ironman05 said:
Can someone WHO HAS COMPLETELY GONE THROUGH THE PROCESS AND MATCHED please explain specifically how the match works IN THE ARMY. I know that each service is a little different. I really want to do the HPSP in the US ARMY and look forward to being a military physician and do a military residency (understanding all of the positives and negatives posted). However, no one has yet to clearly explain how exactly the match works in the ARMY. I'd really appreciate the insight from someone who already went through it and matched. Do you apply to the ERAS for civilan too in case you do not match?
Are there typically a lot of Emergency Medicine or Orthopedic slots?
Thanks so much for providing this information.
The Army and civilian match processes are actually remarkably similar. You'll initially apply to both civilian and Army programs, which means you still have to submit to ERAS, register for the match, write a personal statement, obtain letters of recommendation, get a Dean's letter, etc., etc.
The most important difference is that the Army match is much earlier. October 15th is the deadline for everything to be submitted; the only exception is the Dean's letter which isn't released usually until November 1st. That means that everything, to include ERAS, personal statement, LORs, away rotations, Army interviews, step II CK, as well as several online forms specific to the Army (most importantly your rank-order list) are due no later than October 15th. In the civilian world, the absolutely earliest you can rank programs is January 15th, to give you some idea of the different timelines.
I would also mention that step II CK scores must be
reported by October 15th, so allow 4-6 weeks for USMLE to get those scores to you. Effectively, you should probably take step II no later than September 15th, which can be problematic if you are also trying to schedule interviews and conduct away rotations.
All the while, you are still moving forward with the civilian match process. Programs, depending on the specialty, will begin scheduling interviews beginning in September and they run, typically, through the end of January.
The week after Thanksgiving, the military selection board meets in Washington D.C., and the match results from that board are released sometime on or around the 15th of December. If the board selects you to complete an Army residency, you are required to withdraw from the civlian match.
Now, if you've planned ahead, you could at this point save thousands of dollars in interviewing costs if you scheduled your civilian interviews in late December and January. Once you've matched with the Army, you can simply cancel your civilian interviews. However, some specialties interview early enough (November and December) that you won't be able to avoid interviewing at some civilian programs.
If you don't match with an Army Residency, then it probably means one of two things. Either 1) you've been selected to complete an Army internship after which you will become a general medical officer for several years before returning to complete residency training, or 2) you've been given a civilian deferment, in which case you continue with the match process as if the Army were never an issue.
I can't speak specifically about the competitiveness of either emergency medicine or orthopedics, but if you haven't even started medical school yet, I'd caution you that you are overwhelmingly likely to change your mind about your specialty in the absence of some sort of previous exposure to those fields. I do know, however, that there are 5 Army ortho and 3 Army EM programs, but I don't know how many residents they accept each year. Overall, in the Army, it's extremely difficult to predict competitiveness for a specialty because the small applicant pool means that small shifts in the pool's preferences results in a relatively large change in a specialty's competitiveness. In general, the program directors in the Army will be very honest with you about your likelihood of matching a) at all, and b) at your program of choice.
Most folks doing Army medicine get to train in the specialty of their choice, and nowadays, thanks to continuous contracts, most people get to complete their training without interruption. Making yourself a competitive applicant helps make sure you get what you want and when you want it. However, there is still the possibility that you will have to serve as a GMO, and if you're not prepared for the contingency, then I suggest you rethink doing HPSP. There are other options for joining the Army, albeit less fiscally attractive ones, like FAP, or the loan repayment program, if you desire to retain more control over your graduate medical education.
Sorry for the lengthy response, but I can sympathize with someone trying to construct this whole process while in the dark. Feel free to PM me with additional questions.
