stipend. You'll still be in debt from housing and living expenses (unless you find a supplemental income source, scholarship or have financial support). HPSP, while also controversial on this site, is a SIGNIFICANTLY better deal. College loans are 4% lower interest rates, medical school is way more expensive generally, the HPSP stipend (and bonus if that's still around) is significantly more, and HPSP guarantees a physician job while ROTC guarantees nothing about your future. Also HPSP has no requirements while you're in school whereas ROTC is a daily remember that you're committed to the Army doing non-medical things. I'm making the case that HPSP is way better than ROTC, and people still bash HPSP on this forum. That should give you an idea about ROTC.

By the way, WernickeDO's post about ROTC being a weekend job is absolutely false. I had PT at 6am 3-6 days a week, ROTC classroom 2 days a week, ROTC field lab once per week, and a weekend trip about every 1-2 months where there was no opportunity to study. Then junior year was even more intense, culminating in the ****-show that is LDAC for 2 months between junior and senior year (when medical school applications are starting).

As a side note, I empathize with your situation. I grew up in an affluent environment and was blindsided when the financial support for university was absent. I chose the ROTC route and while I'm proud of making it through to medical school and beyond, my college experience was the most miserable and intense four years of my life. Best of luck and remember that you'll be the only one who lives and deals with the decisions that you make--not your judgmental community.

 

[WernickeDO]

Hey guys. I've been snooping around this forum for a long time now (kindly disregard my old, sappy teenager posts on how much I want to be a army doc) and have been accepted to Baylor University's premed program. My end goal is to get to USUHS by any means necessary. Should I participate in Army ROTC, or would they just commission me as an officer and not think twice about my med school? I want to know the best way to get into USUHS, and any advice is appreciated. I want to serve and I want to be an Army surgeon, not stuck with a meaningless biology degree doing piles of paperwork at some post.
Thanks in advance!

The best way to get into USUHS (or any med school for that matter) is to have a high GPA, a good MCAT score, and some kind of research experience under your belt. Getting in some clinical shadowing time is a good thing too, more for your own edification. Don't go ROTC unless you want to serve as a line officer rather than a doctor.

 

[ijustwannasaveppl]

The best way to get into USUHS (or any med school for that matter) is to have a high GPA, a good MCAT score, and some kind of research experience under your belt. Getting in some clinical shadowing time is a good thing too, more for your own edification. Don't go ROTC unless you want to serve as a line officer rather than a doctor.

Thanks for the advice! I definitely think it will be easier to focus on a high GPA without the added stress of ROTC.

 

[Cooperd0g]

Do not do ROTC if your primary goal is medical school.

 

[pgg]

ROTC will significantly harm your chances of going to medical school right after college. Don't do it unless you want to spend some time as a line officer before medical school (which is great if that's what you WANT to do).

gpa = MCAT >> research >>> "medical experience / shadowing" >>> everything else

It is a numbers game. Don't get lost in the weeds and lose sight of gpa and MCAT.

 

[Red Lobster Actual]

For more practical advice...

gpa = MCAT >> research >>> "medical experience / shadowing" >>> everything else

I'm going to differ somewhat from Dr. pgg on this.

GPA = MCAT>>>>>>>>research = medical experience/shadowing>>>everything else

Split attention between research and medical experiences. Getting into research is pretty straightforward since most labs love free labor that undergrads can provide. IIRC Baylor has robust research programs. Meaningful medical experience is much harder to come by thanks to patient privacy and all but I would spend the effort seeking it out. This will help you out in two ways. One it will give you something to talk about on your application down the line and two, more importantly, will let you know if this is something you want to do.

In general...

OP, you should pick up a major that can land you a job after college. I know it seems hard to read this but you are a freshman in college and you barely begun the trials most of us on this thread have gone through to get into medical school. Many people start with wanting to become a doctor and almost just as many wind up finding other paths in life.

Pick up a major and experiences that can land you a good job after graduation. Just in case. Plus those extra experiences will help you grow as a person. Otherwise your pre-med degree is just as useful as a $10/hr job pipetting microorganisms from one tube to another.

Oh, and if you get far enough to do well on the MCAT...then start musing on why military medicine and all the things you have to do to answer that question.

Good luck and may the odds be ever in your favor.

 

[Monty Python]

For more practical advice...

Snip

Pick up a major and experiences that can land you a good job after graduation. Just in case. Plus those extra experiences will help you grow as a person. Otherwise your pre-med degree is just as useful as a $10/hr job pipetting microorganisms from one tube to another.
.

Father-in-law did this, getting a BS in Pharmacy. That curriculum easily satisfied the med school prereqs. Competition for med school in the years immediately after WW2 was fierce, with vets who had spent 3-4 years overseas swelling the applicant pool when added to the "normal timeline" applicants several years their junior. He was unsuccessful twice, then got accepted on the third try. He always had a job as a pharmacist prior to matriculating med school, and also during med school breaks.

 

[ijustwannasaveppl]

A huge thank you to everyone who replied! I need to stop worrying about the future and start focusing on the NOW- and the now is good MCAT scores and GPA. I do not want a huge gap from premed to med school, and with ROTC it would be super hard to get a good GPA. Thanks for helping make my decision easier! All of your advice is wonderful, and I have realized grades and research experience are more important to med schools than anything else.