<p>OK, so I'm on active duty in the United States Army right now (though my job has nothing to do with medicine). Looks like I'm going to have to go to Iraq or Afghanistan for a year and get shot at, but when I get back from deployment I'm going to be able to re-enlist under another job. Preferably I would like re-enlist under a job in the medical field. My dream is to be an M.D. Really I'd like to be a pediatrician more than anything in the world.</p>
<p>I already have a B.A. in Political Science (I'm not an officer though), but still I'd have to take a full year of Biology, Physics, Biochemistry, Calculus, etc. so I probably still have a fair amount of work to do just as far as taking courses goes.</p>
<p>Really what I want to know is whether there is anything I can do while I'm in the Army to prepare myself for medical school. Are there specific jobs in the medical corp that will better prepare me for a career in medicine, or are medical schools generally unimpressed with the medical training given in the Army? Are there any programs in the Army that will put me through medical school? Basically my question is whether there is anyway that being in the Army can actually improve my chances at getting into medical school?</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your help everyone. Really looking for some help here in making probably the biggest decision of my life.</p>
<p>That’s what I’m wondering. I’m in the infantry right now and will have to go to Iraq (and maybe also Afghanistan) for a year long deployment. But when I get back I can renegotiate my contract and get out of the infantry (thank God). I’m trying to figure out if the Army would send me to school to be trained as an M.D. If not, I was thinking about re-enlisting under a medical MOS. Would re-enlisting under a medical MOS be a good thing for medical school? Do medical schools look very favorably on medical experience - even if it were with the Army?</p>
<p>Yes - there’s no problem with getting medical experience in the army. But your bigger problem will be the following…</p>
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<p>No, they won’t. Even the military med school uses AMCAS for admissions. Everyone has to go through the same process. Which means you have to take the pre-reqs, get medical and volunteer experience, take and get a good score on the MCAT, etc etc.</p>
<p>If you don’t have the pre-reqs done and don’t have significant medical experience, you’re realistically looking at a multi-year process here, and there’s no way you can get all those things done while in the military. You’re going to have to get out of the army and go back to school. There are one-year post-bacc programs that allow you to complete all of the pre-req courses and prep for the MCAT. You may want to look into one of those programs.</p>