I was in the US Navy for ten years; I medically retired in 2019 and want to become a doctor, my reason is due to past medical conditions and make a difference for others. I want to ensure my story is more inspirational than negative when I apply for an MD program. What are the things that can help support my goal(show) than just my story?
I worked in the admin (records) and nutrition department at a military hospital during my last years; I interacted with many patients in my nutrition job since others did not like to talk to patients. I have documentation that describes my job title. Is it necessary to get a letter from the hospital’s commanding officer to help support my application?
does military service count as community service?
I applied to UM for my undergrad, but I got rejected because my GPA doesn’t meet the reqs; they count all the college classes ever attempted in my life. I dropped two semesters before military and one during military (medical treatment). I started school again in fall 2020, I have been doing great and will continue that, but I wonder if this “overall GPA” will affect my future MD applications. I want to get some recommendations on what to do if this is an issue. I want to make myself the fittest candidate possible to have more options.
I can’t speak to every question, but I am also a veteran.
With regards to military service being considered community service, I would say no. It is phenomenal experience and in your case potentially clinical experience, but it is a job. I would reserve the community service classification for volunteer work within your community.
thank you so much for your response, so I also did some volunteering work when visiting foreign countries during deployments and some of my evaluations say that ,but there isn’t a total amount of time in there. I will work on some volunteering in the community, but would it be a waste to mention about the volunteering in foreign countries?
Certainly, if it was separate from your job at the time and purely voluntary, I see no reason not to include that time. Depending on the duration of each and the volunteer work you were performing, I would consider consulting with someone on how put it in your application (whether to clump it all together during your time in service or to separate out each item) and also how to label it (so as not to confuse the reader as to whether it was related to your military job).
Hi JGorst, thank you so much for your response. Yes, it was completely voluntary during my time off, but they were mostly just hours. I will do some research on that, I like the fact that they were special and unique volunteering opportunities overseas .