Army ROTC Into Med School/Residency

[ChefBoyOhGee]

Hi all, I tried looking into this as much as I could before I posted on here, but I’m coming up mostly empty-handed.

I’m currently in undergrad and have an Army ROTC Scholarship. I’ve decided to assess into the reserve component after commissioning, meaning I will incur an 8 year service obligation in the Reserves.

I’m aware of the weekend a month and two week a year, along with any of the LT work that needs to be done while not drilling, and of course, the possibility of activation and deployments during my service obligation.

I’m not looking to increase my commitment time, and I’m not really interested in going into the active duty (but still open to the idea) before medical school.

My question is broad: what can I expect from my military career while beginning my medical career? Let’s say I commission and complete BOLC in 2021 and matriculate into medical school in 2023 (after a gap year).

For clarity, here are some points that I’m hoping get addressed:
- Getting activated and having to repeat a year of medical school/residency
- The possibility/difficulty of actually taking this route into medicine
- Transitioning from whatever I choose as my branch to an Army doctor after medical school (this is something I haven’t looked into too much)

Thank you so much in advanced - I know this path is definitely not the most usual or best approach of going into medicine, but I signed my contract several years ago before I seriously considered this all, so I’m trying to dig myself out of this hole lol

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[deleted480308]

There is an AOC for med students so you might be able to branch transfer once you get an acceptance. If you don’t get to transfer to a med student slot and are claimssified something else, you are totally deployable (and should be).

 

[ChefBoyOhGee]

There is an AOC for med students so you might be able to branch transfer once you get an acceptance. If you don’t get to transfer to a med student slot and are claimssified something else, you are totally deployable (and should be).

I feel like that’s... cheating? I definitely don’t want to be a crappy officer.

 

[deleted480308]

I feel like that’s... cheating? I definitely don’t want to be a crappy officer.

A med student officers job is to graduate and be a good military doctor, don’t sell that short. The military will get their pound of flesh from you before it’s over

 

[TheEarDoc]

I feel like that’s... cheating? I definitely don’t want to be a crappy officer.

Yes you owe an obligation to the Army from your scholarship to ROTC. It doesn't say what AOC you have to be in to fulfill said obligations. I find it doubtful you could branch transfer to AMEDD into a med student slot and be nondeployable and not drill each month. You would need to take the scholarship and then be transferred over and incur more service obligation if they would release you from your current contract/assignment and slide you over to AMEDD.

Most likely you will be assigned to a unit in your AOC they chose or you chose and the branch you are supposed to be in to honor for ROTC contract. The only way I think you might get some wiggle room is if you get accepted into medical school you could try and get into a medical student slot with a branch transfer (Like I said doubtful as your unit would have to let you go before they could do the transfer) or you could go to your commander and let them know you are in medical school and what your career goals are with the Army. They might be sympathetic and allow you to drill less often say not come to drill if you have something big going on such as finals or something of that nature and make it up another way via RST. That would be what I could foresee happening. The problem would be if you got a new commander who wasn't so lenient for your situation or your unit gets deployed or mobilized. They go. You go.

I will just tell you this being an officer in the reserves in AMEDD. It is way more work than 1 weekend a month, 2 weeks a year. In the past 18 months I have been gone over 2 months for training. Multiple 3 day drills. I have a 2 week training that was just tossed on me at the end of last month that takes place in a couple weeks. I was also just assigned to a very task heavy OIC position in my home unit. It's hard enough trying to do my civilian job and keep up with my military stuff. I can't imagine trying to do classes and study on top of my military obligations. That would be tough.

 

[ChefBoyOhGee]

A med student officers job is to graduate and be a good military doctor, don’t sell that short. The military will get their pound of flesh from you before it’s over

I guess what I meant is that if I’m non-deployable for half of my ROTC obligation, it just seems to be kind of going around the terms of the contract. I have no doubt that once the non-deployable status goes away after finishing medical school that the Army will take full advantage of me.

 

[ChefBoyOhGee]

Yes you owe an obligation to the Army from your scholarship to ROTC. It doesn't say what AOC you have to be in to fulfill said obligations. I find it doubtful you could branch transfer to AMEDD into a med student slot and be nondeployable and not drill each month. You would need to take the scholarship and then be transferred over and incur more service obligation if they would release you from your current contract/assignment and slide you over to AMEDD.

Most likely you will be assigned to a unit in your AOC they chose or you chose and the branch you are supposed to be in to honor for ROTC contract. The only way I think you might get some wiggle room is if you get accepted into medical school you could try and get into a medical student slot with a branch transfer (Like I said doubtful as your unit would have to let you go before they could do the transfer) or you could go to your commander and let them know you are in medical school and what your career goals are with the Army. They might be sympathetic and allow you to drill less often say not come to drill if you have something big going on such as finals or something of that nature and make it up another way via RST. That would be what I could foresee happening. The problem would be if you got a new commander who wasn't so lenient for your situation or your unit gets deployed or mobilized. They go. You go.

I will just tell you this being an officer in the reserves in AMEDD. It is way more work than 1 weekend a month, 2 weeks a year. In the past 18 months I have been gone over 2 months for training. Multiple 3 day drills. I have a 2 week training that was just tossed on me at the end of last month that takes place in a couple weeks. I was also just assigned to a very task heavy OIC position in my home unit. It's hard enough trying to do my civilian job and keep up with my military stuff. I can't imagine trying to do classes and study on top of my military obligations. That would be tough.

Yes you owe an obligation to the Army from your scholarship to ROTC. It doesn't say what AOC you have to be in to fulfill said obligations. I find it doubtful you could branch transfer to AMEDD into a med student slot and be nondeployable and not drill each month. You would need to take the scholarship and then be transferred over and incur more service obligation if they would release you from your current contract/assignment and slide you over to AMEDD.

Most likely you will be assigned to a unit in your AOC they chose or you chose and the branch you are supposed to be in to honor for ROTC contract. The only way I think you might get some wiggle room is if you get accepted into medical school you could try and get into a medical student slot with a branch transfer (Like I said doubtful as your unit would have to let you go before they could do the transfer) or you could go to your commander and let them know you are in medical school and what your career goals are with the Army. They might be sympathetic and allow you to drill less often say not come to drill if you have something big going on such as finals or something of that nature and make it up another way via RST. That would be what I could foresee happening. The problem would be if you got a new commander who wasn't so lenient for your situation or your unit gets deployed or mobilized. They go. You go.

I will just tell you this being an officer in the reserves in AMEDD. It is way more work than 1 weekend a month, 2 weeks a year. In the past 18 months I have been gone over 2 months for training. Multiple 3 day drills. I have a 2 week training that was just tossed on me at the end of last month that takes place in a couple weeks. I was also just assigned to a very task heavy OIC position in my home unit. It's hard enough trying to do my civilian job and keep up with my military stuff. I can't imagine trying to do classes and study on top of my military obligations. That would be tough.

So what I’m getting from your reply is that going through the AOC route is difficult to get into. And if I do, then I will incur more service time?

Your last part about insight on an AMEDD officer is very helpful - thank you for that. It definitely does seem very difficult and almost unrealistic

 

[deleted480308]

I’ve yet to see written policy that one cannot take the med student AOC without signing mdssp, only verbal reports. I do know an rotc grad that took the med student AOC.
And it’s true the med officer life in reserve component can be a little busy but they are SIGNIFICANTLY protected in terms of deployment (90days boots on ground for docs, slightly more for PAs) as opposed to the standard year for everyone else.

 

[TheEarDoc]

I’ve yet to see written policy that one cannot take the med student AOC without signing mdssp, only verbal reports. I do know an rotc grad that took the med student AOC.
And it’s true the med officer life in reserve component can be a little busy but they are SIGNIFICANTLY protected in terms of deployment (90days boots on ground for docs, slightly more for PAs) as opposed to the standard year for everyone else.

Yep docs are 90 day BOG'rs as are some critical nurse specialties, PA's are 180 day BOG'rs. Most everything else is 365.

I as well have never heard of someone transferring from ROTC to med student AOC without taking the scholarships in some way and incurring more service obligation.

 

[ChefBoyOhGee]

Thanks for all the input!

 

[Trefoil]

Well, if you aren't looking for a gap year (not sure what timeline you are on in terms of ROTC/graduation), I know one individual who applied for an education delay without taking an HPSP scholarship. Most people apply for the scholarship, but there is nothing stating you have to. The education delay might be specific to those of us who go active though. I've never heard of someone taking the ed delay and then commissioning as a reserve officer, but I'm relatively unfamiliar with that process outside of HPSP. This would essentially place you in a nondeployable IRR slot whilst you completed medical school, but you would not incur any additional time as you completed medical school. You would subsequently commission as an MC officer at graduation. You also would not burn time while in medical school, so you aren't cheating the system in some way. Again, I haven't heard of someone doing that with the intention of going reserve. Alternatively, I did know one individual in my medical school who was prior service and Army reserve. I don't know the specifics of his situation, but he didn't deploy during school. I assume he still drilled? I guess that would get complicated in 3rd year when you don't actually have weekends off. Wish I could be of more use, but what you are suggesting is doable you just need to reach out to the right people.

 

[armytrainingsir]

File a DA4187 with HRC to have your AOC changed.

You're not cheating, you are following the rules.