Posted on Oct 17, 2018
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Hi, first question here. I am a high school senior who is heavily considering military service of some sort, preferably as a doctor in the Army. I plan to apply to HPSP or USUHS after my undergrad. However, an Army recruiter got ahold of me through my school and asked me to consider joining the Army Reserve as a medic during college, claiming that it will provide me with extra experience and financial aid that will help me on my way to med school. They also said that I can fullfill my active duty time from the enlistment contract after I get commisioned. However, I talked to two teachers that were officers in the military who told me to not trust recruiters. Also, especially with the high attrition rates of prospective medical students, my parents would kill me if I stayed as enlisted. With that said, would the benefits outweigh the costs of joining the Reserve as a medic first, or should I wait until I finish my undergrad and apply directly to military med school? Additionally, if I were to choose the enlisted Reserve route first, how much extra time would this take?
Potential Recruit
Medicine
Recruiter
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 6
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You should join either the active or reserve component and use the Tuition Assistance to pay for your undergraduate. Being a medic is irrelevant, just focus on college in order to meet the prereqs for medical school. The active component has a program for Soldiers with bachelors to attend a post bacc program at USUHS for two years to prep for med school application.
The reason you should enlist first is because you will be viewed more favorably than your civilian competition because you've shown you're adaptable to military life already. There is no extra time added or slowing you down by enlisting first. The only part that will slow you down is the period you are in basic and AIT. You can just as easily be a fueler or supply clerk, it's only one weekend a month and two weeks over the summer. The best part is that you can finish your undergraduate without owing any money.
The reason you should enlist first is because you will be viewed more favorably than your civilian competition because you've shown you're adaptable to military life already. There is no extra time added or slowing you down by enlisting first. The only part that will slow you down is the period you are in basic and AIT. You can just as easily be a fueler or supply clerk, it's only one weekend a month and two weeks over the summer. The best part is that you can finish your undergraduate without owing any money.
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SFC (Join to see)
MAJ (Join to see) ROTC is another good option. I wasn't saying he shouldn't do ROTC, I was saying he should use the military to pay for college as opposed to waiting until his undergraduate. His question was very wordy and confusing but I think he was asking if he should join VS waiting, not which route should he join.
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PV2 Kadel Fu
SFC (Join to see) Sorry for the wordy and confusing question. My main question was whether I should enlist as a medic first, but any information helps.
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SFC (Join to see)
PV2 Kadel Fu whether you should enlist, join ROTC, go Active, Reserves, or National Guard is a really in depth conversation. The best thing is to identify your end goal, time line, and the amount of suck and financial stress you can handle. Do you want to be a poor college student and push through school? Or maybe you want to be financially stable and move through school slowly. Maybe some mixture of both. That's just for the undergrad. Then there are the routes to medical school: USUHS, HSPS, AMEDD direct commissions, and probably even more. It's best to talk to a subject matter expert in each field. No single person can tell you what will work best in your situation because you're basically a blank slate at this point.
I would talk to these people:
Active duty Recruiter
Army Reserves Recruiter/Career Counselor
Army National Guard Recruiter/Career Counselor
AMEDD Recruiter
ROTC Cadre/Recruiter
Green to Gold recruiter
Research these programs:
Enlisted medical degree preparatory program
USUHS
HPSP
ROTC
Army Green to Gold
Tuition Assistance and scholarship programs of your specific state National Guard (they vary by state)
You'll see I put active duty recruiter and career counselor separate. In the Guard and Reserves they are the same thing. In the Active Duty the recruiter gets you in and the Career Counselor guides you on the programs available to you while you're in.
It's a lot of research. Feel free to contact me directly when you have questions. I'll give you the information I know and point you in the right direction for the information I don't know.
I would talk to these people:
Active duty Recruiter
Army Reserves Recruiter/Career Counselor
Army National Guard Recruiter/Career Counselor
AMEDD Recruiter
ROTC Cadre/Recruiter
Green to Gold recruiter
Research these programs:
Enlisted medical degree preparatory program
USUHS
HPSP
ROTC
Army Green to Gold
Tuition Assistance and scholarship programs of your specific state National Guard (they vary by state)
You'll see I put active duty recruiter and career counselor separate. In the Guard and Reserves they are the same thing. In the Active Duty the recruiter gets you in and the Career Counselor guides you on the programs available to you while you're in.
It's a lot of research. Feel free to contact me directly when you have questions. I'll give you the information I know and point you in the right direction for the information I don't know.
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Honestly, with your goal of becoming a doctor, an enlistment in the Army Reserve as a combat medic is going to do little in terms of assisting you with medical school. The college money is a drop in the bucket for what you will need, and the medic training (civilian equivalent to an EMT) is not going to exempt you from the required courses you will have to take in pre-med. There are paths to becoming an Army Doctor, but an Army Reserve medic isn't really one of them. The good news is that those paths can significantly cover the expenses of medical school, whether up front with scholarships or on the back end with student loan re-payment. You would just owe the Army active duty time, followed by some reserve time, as a commissioned health care professional. Good Luck.
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TSgt David Holman
SFC J Fullerton The other thing I would point out from a current medic is that your training is more geared toward the nursing side of the house, and you don't really get into the stuff that would prepare you to be a privileged provider unless you go the IDMT/IDC route (which you can't do until you are at least an E4 with experience). On top of that, a reserve medic is going to see time one weekend a month, 2 weeks a year (unless on a deployment or on Active Orders) and unless you are working in the medical field on the outside, those skills will quickly diminish. PV2 Kadel Fu I would seriously recommend that you take some of the advice from lower on the board, apply for as many scholarships as you can, and go the USHUS route if possible. Worst case scenario, you can usually work loan repayment into a contract.
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LTC Jason Mackay
PV2 Kadel Fu - and SFC J Fullerton 68W is a little more involved now.
Soldiers in this MOS must also obtain certification from the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians at the EMT level or higher. They also merged combat medic with LPN when they made 68W
Medics were the primary source of Army PAs until the last few years, which the Army would send you to school to become a PA. Now they take Civilian PAs in off the street.
PV2 Kadel Fu , enlist or don't. If your goal is to become an MD and you have the way forward, go forth. If you don't have the means or you are unsure, enlisting is a good way to work with doctors, nurses, and other medical treatment professionals
Soldiers in this MOS must also obtain certification from the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians at the EMT level or higher. They also merged combat medic with LPN when they made 68W
Medics were the primary source of Army PAs until the last few years, which the Army would send you to school to become a PA. Now they take Civilian PAs in off the street.
PV2 Kadel Fu , enlist or don't. If your goal is to become an MD and you have the way forward, go forth. If you don't have the means or you are unsure, enlisting is a good way to work with doctors, nurses, and other medical treatment professionals
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