Decision Time Advice

[USAFA10s]

I'll start with echoing everyone else that you should definitely accept the nomination.

As for deciding USAFA vs straight to medical school - a couple additional things to consider that might impact your choice. For context, I am a physicist and never had any interest in medicine BUT, my dad is an anesthesiologist and did a 3+4 program, my older sister is a pediatrician, and my younger sister is finishing up her first year of her doctor of pharmacy degree

1. Debt. Medical school is EXPENSIVE - someone else mentioned this, but don't underestimate it. If you pick a specialty that pays very well, this may not matter, but those come with extensive training requirements (for example, neurosurgery is usually a 6 or 7 year residency). Other specialties don't pay as well (but often have higher quality of life) and you will be paying off loans for a while. My sister finished medical school with something like 300,000 in debt...not great
2. Specialty choice. This may be somewhat more limited if you become a doctor through the Air Force than it would be otherwise
3. Just like USAFA, you want to be absolutely sure about your choice to be a doctor to pursue that career. My sister has known since she was 9 that it was her dream, but she had classmates that bailed because they just weren't as committed as they needed to be, and med school is tough. I say this, because while you can (although it is a little harder - but totally doable) become a doctor after USAFA, if you find yourself not interested in medicine at your alternative choice, at that point you probably can't go to USAFA

 

[Smalls02]

1. Debt. Medical school is EXPENSIVE - someone else mentioned this, but don't underestimate it. If you pick a specialty that pays very well, this may not matter, but those come with extensive training requirements (for example, neurosurgery is usually a 6 or 7 year residency). Other specialties don't pay as well (but often have higher quality of life) and you will be paying off loans for a while. My sister finished medical school with something like 300,000 in debt...not great

Thank you and I probably should have mentioned earlier that if I do decided to go the civilian route with med school I was planning on using the HPSP scholarship and commissioning that way. Like I mentioned earlier, my main goal is to serve, I’m just trying to figure out what path to take.

 

[bopper]

1. Accept the Principal Nomination. Do not worry, if you do not end up going to AFA there will be another highly qualified person that will take your slot. Continue to think about being a pilot and AFA.
2. Wait to see if you are accepted to the BS/DO program. They are very very very competitive. Have you been volunteering and doing research? Many other applicants to those programs will have been (pre-covid).
3. Are you sure you want to do DO vs MD? If you want to be a primary care physician either would be fine. If not and you might want a more competitive specialty, it is much more difficult to get a residency in those with a DO.
4. How would you feel if you did not do well in Bio or OChem and ended up not going to med school?
5. Have you thought about options such as going to AFA and then going to med school later?
6. As you go through this process, you may find you learn more about both options and one may end up being more important to you. Don't remove your choices at this point.

 

[OldRetSWO]

3. Are you sure you want to do DO vs MD? If you want to be a primary care physician either would be fine. If not and you might want a more competitive specialty, it is much more difficult to get a residency in those with a DO.

I was not very aware of the DO vs MD differences until my stepdaughter started Med (DO) school. I then looked at credentials of my docs and found that quite a few were DOs including the surgeon who has done about 30 hrs "under the hood" on me and in return I've probably paid for his first child to attend the college of his choice. When I attended my step daughter's whitecoat ceremony, one of her professors was a former enlisted marine USNA grad (!).

 

[Smalls02]

2. Wait to see if you are accepted to the BS/DO program. They are very very very competitive. Have you been volunteering and doing research? Many other applicants to those programs will have been (pre-covid).

I have asked some people who were accepted to this program how competitive it is and they said that as long as your scores are good and you interview well you
should be good. I still have been doing things to make my application well rounded though.

3. Are you sure you want to do DO vs MD? If you want to be a primary care physician either would be fine. If not and you might want a more competitive specialty, it is much more difficult to get a residency in those with a DO.

I’m interested in emergency medicine and from what I’m seen the two are pretty comparable when it comes to matching. The wholistic approach to medicine of DO is my approach to health as it is so I thought that would be the better way to go.

4. How would you feel if you did not do well in Bio or OChem and ended up not going to med school?

I have been lucky enough to take an OChem class my junior year, bio freshman year, and AP bio this year and I understand the material, however if I would have difficulty with this I thought I could switch to a different major and possibly pursue the pilot career or even nursing

5. Have you thought about options such as going to AFA and then going to med school later?

One of many paths that I have considered is going to USAFA, pursuing the pilot career, then later going back to med school. However, my father decided to switch careers and go to nursing school when he was 40 and it was really hard on him to get back into that studying mindset. I would like to avoid that just because I saw how difficult it was for him to go back to school for 2 years, let alone me going 4 for med school.
Thanks for the input! It will give me something to think about.
I also have accepted the nomination so thanks to everyone for the insight!

 

[Smalls02]

I just thought I should give a quick update as to what I decided so all of you who helped me aren't left wondering where I ended up.

I was accepted into the 3+4 medical program in February and spent all spring debating between my appointment or my seat in med school. I came back to this forum to review the messages and advice you all gave me and I can't thank you enough for your insight. During this time I decided that I was set on being a physician. Because of this, I declined my appointment in April. As much as it pained me to do so, I knew I was making the right decision for myself with what my career goal was. I still plan to use the HPSP scholarship during med school in order to commission into the Air Force.

Best of luck to all of those who will be starting their journey at the academy this month as the Class of 2025. Hopefully, I'll get to meet some of you in a few years! Although, as someone who plans to go into emergency medicine, I actually hope I don't see anyone - at least not in a hospital