Military
Scholarships for Medical School (cont'd)
**Military residency typically ends up being longer
than civilian residency. This is because a large number of military residents
are pulled after the first/intern year to fill GMO (General Medical Officer)
billets/openings. These tours are 2-3 years long. A GMO serves as a
"sick call" type doctor in a variety of locations. The assignment can be unique and
exciting, and some people choose military scholarships just so they can do one
of these GMO tours. One may be overseas, on an aircraft carrier, with a Marine
unit, or with an air squadron, to name a few. A "flight surgeon" is a GMO who
attends to the basic primary care needs of pilots. After special training, they
learn to determine when a pilot shouldn't fly (when they need to be "downed"),
and the flight surgeons are able to fly as passengers in fighter jets. This is
a popular and competitive GMO tour.
**After the GMO tour, you continue residency
starting with the second-year level. The total length of residency,
including internship, depends on the specialty. Family practice is 3 years,
Internal medicine 3 years, General Surgery 5 years, Ob/Gyn 5 years, etc. The
GMO years are subtracted from your commitment, but then there are special
rules involving the accrual of additional obligation for the military
residency. Be sure to go over this carefully with the recruiter.
**Military residencies do provide sound, reliable,
reputable training. They are not, however, considered "elite" programs or among
the very top rated programs in the country. This may be important to
you. You may go to medical school and really excel: honors student, over the
90th percentile on the national boards, participate in published
research, etc. The top residency program in the nation may be drooling over
you, but your contract is with the military. The military residency needs come
first. Furthermore, if you fall in love with a subspecialty that requires a
highly competitive fellowship, it will be harder for you if you are not applying
from an elite residency program.
**Whether you are doing a civilian deferred or
military residency, if you want to further subspecialize by doing a
fellowship…you must be given permission. In this case, they often decline.
This does indeed affect your career. If you want to do a cardiothoracic surgery
fellowship, for example, they may say no. Instead, you must serve your time as
a general surgeon (in this example) for a number of years, and then ask
permission again. Or, you can wait until your commitment has been fulfilled
before pursuing the chosen subspecialty.
**Unless you were allowed to go into a fellowship,
your commitment/required years of active duty begin when you finish residency.
The Navy tries to make physician salaries closer to their civilian counterparts
by awarding yearly specialty pay. This is a lump sum of money awarded each year
in addition to your officer pay. The amount is determined by your specialty.
There are rules governing the special pays with one result that is important for
planning purposes: in order to receive your final specialty pay, you must stay
3 months beyond your actual commitment. The details are available in the
special pay brochures.
**The military serves a more mobile,
forward-deployed role than it did during the days of the Cold War. The end
result is that one must expect to move a lot and to endure separations
from home and family. Deployments are, by necessity, becoming longer and more
frequent.
**You are typically in the Independent Ready Reserves for a
certain number of years after finishing your active duty obligation. Check with
your recruiter regarding the details.
As I mentioned, these are all truths. I know, now, that this information is
very important for premedical students who are considering military scholarships
for medical school. I wish my pre-med advisor had known to recommend that I ask
about these issues. I may have still chosen to accept the scholarship, but
it would have been a more informed, personal decision...not just a financial one.
Thank you for your time, and if you are interested in working with me to
provide some of this general info to students who visit your website, please let
me know. I am absolutely not interested in any compensation. This is a personal
mission to improve the information available to pre-med students.
Sincerely,
Sheri A. Mancini, MD
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