Just to give some background, I'm currently a third year pre-med applying this cycle. I made a spreadsheet of potential expenses and tuition and compounding interest and now I'm terrified. Not doing this purely for the money, but more for the ease of mind that I can start maxing my 401k when residency starts rather than being 401k in debt (I'm sorry) and being able to have a family earlier and stuff without taking more loans. My parents and grandparents might be able to contribute to my med school tuition but I'd rather them get a nice car or something than pay for my education since they've already covered my undergrad.
I've honestly always been drawn towards the military and I don't think the culture or anything will be an issue. I was very seriously considering taking gap years to be a combat medic but ultimately decided not to because the 3 year time commitment was too much before med school.
Personally, I'm very interested in doing medicine to try to get into an underserved area. I don't like cities and want to get away from urban centers in the future and don't have much interest in research or academic medicine. I'm like 90% sure I want to go into primary care or general surgery, but also I'm very interested in ophthalmology. I don't want to go into it for lifestyle, but I would like to go into it to get more scrappy in the midwest or southeast or somewhere without many ophthalmologists even if my salary would cap much lower. Also, I hate hospitals.
I've been reading through a bunch of threads, but I'm wondering if anyone has any insight on what residency matching looks like through HPSP. If I end up doing primary care I doubt it would be a problem, but if I want to go into optho or general surgery or something would it be an issue? Also, I hear a lot about needing to be relocated during service. Does anyone have any experience with that especially if you have a family and stuff? Finally, I'm wondering how often it happens that doctors would get pulled and deployed as a flight surgeon or something. Personally I would love doing that if I'm a single guy, but I wouldn't want to be absent if I have a wife and family at that point.
Sorry for the long winded post, I appreciate any insight!
I've honestly always been drawn towards the military and I don't think the culture or anything will be an issue. I was very seriously considering taking gap years to be a combat medic but ultimately decided not to because the 3 year time commitment was too much before med school.
Personally, I'm very interested in doing medicine to try to get into an underserved area. I don't like cities and want to get away from urban centers in the future and don't have much interest in research or academic medicine. I'm like 90% sure I want to go into primary care or general surgery, but also I'm very interested in ophthalmology. I don't want to go into it for lifestyle, but I would like to go into it to get more scrappy in the midwest or southeast or somewhere without many ophthalmologists even if my salary would cap much lower. Also, I hate hospitals.
I've been reading through a bunch of threads, but I'm wondering if anyone has any insight on what residency matching looks like through HPSP. If I end up doing primary care I doubt it would be a problem, but if I want to go into optho or general surgery or something would it be an issue? Also, I hear a lot about needing to be relocated during service. Does anyone have any experience with that especially if you have a family and stuff? Finally, I'm wondering how often it happens that doctors would get pulled and deployed as a flight surgeon or something. Personally I would love doing that if I'm a single guy, but I wouldn't want to be absent if I have a wife and family at that point.
Sorry for the long winded post, I appreciate any insight!