***USAF to Physician***

[crazycooljoel]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

This is for all US Air Force non-traditional students working toward medical school. You can answer any or none of the following, I am sure many of us are curious and feel alone and in a unique situation. I got this idea from the USMC thread =P

How many of us are there?
What are the most common "road blocks" finishing medical pre-requisites?
How close to finishing are you?
Who plans on HPSP, USUHS, FAP, or stay get out completely?
At what point in your AF career did you decide this is what you want?
Anything other questions one may have?

----------------------------------------------------------------------

My "road blocks" are not being able to take the pre-requisites due to work, TDY's, and deployments. I am less than a year from completing my BA and may need to leave active duty to have the ability to finish. I plan on using either HPSP or attending USUHS; I want to come back to active duty as a physician.
I was trying to retrain into Pararescue but my flight doc convinced me I could make it through medical school and that would be a better route.

 

[KickedOut]

This is for all US Air Force non-traditional students working toward medical school. You can answer any or none of the following, I am sure many of us are curious and feel alone and in a unique situation. I got this idea from the USMC thread =P

How many of us are there?
What are the most common "road blocks" finishing medical pre-requisites?
How close to finishing are you?
Who plans on HPSP, USUHS, FAP, or stay get out completely?
At what point in your AF career did you decide this is what you want?
Anything other questions one may have?

Well you can count me as one of the USAF non-trads! Well, I guess I'm former AF (left active duty to finish my degree). I'm graduating in May and I'm blessed enough to be holding quite a few acceptances right now (and still waiting to hear back from a few more). I did not apply to USUHS and while I'm not currently planning on HPSP, I haven't completely ruled it out. I loved my time in the AF, but I'm all too aware that the needs of the AF come first (and I'd hate for that to conflict with my choice on where I want to perform my residency).

Feel free to shoot me a message or post here if you need/want help with anything!

Edit: Washington...does that mean Fairchild? I was there for good 'ole survival school!

 

[crazycooljoel]

Edit: Washington...does that mean Fairchild? I was there for good 'ole survival school!

Yes, I'm at Fairchild, haven't gone through survival school yet.

 

[ruraldocmom]

I'm former AF... got out in December after 7.5 years. I worked the pre-reqs & MCAT while on Active Duty, applied and got accepted this past summer, to start Fall 2011.

I knew I wanted to go to Med School since undergrad, but you know... life happens. You get involved with work, you travel cool places and do awesome things, you make great friends and work with good people and feel like maybe this is kind of all right... maybe this is as good as it gets. And then, I had a life-changing volunteer free-clinic experience and knew I had to do it.

I took classes, studied MCAT, starting getting the ducks in a row... its tough. Especially the MCAT prep with 55+ hour weeks, commuting to classes at night, discretely studying notecards during 16-hr exercise shifts, overnight PDF-line shifts, keeping up with classes while TDY/deployed, 2 kids at home & not enough sleep... but it works out. And I was lucky to have supportive bosses & regular hours (in the early days). And even luckier to be eligible for the VSP, so they actually paid me an incentive to leave (hello, sign I was waiting for!). I wish I hadn't waited so long. My biggest challenge was taking the jump and leaving the security & paycheck behind, making sure my family was taken care of so I could pursue this dream.

Anyway--good luck to you both!

 

[crazycooljoel]

Nice to meet you. The security and paycheck part is the hardest part for me. I am still stressing it just thinking about it as seriously as I am, and I am still 11 months from the end of my second enlistment. It is the unknown that is stressful. What is VSP?