I was only there for Friday, but there really wasn't any new info (that couldn't be gotten from these forums). It was pretty heavily navy-focused as well. I went there mainly to see Fighting For Life, which was sweet, and to meet some new classmates. It was a good time.
Haha, well it is a Navy base
😛 Although, I do admit there were a lot more Navy potential students than any other - and it seemed all the waitlisters were Navy.
I think there was new information that I got, but it was from questions I asked not presentations. You all may have already knew this, but here's what I learned:
1. I was concerned that if I went to USUHS and got sick then not only would I not be in the military anymore but I'd be kicked out of medical school too since it is a military medical school. I heard from a couple of people about two instances where this did not happen. There was one guy who became a quad during 3rd or 4th year, they let him finish and then immediately decommissioned him after graduation. There was also someone who was diagnosed with leukemia during second year, and they let him finish on his own time (it took him more than 2.5 years to finish with all his treatment) and then decommissioned him after graduation. If it's your fault (i.e. car accident where you were at fault) they probably wouldn't do this, but they understand there are things beyond your control and you still deserve to become a physician.
2. For any women out there that worry about having kids while in the military, I talked to several women who have children of varying ages and they all said you can make it work. Some of them were even deployed for a while. I spoke of my conflicting desires to work, but also to stay home with kids. In the civilian world I could drop down the part time, but I can't really do that in the military (being a reservist is dropping way down). They made me feel a lot better about all that.
3. I asked a bit about the logistics of ODS this summer and getting my stuff across the country. For Navy, it was hectic for them last summer because it sounds like they didn't get their orders until like 2 days before ODS and you need orders to set everything up. If people want to know more about timing, I'd be happy to share what I've heard.
That's really all I remember right now. If I think of anything else, I'll come back and post again
🙂
Edit: haha, of course, I hit post and then immediately remember something. I asked about prep for Step 1. I heard it's not great and definitely could be better. I guess last year they actually went down. The closest Kaplan is in Georgetown which is annoying to get to, but apparently this years 2nd years are talking about getting money to bring Kaplan to USUHS (I heard this from a first year). In addition, I heard them talk about getting a practice exam for students to take. There were two explanations for why Step 1 scores tend to be average:
a. The school teaches what they think you should know and do not teach to the test like other schools. Now that could be a positive or a negative depending on how important a good step score is to you.
b. The students know they're going somewhere. It's the military and they're spending money on you so you know you're going to have some sort of a job when you're done. If you don't care about getting a competative residency then you don't need a top board score and maybe don't care so much about prepping for it.
You get up to 6 weeks off to study (mostly done without the help of the school). The step 1 is what you make of it. According to a 3rd year I talked to, while the average went down, some of the top scores came from USUHS students, so if you want to you can get what you need.
. Congrats again. See you in June.
