ESCA, "sent to contractor" means that MERB has received the request from SA or ROTC that candidate is otherwise qualified (does not mean accepted in anyway) and they are agreeing to pay for your DS or DD to take the physical and eye exam. MERB has sent the docs to Concorde who is the contractor that handles physicals. Shortly after seeing this you should be receiving your envelope with instructions on how to schedule and with whom.
After physicals are done, Concorde compiles all data and sends to MERB where they will review i.e., "Under DoDMERB review". Next they will post a status that says "qualified", or "does not meet medical standards" (a remedial letter on what has to be done will follow shortly), or "remedial requested" (once again a letter will be forthcoming).
Once Concorde had both exams, eye and physical, it took about a week to get to MERB and about four days for MERB to review before a determination was posted. Currently waiting on remedial letter ourselves.
