Med Doctor

USAFAc/o18

5-Year Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2014
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6
Are there any cadets out there that are in med school or will be going to med school that would be willing to answer a few questions?
 
I was looking forward to reading this thread. Sorry to see there are no replies yet.
 
Perhaps either the OP or you should post your questions and allow the collective wisdom of this site to attempt to address them. You never know.....you might get lucky.
 
Start here: http://www.serviceacademyforums.com...chinfo=1&photoplog_searchquery=medical+school

And here: http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/showthread.php?t=24529&highlight=medical+school

I went through the entire medical school application process and opted for grad school instead. Many of my friends did go to medical school and just graduated from various medical programs. I can answer some questions, but prefer specific questions rather than a generalization. Do a few searches and read these threads and I will be happy to answer what questions I can after.
 
What does your class rank need to be in the range of to get the opportunity of med school? How hard is it to get the opportunity to go to med school post USAFA? Does the individual or the Air Force choose the residency specialization? Where are the common work places for a doctor?
 
Does the individual or the Air Force choose the residency specialization? Where are the common work places for a doctor?

I can't answer your first questions with any authority at all; however, these two I can help with.

Residency selection is completed through the Joint Graduate Medical Education Service Board (JGMESB ) to which one applies as a senior medical student. You will be able to apply to whatever specialty you would like (unless the Air Force has no need for a particular specialty such as the Navy with PM&R for many years); however if you aren't competitive for that specialty then you may end up being placed in a transitional intern year and then spend time as a general medical officer for a few years before re-applying for the same or a different specialty. You will never be forced to complete a residency you don't want to, but at the same time if you aren't competitive for the specialty you want you won't get it either.

Duty locations will be based on what specialty you are trained in. Things like neurosurgery would only be found at the major medical centers. Things like family practice would be found at any location there is a clinic or hospital.

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What does your class rank need to be in the range of to get the opportunity of med school? How hard is it to get the opportunity to go to med school post USAFA? Does the individual or the Air Force choose the residency specialization? Where are the common work places for a doctor?

Class rank would probably be in the top 20%. Realistically, while 3.0 GPA is the minimum cut-off, the opportunities are slim below a 3.25 GPA. The greater limiter for people getting into medical school is A) maintaining that GPA while taking the required courses (like organic chemistry and biology) and B) finding a medical school to accept you. In my year (which wasn't unusual), USAFA did not fill all the available slots to go to medical school - there simply weren't enough qualified people who wanted to go to medical school to fill the slots.

To give you an idea, my sophomore year in organic chemistry lecture, the final grades were....rough. Roughly a third failed the course and 50% either failed or received a D grade. There were a lot of people from non-chemistry and non-biology majors who were attempting the course as a med school requirement. And plenty of chem/bio majors as well. It was a tough weed out course. Personally, as a chemistry major, organic lecture/lab were my favorite courses and where I did best.
 
Thanks for the great info! What is the most common major students take for this track? Is chemistry an option? And one more, does the academy take the mcats into account for who gets med school slots or not?
 
Thanks for the great info! What is the most common major students take for this track? Is chemistry an option? And one more, does the academy take the mcats into account for who gets med school slots or not?

Chemistry (Biochemistry in particular before the track option was removed last year) is the most common followed by biology. In my class year (2010), there were 11 biochemistry majors including me. Of the 11, nine just graduated from medical school this month. I believe there were about 15 people that went to med school, so about 2/3rds were chemistry majors. It's simply convenient as every medical school class requirement (for the most part) is part of the chemistry major class requirement - no additional classes needed. Also, we typically did better on the MCATs as we usually do better on the physical sciences section compared to biology majors.

Again, med school spots typically aren't filled. While the MCAT is a consideration for slots, typically all qualified applicants are allowed to attend if they are accepted to a program. Where it might matter is when someone with a low GPA wants to apply. A high MCAT score may mean the committee will approve a person with a low GPA to apply. MCAT scores tend to group in the 27-30 range. My year, our top scorer was a 37 (pretty awesome). He is one of my best friends and just graduated UVA and is heading to St Louis for a surgery residency program. I was the second highest with a 32T. Like I said, most cluster around high 20s and 30. USAFA is a nice unique trait on a med school app - it is probably the only reason I managed to nab a Harvard Med School interview despite my low MCAT score (for Harvard).
 
If you don't mind me asking, what was your gpa? What the gpa range needed for the prestigious med programs?
 
If you don't mind me asking, what was your gpa? What the gpa range needed for the prestigious med programs?

The absolute minimum is 3.0 to receive USAFA approval - but that usually also requires some sort of additional requirement such as a high MCAT. 3.25 is the minimum to get approval without caveats.

My GPA during the application process was a 3.8.
 
The absolute minimum is 3.0 to receive USAFA approval - but that usually also requires some sort of additional requirement such as a high MCAT. 3.25 is the minimum to get approval without caveats.

My GPA during the application process was a 3.8.


Whoa.........
 
My daughter has a med school slot and is taking the MCAT today...however she has decided to not apply and try for grad school instead. She is a biochem major with an Arabic minor. Her GPA is a 3.5. For the class of 2015, everyone who wanted a med school slot, got one. Was also told that USAFA adds 0.2 to the GPA when submitting your information to the medical schools. Don't know if that's true or not.

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Isredmond- sounds like what I did. I opted for grad school instead of med school. Also was a biochem major with a language minor (Japanese). I never heard of USAFA adding GPA points to med school application transcripts, though. As I said before, being a military member and SA grad is unique and can certainly help the application process.

Good luck to her in the grad school apps!
 
Was also told that USAFA adds 0.2 to the GPA when submitting your information to the medical schools. Don't know if that's true or not.

This would be academic fraud, no school would do this. What someone may have misunderstood and then repeated is a theory that coming from a Service Academy one's GPA is considered to be higher than it actually is by admission committees.

I have previously heard 0.4 as the number. In reality I'm not sure how accurate this is; however SA's are considered tier 1 schools so that is likely where the boost comes from.

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Got the GPA wrong, my DD has a 3.6 overall but a 3.5 in biochem. She was endorsed for the Fulbright Scholarship but has decided to for go that as well. She will be studying abroad in the fall in Morocco and did CSIP in Morocco last summer. She doesn't feel the need to go back to Morocco for another year should she receive the Fulbright. She recently found out she is PQ, so now that is what she is going for and/or grad school. Who knows what she will get? But she said she will be happy anywhere. She just wants to serve in the Air Force.

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kp2001, what you said makes sense. I'm sure that's it. Med schools look at the school from which you are applying, and adjust accordingly.

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Was also told that USAFA adds 0.2 to the GPA when submitting your information to the medical schools.

Could it be that the med schools add 0.2 to the USAFA gpa in the same manner that USAFA adjusts applicants' high school gpa? I don't know, but that could be the source of confusion.
 
From my n of 1 I can tell you the Ad Coms don't adjust the GPA; however, what they do is take into consideration where and with what degree is the GPA earned. A 3.4 from random state U does not carry the same weight as a 3.4 from an Ivy League or service academy.

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