Path to becoming doctor in army?
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goalsetter2025
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Medical School Scholarship Program | United States Military Academy West Point
West Point Military Academy
The link has all the info you need.
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If you haven’t yet read every link, drop down and page on USMA.edu, I recommend it. As shown by the post above, most answers are there.
Here on SAF, there are dozens of threads on becoming an Army doctor and the various paths to get there. Try the Search function, and you can do an external Google search by adding “site:www.serviceacademyforums.com” to your search string.
Over the years, there are a few nuggets of classic advice that repeatedly show up:
- The armed services get the majority of their doctors through direct commission from civilian medical school. This is not to say if the USMA path is your dream, to not go after it, but do the research to understand all the different ways to get there, and which is the best fit for you.
- Be absolutely sure there are other Army branches you would be happy to go into out of USMA. The few that get to go to medical school out of USMA, USNA and USAFA are usually academic stars, with no or few dinks in their conduct or military aptitude records. If you fail to make the cut, you will branch elsewhere. If you do your research, you will find there are later methods to get to the medical path. Heed comments that talk about the value of serving in a non-medical branch and then applying for medical.
- In your research, be attentive to how the payback works and when it starts. You will owe a certain number of obligated service years from having attended USMA, then you owe more years from medical school and subsequent training, and waaaay down the road, when you are doing doctor assignments, the years and years of payback actually begin. You have to know you are signing up for a very long period of obligated service that doesn’t start until sometime after training.
- Think carefully about USMA vs your desire to serve as an Army doctor. Is it a must do, wanna do, might be nice to do?
- Some search locations for you:
USUHS Edward Hébert School of Medicine
www.usuhs.edu
Army med school scholarships
www.goarmy.com
My Army brethren will have to weigh in with the right search terms for applying for a branch transfer at a certain point in the early part of a career. For Navy, it would be “application for lateral transfer and resdesignation to the Medical Corps,” where a regular line warfare officer prepares an application package requesting to leave their current warfare community and be considered at a competitive board for transfer to another. The key here is if the transfer aligns with the needs of the Navy, and it would be the same for Army.
There is also the path of serving in a non-medical branch, completing your active duty service obligation and doing enough time to earn full Post 9/11 GI Bill benefit, and then going to medical school and applying to come back in as a doc.
As I noted, there are several paths and variations, which I haven’t included. A good friend of mine did a full 20+ Navy career, then went to veterinarian school and is a happy large animal vet out in a Western state, on her next 20+ year career. You have a span of another 60-80 years on the planet to fit things in, and you aren’t teetering on the edge of the grave if you go to med school later rather than right out of USMA.
Here on SAF, there are dozens of threads on becoming an Army doctor and the various paths to get there. Try the Search function, and you can do an external Google search by adding “site:www.serviceacademyforums.com” to your search string.
Over the years, there are a few nuggets of classic advice that repeatedly show up:
- The armed services get the majority of their doctors through direct commission from civilian medical school. This is not to say if the USMA path is your dream, to not go after it, but do the research to understand all the different ways to get there, and which is the best fit for you.
- Be absolutely sure there are other Army branches you would be happy to go into out of USMA. The few that get to go to medical school out of USMA, USNA and USAFA are usually academic stars, with no or few dinks in their conduct or military aptitude records. If you fail to make the cut, you will branch elsewhere. If you do your research, you will find there are later methods to get to the medical path. Heed comments that talk about the value of serving in a non-medical branch and then applying for medical.
- In your research, be attentive to how the payback works and when it starts. You will owe a certain number of obligated service years from having attended USMA, then you owe more years from medical school and subsequent training, and waaaay down the road, when you are doing doctor assignments, the years and years of payback actually begin. You have to know you are signing up for a very long period of obligated service that doesn’t start until sometime after training.
- Think carefully about USMA vs your desire to serve as an Army doctor. Is it a must do, wanna do, might be nice to do?
- Some search locations for you:
USUHS Edward Hébert School of Medicine
Uniformed Services University
www.usuhs.edu
Army med school scholarships
Army Medical Scholarships
The Army offers financial support and other incentives to help you pursue medical school and serve on the Army Medical team.
My Army brethren will have to weigh in with the right search terms for applying for a branch transfer at a certain point in the early part of a career. For Navy, it would be “application for lateral transfer and resdesignation to the Medical Corps,” where a regular line warfare officer prepares an application package requesting to leave their current warfare community and be considered at a competitive board for transfer to another. The key here is if the transfer aligns with the needs of the Navy, and it would be the same for Army.
There is also the path of serving in a non-medical branch, completing your active duty service obligation and doing enough time to earn full Post 9/11 GI Bill benefit, and then going to medical school and applying to come back in as a doc.
As I noted, there are several paths and variations, which I haven’t included. A good friend of mine did a full 20+ Navy career, then went to veterinarian school and is a happy large animal vet out in a Western state, on her next 20+ year career. You have a span of another 60-80 years on the planet to fit things in, and you aren’t teetering on the edge of the grave if you go to med school later rather than right out of USMA.
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The other thing to consider... if you are dead set on a specialty, recognize that the needs of service comes first. Just because you want to be a surgeon doesn’t mean that is what you will get. It comes down to how many do they need in each speciality based upon needs of the service and how you rank amongst peers. The more specialized, the more training, which equals more years of obligated service.
UHBlackhawk
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All good advice above. DW did several things prior to medical school and didn't start until she was in her 30's and a major. Only things to add:
1. You can always go to medical school after doing other things. But once you go to medical school you are in that career. I've heard of a few exceptions. One guy was a flight surgeon and decided he really wanted to go to flight school and made it happen. Over the years I've known a few airline pilots who were also doctors. But that's tough and they are the exception.
2. I've known numerous doctors over the years. The happiest ones seem to have done something else prior to medical school.
3. Especially in the military, doing some service prior to medical school does help you as a military doctor.
4. I also have known several officers who did make it happen and went straight from USMA to medical school and are outstanding doctors.
1. You can always go to medical school after doing other things. But once you go to medical school you are in that career. I've heard of a few exceptions. One guy was a flight surgeon and decided he really wanted to go to flight school and made it happen. Over the years I've known a few airline pilots who were also doctors. But that's tough and they are the exception.
2. I've known numerous doctors over the years. The happiest ones seem to have done something else prior to medical school.
3. Especially in the military, doing some service prior to medical school does help you as a military doctor.
4. I also have known several officers who did make it happen and went straight from USMA to medical school and are outstanding doctors.
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@svuh1
This is a good comparative read for USNA. There would be some similarities to Army paths. In particular, they provide a good overview of various paths, talk to the value of doing something non-medical first, when payback starts, etc. When I was on active duty, I always felt a bit of “cool, he/she has a warfare pin, they get me, they know what the Fleet is like,” when I was seeing a Navy doc who had previously served as a warfare officer.
This is a good comparative read for USNA. There would be some similarities to Army paths. In particular, they provide a good overview of various paths, talk to the value of doing something non-medical first, when payback starts, etc. When I was on active duty, I always felt a bit of “cool, he/she has a warfare pin, they get me, they know what the Fleet is like,” when I was seeing a Navy doc who had previously served as a warfare officer.
Navy Medical Corps
Navy Medical Corps page for Chemistry Department at USNA.edu. Updated Tue Jan 16 12:19:41 EST 2024.
www.usna.edu
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While I am not an academy grad, I am a physician and work with several providers who chose the path of joining the military once they got into medical school. I also work with 3 physicians who did got to medical school after the academy. For the 3 academy grads - they have all uniformly said that looking back they would have asked themselves, at 18, what their goal was. If it was to serve our great country, they would have clearly followed their academy path. If their primary goal was to be a physician, it would have been to get into medical school thru a normal college route and then entered the military once they were in medical school. The academy path, coupled with medical school, and then residency is a very hard road. It can clearly be done, but it is hard.
UHBlackhawk
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I think it depends.
I know several military doctors who went to USMA, branched something else (everything from armor to aviation). My DW was ROTC but did not go to medical school right away. She served in two branches and even had a line command before going to medical school. My cousin was a Navy pilot before going to medical school (he went civilian route).
Not once have I ever heard any of them express regrets about the route they took. I have had numerous doctors who took the traditional route, however, bemoan the fact that they missed out on so much.
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As for some numbers, this year 20 USMA 2021 cadets put in for slots for medical school. There happened to be 20 slots this year. This varies each year just as aviation, FA, Engineers, slots do. They interviewed all 20 and 19 were awarded slots. I guess they weren't impressed with one of them. They still have to take the MCAT and get themselves accepted into a school, but the Army will pay, and extend their commitment to recoup their investment. I can't remember how much time is tacked onto the commitment, but it seemed to make staying in for 20 a no brainer. The cadet who told me this had been awarded a slot and spent the spring lockdown preparing for the MCAT.
What is more important to you? Becoming a doctor or attending a Service Academy?
If a doctor, your chances increase when doing the civilian route.
If attending a Service Academy, you will have a chance to become a doctor but it is not guaranteed.
If a doctor, your chances increase when doing the civilian route.
If attending a Service Academy, you will have a chance to become a doctor but it is not guaranteed.
just curious since branch night hasn't happened yet do they always award the slots for med school before branch night?
I know the interviews were done in the early spring and the cadet I know was informed by June. They stil have to take the MCAT and apply to medical school, so I imagine branch night would be too late.
As mentioned up to 20 people go to medical school every year. Unless you think you are going to be a high achiever at an academy, you may want to think about going to a civiilan college and medical school and then joining the military. Because if you dont get a medical spot after graduating the academy, you are going to have to serve 5 years and then go to medical school. Now many people have done it this way and some recommend it. However, if your heart is set on medical school after college, you may want to consider your odds of getting to through USMA