I have found mixed information on the Internet about attending Medical School after USNA. I'm a HS Junior who is interested in becoming a radiologist, as well as serving my country in the Navy. I know that the Navy offers scholarships to Med school but I was wondering what the procedure is for Mids at USNA, what major I would take, service commitment, etc. Any help is appreciated.
In recent history, the academy has only permitted 10 graduates to go into the Medical Corps.
Sounds impossible - doesn't it?
You have to remember that you are only competing with a handful of classmates for those slots.
First of all, you have to take the MCAT (Medical School Admissions Test). That means you have to take specific courses to prepare for it. One of those courses is Organic Chemistry. Only CHEMISTRY majors are required to take Organic Chemistry. Others may take it, but they would need to have validated quite a few courses in order to make room for it. That does happen.
But, for the most part, we're only talking about CHEMISTRY majors.
Nominally, there are 45-50 Chemistry majors in a class, some of whom have no intent to pursue the Medical Corps.
Let's be conservative and say 40 of them, initially, are intent on going Med Corps.
Let the carnage begin!
Some will find out pretty quickly that they won't have the grades to be successful. They may get a couple C's in science courses or get a D in Organic Chemistry. It's over for them for all practical purposes.
Some will simply drop the major because, after all, it
is one of the more difficult majors.
Some will change their minds and decide to be a pilot, subs, or something else.
Some will realize the extreme commitment involved with going the Med Corps route and will decide, "Hmm, I'm not sure I want to be in the Navy that long."
There may be somebody who is the victim of some egregious conduct offense or honor offense and drops by the wayside.
Some will simply not do all the little "extras" that are required to get accepted into medical school. It's a lot of work.
By the end of your Youngster (sophomore) year, the field will be thinned out dramatically. Of the original 40 who initially expressed an interest in going Med Corps, it may be down to a dozen or so.
It's hard to excel at the Naval Academy - true. But if you
do excel - going Med Corps is very doable.
But it should
not be your only acceptable service selection. You must be willing to do something else.
This may be an URBAN LEGEND: I heard that there was one midshipman who was excelling in every category and was ranked very high in his class. He wanted to go Med Corps and seemed to be a shoe-in. At his academy interview, he was asked if he had any other choices. He told them that he
only wanted to go Med Corps -
nothing else was acceptable. Apparently, the Board was turned off by his arrogance and he was
not awarded Med Corps for his service selection.