ROTC for aspiring physician?

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XiangLynn

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Nov 15, 2022
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14
So I'm a senior in high school and plan on going on a premed track and (hopefully!) make it into med school and eventually become a doctor of some sort. ngl med school tuition be looking scary, and someone I know suggested I look into ROTC. I moused around and still am a little uncertain about the entire program, hoping I can get some answers here. So if I do get an rotc scholarship, from my understanding of it, you dedicate a few days a week doing physical training at a nearby place and the program pays for your tuition....? I'm also going to assume there is a service obligation for this; how long is service and is active duty required, or is there an option where I can opt for only serving reserve? And will the service obligation conflict get in the way of my time in med school? Extremely worried about this part as I am almost certain med school will require my full attention to in order to survive and graduate.

fyi, I am additionally applying to usma but attending a service academy isn't my top choice; if I get into my ED (private school in NYC), I intend to study there. And knowing how competitive studying medicine is in usma, there is a chance I will change my career path in the case I do get accepted and decide to attend
 
If medicine is your primary goal, I’d do ROTC with a potential reserve option and not USMA. It’s more than just physical training, and it will eat into your study time. However, I have known many docs who have gone this route. Yes you will get an education delay for med school and yes you will owe years for ROTC and med school tuition.

Everything hinges on you getting a med school acceptance, all else is secondary. But if you don’t get in first cycle, you at least have the option of going reserves after ROTC and trying again.

Note: if you join ROTC and or the USMA, you HAVE to be okay with being a Army officer even if you don’t become a doctor. If you don’t get into med school, your obligation doesn’t go away and statistically only 15% of pre-meds get into med school…
 
If you receive an ROTC national scholarship, there’ll be an active-duty obligation. As in, being an officer will be your full-time job for a number of years. So if you pursue a scholarship and/or go active duty, know that you’ll be an officer first and a medical-school student probably later.

If your priorities are the other way — med student first, officer second — then the military will likely be a steep uphill journey. Yes, some O-1s do head to med school after pinning on butter bars, but they are few and far between. If serving in the military as a doctor is your goal, you should consider going to med school and then commissioning.

Read the fine print and talk to leadership at a nearby ROTC unit. There’s plenty of info out there.
 
XiangLynn said:
So I'm a senior in high school and plan on going on a premed track and (hopefully!) make it into med school and eventually become a doctor of some sort. ngl med school tuition be looking scary, and someone I know suggested I look into ROTC. I moused around and still am a little uncertain about the entire program, hoping I can get some answers here. So if I do get an rotc scholarship, from my understanding of it, you dedicate a few days a week doing physical training at a nearby place and the program pays for your tuition....? I'm also going to assume there is a service obligation for this; how long is service and is active duty required, or is there an option where I can opt for only serving reserve? And will the service obligation conflict get in the way of my time in med school? Extremely worried about this part as I am almost certain med school will require my full attention to in order to survive and graduate.

fyi, I am additionally applying to usma but attending a service academy isn't my top choice; if I get into my ED (private school in NYC), I intend to study there. And knowing how competitive studying medicine is in usma, there is a chance I will change my career path in the case I do get accepted and decide to attend
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As others indicated determine first that you want to be an officer in the military. Research what service (Army, Navy, AF) as each have different criteria to get to medical school from ROTC. You will owe a long 'payback' time if you take an ROTC Scholarship (4 years) and HPSP for Medical School (minimum 4 yrs) served consecutively. Note I said minimum and all of it will be on active duty if you take the ROTC and HPSP scholarship. You don't start the 'payback' until completion of medical residency.
 
XiangLynn said:
So I'm a senior in high school and plan on going on a premed track and (hopefully!) make it into med school and eventually become a doctor of some sort. ngl med school tuition be looking scary, and someone I know suggested I look into ROTC. I moused around and still am a little uncertain about the entire program, hoping I can get some answers here. So if I do get an rotc scholarship, from my understanding of it, you dedicate a few days a week doing physical training at a nearby place and the program pays for your tuition....? I'm also going to assume there is a service obligation for this; how long is service and is active duty required, or is there an option where I can opt for only serving reserve? And will the service obligation conflict get in the way of my time in med school? Extremely worried about this part as I am almost certain med school will require my full attention to in order to survive and graduate.

fyi, I am additionally applying to usma but attending a service academy isn't my top choice; if I get into my ED (private school in NYC), I intend to study there. And knowing how competitive studying medicine is in usma, there is a chance I will change my career path in the case I do get accepted and decide to attend
Click to expand...
Some of the questions you asked can be easily answered by researching the ROTC programs of each branch. Given the cost and time commitments of a career as a physician you may wish to explore undergraduate options that are more affordable without an ROTC scholarship, then pursue the HSSP program for medical school. the academies do have an established path to go from undergraduate directly to medical school for a select few - so you should look into all of these options so that your path is clearer on what you are signing up for. Make just a bit of effort here and then come back with any clarifying questions - you got this.
 
Check out the website below that gives a summary of how to apply for an educational delay as a college Senior enrolled in ROTC, and also how to apply for scholarships to attend medical school through the military services. Realize though, if you earn an ROTC scholarship through the national selection process, an educational delay for medical school is not guaranteed. Also, there will be service obligations attached to the options you choose.
rotcconsulting.com

Medical School and ROTC: Become a Doctor - ROTC Consulting

Interested in becoming a doctor? Learn the options for Army, Air Force, and Navy ROTC programs for attending medical school.
rotcconsulting.com rotcconsulting.com
 
I spoke to a couple of guys over at Texas State a couple of days ago, the army has the options to go Active Duty, Army Reserve, and Army National Guard straight out of an AROTC program.
 
If your goal is to be a physician, I'm unclear why you are interested in ROTC. The purpose of ROTC is to produce line officers. You didn't state this, but I assume you are referring only to Army ROTC because you also mentioned West Point. With Army ROTC, you can request reserve duty and/or an educational delay, but neither are assured based on the needs of the Army. (In fact, my son's MS-IV (i.e. college senior) classmate was just denied an ed delay for law school and will be heading to active duty.)

One alternative would be to fund college outside of the military, then -- if you do end up pursuing medicine -- applying for a Health Professions Scholarship Program scholarship and/or to USUHS. As to the former, from what I gather, if you get into med school and are otherwise physically qualified, you'll get an HP scholarship if you want one.

Bottom line is that, sure, you can pursue an ROTC scholarship, and you might get it. But be advised that that could impact your plans for med school and, in any event, will result in a service obligation on top of whatever other obligations you may incur to finance med school.
 
I've seen a plethora of threads on this discussion and they all have culminated to the same conclusion, if you want to become a doctor or lawyer in the military, finish medical school or law school then apply.
 
The basic premise goes like this. Yes it is possible that you can go to Medical school after you graduate college with a suspension of your commissioning until you finish medical school. However, that is highly highly competitive and limited to small group of people. Odds are you wont make it and will have to commission after you graduate college. You will have to serve your 4 years or whatever and then go to medical school after you leave the military. You will be able to use the GI to help you with medical school or so i heard. The safest path is to not do ROTC but to graduate college, and go to medical school. After you become a doctor, you can apply to the Medical OTS program where you will be commissioned. There is no government money doing it that way, but will get you into medical school (assuming you are accepted) without worrying about what the military has to say about it.

So its a gamble, try to get government money and hope they allow you to go to medical school. If not you will have to suspend medical school for several year and then use the GI bill money for medical school . Or don't get government money and go to medical school.
 
Guys, the only gamble is if he or she can get into med school.

It's basically a 100% chance they will get an ed delay if they get into school. That's no big deal. Or they could always opt for the reserves.

I know TONS of ROTC cadets who became MDs. Not everyone wants to do an anemic direct commission ;)
 
My DS is a MS2/Sophmore PreMed major. He is a 4-year winner.
He has a friend who is an MS4 and had to branch (did not branch into AMEDD) This Cadet had to take MCATS late due to his summer ROTC training conflict.
My DS is determined to not haev same fate...he has the cooperation from his PreMed advisor at school and his Cadre are aware of what he is attempting. He is cramming all his classes in Bio-Chemistry major to be prepared to take his MCATS during Christmas break his Junior year (some take summer between Jr./Sr year) Some after senior year/gap year. If he gets MCATS done and gets med school acceptance before he has to branch he can request Educational delay and do med school then do active duty as a Med School grad. He plans to try that route with an HPSP scholarship so the Army covers MEd school which extends his service requirement as well. (USUHS is also an option).
This route is not for the faint of heart. DS dropped out of Army Ranger team and Mens Volleyball team to focus on Grades and ROTC. He has a great advisor helping him. He also found a Dr. on campus with a research program he got into early to get experience (this Dr. was a ROTC cadet in his day too) so it helps when DS is not able to be in the lab due to ROTC. DS just got back from FTX yesterday and he texted he got to be platoon leader for 61 cadets....something usually done by MS3 or MS4. So he must be handling it just fine.
 
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