<p>Are there any opportunities at West Point to pursue an education beyond a BS? For example could a person go for an MD or masters?</p>
<p>after you graduate from west point you can apply to graduate school and the army will pay for it. However, it will make your service commitment go up enormously. But the academy itself has no graduate schools.</p>
<p>How much would an additional 3-4 years of medical school make it go up, about to 10 years total? Service isn't that much of a deterring factor for me, since you get experience and education debt free.</p>
<p>its year-for-year for medical school and a 5 year commitment for WP. You get commissioned as a 1lt with a Masters and Captain if you get your DM, DO, PhD</p>
<p>First off, you go to West Point or any other Service Academy to become an officer in the U.S. Military. In general the service time is 2 years for every year of graduate level work. For medical school you will be looking at somewhere around 15 years of service by the time you complete medical school and residency work. The slots are very competitive each year, and if I recall from past statistics only 8-10 are selected annually. For law degrees, two years in a unit are required prior to going to law school. Other graduate level work is typically offered after the 5 year commitment period is coming to a close. I believe there is a relatively new program where an upfront commitment to attend graduate school can be made the senior year in exchange for additional service time. This does not consider those who win Rhodes, Truman, Marshall, etc. Scholarships. These students typically go directly to graduate school. Talk to your Regional Admissions Officer to get the facts.</p>
<p>from the West Point rep i talked to, the top 2% i think, get to apply to medical school. they also have to get accepted to the med school and kick butt on the MCATS.</p>
<p>Wait, so can you apply to a medical school and if you are accepted go or do you have to compete with other West Point grads to be able to even apply?</p>
<p>from what he said it sounds like you have to compete against WP kids for being in the top sliver of intelect. top 2% sounds better than the "4-5 graduates" they mentioned at annapolis.</p>
<p>Here are some numbers to go with the grad school numbers. They come from a recent Branching presentation given by the USMA in August. Here's a link. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Currently only 13%(about 130) of a given class attend a fully-funded grad school.</p></li>
<li><p>For the Class of 2006, the Army will increase graduate school billets by 300. The details of this "Graduate School for Active Duty Service Obligation" program can be found at: <a href="http://www.usma.edu/opa/adso/FAQs.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.usma.edu/opa/adso/FAQs.htm</a>
Under that program you are guaranteed an opportunity to attend a fully-funded graduate program in the US. The cost to attend is paid back in the form of additional active duty service obligation. Your additional service obligation is 3 months for each month of grad. school up to a max of 72 months. Thus a two year graduate program would entail a 6 year additional service obligation.</p></li>
<li><p>For the Class of 2005, about 20 cadets were nominated for medical school.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Requests for medical school nominations, like all other branching assignments, are based on class ranking.</p>
<p>i think the 3 days service for each day in grad school is served while you are in grad school, so you serve 2 years in grad school then 4 years after that, or at least thats what the rep told me. he also said that 90% will have to opportunity to go to grad school. i dont know if he really meant right after west point or after their 5 years are up as a way for the army to keep them there longer.</p>
<p>and followup question:
what do the following abreviations mean?(i think i got them all right)</p>
<p>IN=infantry
FA=field artillery?
AD=Air Defense Artillery
AV=aviation
AR=armor
EN=engineering
SC=signal corpse
MP=military police
MI=military intelligence
AG=adjunct general
FI=finance
CM=chemical
TC=transportation
OD=ordinance
QM=quartermaster</p>
<p>missing: chemical officer, signal officer, nurse, medical, transportation</p>
<p><a href="http://www.usma.edu/opa/adso/%5B/url%5D">http://www.usma.edu/opa/adso/</a></p>
<p>This link contains more information about the graduate school opportunities.</p>
<p>My son is interested in Medical School after WP - the numbers I've seen is about 19 to 20 cadets from each class go on to medical school. They can go to the Uniformed Health Services Medical School (run by the Dept. of Defense/Government) or apply to any medical school and go as long as they are accepted. If you "google" west point/usma and medical school you'll see some interesting backgrounds of individuals who've done the medical school route from WP. Here's just one I found online: <a href="http://www.utmem.edu/fammed/wblountcv.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.utmem.edu/fammed/wblountcv.htm</a></p>
<p>i just thought i should add, that you can get your masters online, paid for by the govt, and not take any extra commitment.</p>
<p>I'm not sure, but according to "Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point," Profs. and stuff at WP consider it a let down when people go in thinking they're going to med school. Though, of course, branching med corps is nothing to be ashamed of (my dad and mom both did it), they (being the higher ups at WP) think that infantry and true leading of a platoon is the way to go. Again, this is just from reading the book and corresponds to what I heard at the naval academy summer seminar.</p>
<p>I'm not suggesting that you change your story to keep them interested in you - i hated when someone suggested i do that for my congressional interviews just so that I would be more appealing to them - but just wanted to offer a warning in case someone got on your back about it</p>
<p>"Absolutely American" and "Duty, Honor, Country" aren't a good representation of West Point--most cadets are not like that, so I wouldn't take anything WAY too literally from it. Just some friendly advice...</p>
<p>My daughter thinks "Duty First" was a pretty good representation--especially the part on Beast.</p>