Gas_Seal
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Greetings,
I am seeking advice on deciding whether to attend medical school at USUHS or a civilian medical school. fortunately, I have been accepted at USUHS, as well as at multiple civilian programs this cycle, my top civilian choice is the University of Michigan Medical School. I will list the pros and cons I have identified for each. for background, I am an O3 AD officer with 4 years of service and have been selected by the Air Force at USUHS. I have a wife, 1 child, and 1 on the way.
Cons:
I am seeking advice on deciding whether to attend medical school at USUHS or a civilian medical school. fortunately, I have been accepted at USUHS, as well as at multiple civilian programs this cycle, my top civilian choice is the University of Michigan Medical School. I will list the pros and cons I have identified for each. for background, I am an O3 AD officer with 4 years of service and have been selected by the Air Force at USUHS. I have a wife, 1 child, and 1 on the way.
USUHS
Pros:
Pros:
- continue my uniformed career and accrue additional time towards retirement, leading to retirement at 51 with 24 years of service (adding the 4 years that are only tacked on at retirement from USUHS).
- if I make O6 I will have a pension of approximately $110K at this age (in future dollars) for the rest of my life not counting TSP.
- Maintain a good income as a O3 with 5 years of service my income will be approximately $130k (before taxes)
- Continue to pursue my passion of uniformed service and care delivery to service members.
- I am interested in potentially doing Anesthesiology and could do CCATT with the AF.
Cons:
- During clerkships, I will likely have to be away from my family for a large part of the 2 years of clerkships (I spoke with a student who is dealing with being away from family for a majority of rotations despite asking for rotations in the DMV)
- I will have a much lower take-home income than my counterparts in the civilian sector especially if I pursue a surgical specialty, potentially as high as $500k yearly?
- I am considering a surgical subspecialty such as Urology, and the AF only has 4 Urology spots (according to the 2020 HPERB). They do have 25 Ortho surgery spots, but most are deferred spots, which I would prefer to avoid as the time doesn't count toward retirement.
- I have done a lot of research on this forum and Reddit and it seems a lot of AD physicians are not very pleased with the state and projected future of AD military medicine, and this concerns me.
University of Michigan
Pros:
Pros:
- A highly regarded medical program that would likely open many doors in my career as a physician
- #3 ranked urology residency in the country
- The GI bill will cover all of my tuition, and give me a stipend of $2200/month, I would also sign up for the Army MDSSP which would give me a monthly stipend of $3100 - $3500 (If I get to keep my rank). I also plan to do 1 telemedicine shift per week (I am PA) which would give me another $2,400 monthly in the best-case scenario. This would leave me with a pre-tax income of approximately $90k/year.
- this plan would allow me to graduate debt-free and hopefully maintain a reasonable lifestyle.
- the MDSPP will allow me to have Tricare reserve for my family
- I will still be involved with the uniformed services in some capacity (it is very meaningful to me to serve my country)
- I will have the freedom to pursue whatever specialty I want without having to worry about the slots designated by the military.
- I will not have to worry about being away from my family for a large portion of my clerkships
- I will not have to worry about PCSing every 4 years.
- My wife wants me to go with this option
Cons:
- I will be giving up on my AD military pension at 51. To be able to have a $110k/year pension from a civilian fund at that age I would need to have approximately 2.8 million in a retirement account (but to my knowledge, I can't even begin to withdraw until my 60s) withdrawn at 4% per year.
- I will be giving up the uniformed service lifestyle and the other benefits and assurances of being AD which I greatly appreciate
- I will not have the option to pursue CCATT