After Graduation

Colleges & Universities United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA)
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<p>I certainly can. Unfortunately medical careers out of Kings Point are quite difficult to pursue. There are many hurdles in the way including a lack of some prerequisite courses (biology, organic chemistry) and the maritime commitment. The key for someone who wants to pursue medicine is flexibility. The reason I say this is you have one of two ways of fulfilling your commitment to MARAD while pursuing a medical career:

  1. Sail and on vacation time take classes such as organic chemistry, biology, and a few others to fulfill prerequisites and prepare yourself for the MCAT (I’m assuming medical school here). After completing the requisite classes you would then need to use some other vacation time to do the application process which includes cross country travel to interview at possible schools.</p>

<p>2)The other option is to fulfill your five year commitment to MARAD and then pursue a medical career. This may seem a ridiculous option to many; however, a good portion of my medical school class was considered to be non-traditional students. We had several former aviators and even a former vetinarian.</p>

<p>Now for the military part of your question. All branches of the military have various sources available to pay for your medical education. The two most common are the Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP) and the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USUHS). USUHS is simply the military’s medical school. You apply to the school just like any other medical school in the country and upon acceptance are commisioned (re-commisioned for KP grads) into the medical corps and are paid an active duty salary with all the usual benefits. The HPSP program is similar to a ROTC scholarship, except for medical school. You apply to the scholarship concurrent with your medical school application. The scholarship can be applied to any medical school you are accepted to. HPSP will cover tuition, books, fees, any mandatory expenses (eg equipment) and provide you with a monthly stipend. It currently also includes a $20,000 signing bonus.</p>

<p>Hopefully this helps answer some of your questions. If you have any others please feel free to post em. I’ll do my best to answer.</p>