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Editor's note: The following was sent to us via email. The entire, unaltered transcript appears below and, while we can not opine on its accuracy, we thought it would be prudent to publish this if for no other reasons than to highlight the dangers of accepting bad premed advice and to help motivate any prospective applicants to fully research their admission options. Please do note that we support our troops and this is intended solely for informational purposes for prospective military doctors.

I noticed your website when I did a search for pre-med advisors.

I wanted to offer you some important advice about the good and bad sides of military scholarship. Very neutral, facts only topics and questions that pre-med students should ask before accepting one of these scholarships.

My pre-med advisor was instrumental in my choosing a military scholarship, but there are just things she didn't know...and I didn't know to ask. By the time you understand what questions to ask....you are already a medical student, you've already accepted the scholarship, and it is too late.

I am just finishing my four-year commitment to the Navy. I was not told any untruths when I joined...I just didn't know as a a med student that there were important questions to ask.

I'll give you some examples of general questions/recommendations/ truths that I have, and you can decide if you are interested in trying to make your site even more valuable as a source of info for pre-med students.

**Make sure you gather information from actual military scholarship students who have completed their active duty time, especially in recent years. If they are done with their time and out of the military, they are more likely to tell you the true story.

**Along the same lines, be sure to talk to persons other than just recruiters. The recruiters have to tell you the truth, if you know the right questions to ask. There is a lot more to it than just "how many years do I owe".

**The military is changing rapidly. The number of physicians has decreased, and you can expect more frequent and longer deployments.

**The military cannot tell you what residency to choose. they can tell you whether you can do it in a civilian hospital or a military hospital. the military residencies must be filled before anyone is granted permission to do a civilian residency. As an example, if you are a star student, score very high on your med school boards, and have everything it takes to get into one of the top residency programs in the nation...you still must do a military residency if their programs are underfilled.

**It typically takes longer to do residency with the military because they interrupt your residency with a "general medical officer tour". These tours are 2-3 years long. The locations vary, and this is something to ask your branch-specific recruiter about.

**Even though the military cannot presribe what residency you choose, they can forbid that you further subspecialize. You must specifically obtain permission to do a fellowship (subspecialize). If they do not need any cardiothoracic surgeons, for example, they will not let you do a fellowship in that subspecialty. You would have to serve your time as a general surgeon, then you can feel free to pursue the career of your choice.

**After your four-year commitment (actually with the Navy it is four years and 3 months if you want to be paid fully your final year), you are automatically in the independent ready reserves for a certain number of years.

As I mentioned, these are all truths. I know, now, that this information is very important for premedical students who are considering military scholarships for medical school. I wish my pre-med advisor had known to recommend that I ask about these issues. I may have still gone chosen to accept the scholarship, but it would have been a more informed, personal decision...not just a financial one.

Thank you for your time, and if you are interested in working with me to provide some of this general info to students who visit your website, please let me know. I am absolutely not interested in any compensation. This is a personal mission to improve the information available to pre-med students.

Sincerely,

Sheri A. Mancini, MD





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