Thanks for the great info so far. I'm going into FP and am considering all the options available for residency. I'm a very competitive student with a strong application and my primary goal for residency is to go somewhere with STRONG training and opportunities for leadership, involvement, and education about the future of family practice. I'd ideally like to live in a good location (I suppose Travis, Ft Belvoir, Eglin are my top based on location). Whether I do a military rotation or a civilian rotation really doesn't matter, just as long as the training is top notch.
That being said, can anyone give me what he/she considers a "top 3" list of AF FP programs based on the above characteristics?
Also, how realistic is civilian deferrment in FP this year? There are 10 deferment slots offered this year and I realize that's not very many. I don't have any overwhelmingly relevant reasons for wanting to defer (i.e. sick relatives, spousal issues, etc) and my reasons for being interested are more in line with my goals for residency: continuing to run a non-profit corp, developing global prevention initiatives, working with public health graduate programs, attending a top-notch training program, etc. All of these (with the exception of the latter) would likely be more possible in a civilian residency at a major university (i.e. UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Washington). Would the AF even consider a request to defer based on these reasons and the platform that the military would benefit from a resident trained at a top-5 FP civilian program?
I hope those of you who read this will not receive it as a boastful or arrogant post. Just trying to honestly describe where I'm coming from and get some meanginful feedback in return.
Thanks for reading and any advice you might be able to offer!