Medical School after ROTC

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lcs3beastmode

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I am aware of how competetive it is to fill a slot for a delay in your service for med school after ROTC. On average, how many students that apply for a delay (or HPSP) get rejected compared to the number that get accepted?

I will be majoring in biology (lots of work), if I can achieve a 3.5+ GPA with a good MCAT score, will it be likely Ill still be given a slot?

If I apply for a medical school and get accepted, is it most likely that I can go to that school immediately upon graduation?
-Thanks for the help everyone
 
lcs3beastmode said:
If I apply for a medical school and get accepted, is it most likely that I can go to that school immediately upon graduation?
Click to expand...

See page 20 on the accessions briefing HERE

It appears that most who apply get an educational delay.
 
Ed delays aren't that difficult and if you do get into med school I can almost guarantee it will be accepted.

On a side note I know biology is difficult as well as being the most common pre-med major. However because bio majors have so much work they actually have on average the lowest MCAT scores. Nowadays med schools like well rounded applicants and around ~50% of accepted students don't even have a science degree. Since biology without a PhD has a rather low job yield, be cognisant of different majors if medical school is your only goal with that particular degree field. Two guys I know who got into med school and did very well on the MCAT were theatre and English majors respectively....
 
Did I miss something?

The OP did not state which branch as far as I saw, shouldn't we ask which branch before saying anything?:confused:
 
I assume the delays are consistent for all the branches as HPSP and USHUS apply to all services. My comment was directed at AROTC, but if it's different for AF/Navy then I stand corrected. In general though you will get a delay if accepted to med school, they are not going to turn down a doc prospect.
 
Pima said:
The OP did not state which branch as far as I saw,
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since OP has the word "beast" in the moniker, I assumed OP is referring to Army ROTC, since "Beast" is at the Military Academy --- and Plebe Summer is the moniker for this at the Naval Academy... don't know what the Air Force Academy calls their summer prior to freshman classes.
 
The AFA calls that summer Beast.

Beast from what I understand is partially called Beast because when you say BCT it sounds like beast. Other part obviously is because it is a beast.
 
I did Army ROTC and then went straight on to medical school. Unfortunately for me, I took the ROTC scholarship to an expensive school before I decided on medicine. While in school, it wasn't so much the demand on my free time as it was course scheduling. ROTC classes and labs are typically locked into specific time slots, which really limit options for other classes. This issue is amplified with a pre-med curriculum, which contains a lot of science courses with labs. You'll want the flexibility to take the courses and professors you want to keep up your GPA. Military is under no obligation to let you go to medical school. If you apply for and receive HPSP, then that will help to sway them, but then you've just committed yourself to at least 11 years on active duty. Obligating yourself until the age of 36 when you're a senior in college is rarely a good thing.
Remember that every single HPSP student gets the same rank and pay in about 5 minutes what it took you 4 years to earn. And it's not like being an ROTC graduate alone gets you a ton of respect from the NCOs. Unless you've got a ridiculously expensive tuition bill that you can't pay, then I don't see much benefit in ROTC for someone intending to go straight to medical school.
 
ronniew said:
I did Army ROTC and then went straight on to medical school. Unfortunately for me, I took the ROTC scholarship to an expensive school before I decided on medicine. While in school, it wasn't so much the demand on my free time as it was course scheduling. ROTC classes and labs are typically locked into specific time slots, which really limit options for other classes. This issue is amplified with a pre-med curriculum, which contains a lot of science courses with labs. You'll want the flexibility to take the courses and professors you want to keep up your GPA. Military is under no obligation to let you go to medical school. If you apply for and receive HPSP, then that will help to sway them, but then you've just committed yourself to at least 11 years on active duty. Obligating yourself until the age of 36 when you're a senior in college is rarely a good thing.
Remember that every single HPSP student gets the same rank and pay in about 5 minutes what it took you 4 years to earn. And it's not like being an ROTC graduate alone gets you a ton of respect from the NCOs. Unless you've got a ridiculously expensive tuition bill that you can't pay, then I don't see much benefit in ROTC for someone intending to go straight to medical school.
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I agree. About every 2LT med student or junior resident CPT I see walking around direct commissioned (as ronniew said, took the oath and got their bars). If medicine is the only thing you to do in the army I would avoid ROTC for a few reasons.

1. Peer support within the batt is low, most people simply are not pre-med and don't know the expectations already placed on you
2. Most cadre don't know your situation and class rigor
3. Training and MS class schedules are not always friendly to labs (I have seen nurses get off certain duties for clinicals but never pre-med cadets)
4. Simply unneeded stress and filled up summers that could have been used for classes or MCAT prep
All in all if you want to be a doc in the army, pay your own way and study hard. Once your acceptance they will not turn you away and boom you are a 2LT just like ROTC peers.
 
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