Air Force Are you required to apply for a residency deferment?

[marinehrnt]

I'm a 3rd year student that is considering EM in the AF. Looking at the available positions available this year there were 16 military spots and 16 deferred spots (not sure if these are all actually filled). Curious if applying for a deferment is required or can you just apply for the military positions? I have 8 years prior service and really don't want to do a deferment and miss out on several years of time in service and higher pay by doing a civilian residency. Thanks for the help.

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[HighPriest]

Generally speaking, you'll apply for your top 5 choices in the match. I don't know how many EM positions the AF has. I assume it isn't 5. That means that the last "x" number will be "transitional" or some other choice outside of EM. When the match occurs, they will try to match you into your choices top to bottom. If you do not match into the EM programs that the AF has to offer, you will be considered for deferrment based upon the needs of the AF. If you don't rank among their top 32 (16 military + 16 deferred) EM applicants, then they will match you into one of your non-EM choices as dictated by your top 5 choices.

 

[marinehrnt]

Generally speaking, you'll apply for your top 5 choices in the match. I don't know how many EM positions the AF has. I assume it isn't 5. That means that the last "x" number will be "transitional" or some other choice outside of EM. When the match occurs, they will try to match you into your choices top to bottom. If you do not match into the EM programs that the AF has to offer, you will be considered for deferrment based upon the needs of the AF. If you don't rank among their top 32 (16 military + 16 deferred) EM applicants, then they will match you into one of your non-EM choices as dictated by your top 5 choices.

Thanks for the information. I assume that to be considered for a deferment you would have had to apply and match to a civilian program. I was not planning on applying to civilian programs but maybe I should.

 

[HighPriest]

If they're deferring 50% of the EM residents, it would be a poor strategic decision not to apply for civilian residencies.

 

[marinehrnt]

If they're deferring 50% of the EM residents, it would be a poor strategic decision not to apply for civilian residencies.

True. I guess my line of thinking was coming from having 8 years prior service (with plans of retiring) and trying to maximize my time on active duty. I know I need to be flexible and I agree that with that high of a deferment rate it would still be wise to look at civilian programs. Was just hoping that my residency would count towards time in service.

 

[HighPriest]

You can go two routes with this, and it all depends upon what is more important to you:

1. You can try as hard as possible to get into emergency med.

2. You can try as hard as possible to do a residency at a military hospital.

The extent to which you can do both depends upon how many EM residencies there are in the AF. But at a certain point, one will need to be the priority.

 

[Barcu]

You are required to apply through ERAS for civilian residency programs. This is because if the military fills all of their spots and needs more EM docs (which they will), some people will be deferred.

You can rank civilian deferment as your last choice.

I do not know how many people are deferred against their will. Many HPSP students actually do want a civilian deferment (to have better choice of programs/locations). USUHS students are required to do a military residency. However, I'm not sure how much that affects HPSP students who want to do a military program because they can just give the USUHS applicant a transitional year and take the HPSP student into their program if they want them.

Your best bet is to be the best EM applicant you can. If you are a good applicant, and you want to do military, I think you can.

The biggest problem with EM is that it is very competitive in the military, and many applicants don't actually match (they are giving a transitional year instead). So it really will benefit you to be the very best applicant you can.