I got accepted into Grinnell, Smith, and Bryn Mawr, and I really need help choosing. I receive about the same financial aid (only around a 1k difference) from each school. I don’t really care if the school is rural or not or how small the school is (all three of them are relatively small).
I’m planning to become a doctor and want to go to the military medical school, so I was wondering how well each of the schools are in sending students off to medical school.
Some of the things I’m focusing on is how well the research is, how easy is it to get internships/volunteering experience, the reputation, etc. I’m also worried about what the environment is like at all three colleges, and I don’t exactly have the money or time to go visit all three.
So if you do really well in your classes AND stay interested in pre-med, these sorts of colleges will all work well for pre-med. But the reality of the situation is for a variety of reasons, most people end up jumping out of pre-med sooner or later. So realistically, a big consideration is where you think you would be happiest if you decide to do something different.
Obviously a big part of that will be what you think about women’s colleges. However, Smith and Bryn Mawr are also both part of consortiums, so that complicates the picture socially and academically.
And then you say you don’t care about size or location–but can you REALLY guarantee your future self in a few years won’t care? I think you should take those questions seriously, taking into account the consortiums again.
Bryn Mawr has a very well regarded post-bacc program for career changers that has a very high success rate (I know a couple of grads from that program and both are now doctors.). I’m not sure how well that translates to the undergrad school except their advisors are very familiar with med school admission process.
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Military medicine has its own unique career pathways.
There are two basic pathways.
USUHS– this is the military’s own medical school. Most successful applicants have prior military experience as enlisted or reservists or have been ROTC/NROTC/AFROTC during undergrad. Only a minority of successful applicants are new to the service. Admission is USUHS is very competitive.
HPSP– students in this program attend civilian medical school on a HPSP scholarship then are required to do a military residency thru the branch of the service they are a part of. Again the majority of successful applicants to this program have prior military experience or were ROTC/NROTC/AFROTC in college. HPSP will pay up to $X for med school cost, plus they pay a living expense stipend equivalent to an officer level salary. If your med school is more expense than the military allowance for cost, you may need to take out additional federal student or private loans to pay your tuition. HPSP participants are required to spend their med school summers doing duty training and tours. Like USUHS, acceptance into HPSP is very competitive.
If you are interested in pursuing military medicine, you should contact your recruiter 6-12 months before you plan to apply to med school. You must be accepted for military recruitment in order to qualify for USUHS or HPSP.
Either pathway requires the student to complete a military residency and then do service payback of 7+ years. The clock on payback starts only AFTER residency has been completed.
Military med grads are NOT guaranteed their choice of specialty. (Needs of the service come first…)
NOTE: although both pathways are open to students who wish to enter the Public Health Service as their service branch, the number of individuals accepted for PHS can be counted on one hand without using all 5 fingers. (Typical only 1-2 if any.)
And at least two branch of the military commonly require one or more tours as GMOs (General Medical Officer) after intern year before a young physician can continue their residency training.
Regardless of whether a student goes USUHS or HPSP, they need to meet all the physical, psychological and other qualification for military service. There are no fitness waivers for physicians.
There is a brand new VA HPSP program whose purpose is to provide physicians for the VA.
Since this program is brand new (I’m not even sure it has accepted its first class of applicants yet.), I don’t know much about it.
Edited to add: Grinnel does not offer any ROTC programs. Smith has cross campus AFROTC enrollment with UMASS. Bryan Mawr has cross campus AFROTC enrollment with St Joseph’s College in Philadelphia.