Army Transition ARNG to med school

[michael.eliason]

Hey all,
I'm currently in the Army National Guard as a combat medic, and I am having trouble figuring out what to do with my life between now and med school. I'm 2 years out from medical school(if I make the cut), but my contract ends 3 years from now. I know that HPSP, USUHS, and some other medical commissioning programs will work with current contracts, but I don't want to limit myself to military medicine, especially with the way it seems like military medicine is going.
My question is this: If I don't decide to go into military medicine, is it wise to wait a year to finish my military obligation, or should I try to get into a civilian program, IST to that state and try to SUTA AT before the last couple months of my contract?
I can use that year to be a medical assistant for a PA I am currently scribing for, I could take more time to study for the MCAT, more service, shadowing, etc. but I don't want to prolong my time before med school if possible.
I know that nothing is guaranteed with the military and it would be very hard to drill and do school, I just thought I'd see what you all thought before I make any decisions.
V/r

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[FlowRate]

There are a bunch of people here who are infinitely more knowledgeable about everything military than myself. I'm just reflecting that it sounds like you want to keep your options as open as possible in which case the answer seems more clear--apply broadly to med school like any other applicant either in the last year of your enlistment or the year after you leave. Given I don't know much about military stuff will leave it up to others to opine on ways of working the system to leave early, feasibility of applying while still serving, or transition to military med training etc.

 

[TheTruckGuy]

See if you can switch into the reserves to finish out your service obligation while in med school. Depending on where your med school is there may be some guard units close by that would take you. Not sure how feasible this is, but worth looking into. Could also go ahead and apply to med school, and then if accepted request that they defer your acceptance by a year (have seen them do this for an officer that the Army didn't want to give an HPSP contract to because they wanted him to stay in his primary billet). If not accepted, then continue with your plan to make yourself more competitive for the following year.

I have also seen people do something to get out of their enlistments early. Not sure what they did, and it was in the Navy, but one E6 corpsman with about 11 years of service just decided one day she didn't want to do it anymore. I think she had another 2 years on her enlistment, but she was able get out.

 

[burrito-consumer]

I'm a 68W Guardsman whose contract should end in early 2023. Obtaining a conditional release before then is relatively easy given that I'm intending to go USUHS or HPSP. As long as I'm staying in the Army, they're glad to let go of a year of owning my soul in exchange for another decade of it.

If I was not going into military medicine, however, they would probably deny my release. I would have to drill during medical school. It is possible to spend your last few drills with another unit in a different state or to transfer to that state, depending on how much time is left in your contract.