Ed Delay

curioscadet

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Jul 20, 2017
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As a MS III if you have already gotten early admission to medical school can you get an ed delay to start working with the Health Recruiters? The health recruiter mentioned that I would not be able to process any paperwork for the health professional scholarship without the ed delay. Any advice would be great. thank you.
 
The process should be similar to what I went through. AROTC cadets submit their branch list and component in the early fall (Sept, I think) for their MS IV year. This is when you will request an ed delay to go to medical school. The branch selection results come out maybe in Oct (AROTC cadre on this forum please chime in on the timing of those results) which is the same time you'll find out if you got selected for an ed delay. If you get selected for an ed delay to go to medical school, then you will be branched Medical Service Corps (MSC) in the USAR. When you graduate from medical school on the Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP), then you will be promoted to CPT on active duty.

The timeline for medical school application, as you may now, starts in earnest in Apr/May of junior year with the MCAT. Initial applications should be submitted NLT 1 Jul before your senior year. Secondary applications (yes, more paperwork and money for the medical schools) should be submitted NLT 1 Sept. I say should because the actual deadlines are much later than the dates I provided, but medical school admissions are on a rolling basis so getting your app in very early is a huge advantage. Interviews will happen in the fall through spring until the class is filled. Acceptances generally come out Jan - May of senior year.

I provided the timeline of med school applications to illustrate it doesn't coincide with putting in your branching/ed delay preferences. Basically, you are asking the Army for an ed delay before you get accepted to medical school. You will need to include your MCAT scores in your ed delay request so that the powers that be can make an informed decision of who should get an ed delay. IF you somehow get an early decision (few medical schools do this), then I would definitely include the acceptance letter in your packet - if you can get it in time for the September submission date for branches/ed delay request. I am told early decision results for medical schools who do them don't come out until Oct/Nov.

IF you get an ed delay, then you will have to show a medical school acceptance letter to the Army sometime before you finish your MSIV year. If you don't get accepted, then you will access into a branch on your list based on the needs of the Army. I do know a couple cadets who did get an ed delay but didn't get accepted into medical school, so they commissioned on active duty as 2LTs (one in Chemical Corps and the other MSC).

I think you should at least be able to get the application for the HPSP before you find out about ed delay so you will know the requirements to get your ducks in a row sooner rather than later. I recall though the health recruiter could not process the paperwork until I got an acceptance for medical school. Because I got accepted to a school lower on my list, I used that letter to get the application to move forward. When I got the acceptance at a school of higher preference, I then changed the school on my app without any issues. I didn't have any problems doing it this way because I definitely would have gone to the medical school that accepted me first (but lower on my list) if I didn't get accepted to the ones higher on my list. You'll find out deciding which medical school to go to is much different than deciding which college to go to in that you'll be happy just to get accepted to medical school and will go anywhere to attend. You can be more picky with colleges because, presumably, you have more choices.

So, plan on about Oct/Nov of your senior year to be able to work with the recruiter because that's when the branches/ed delay results come out (at least for me).
 
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