"Eastward Bound" wrote
Is it almost guaranteed if you want to use the air force to get into
med. school and to pay for it?

Absolutely not!

As long as you can make it through basic training?

Doctors and Med students don't go through Basic.

How exactly does that work? Basic training? AIT? Why AIT when they
just pay your tuition for your choice of university?

Just do whatever they require, don't ask questions or try to understand it. It is
designed by people who know what they want, and you don't get a vote.

I hear you owe the air force a year for every year you were in med.
school.

You should plan on a 20 to 30 year career in the military. It's the best damn
retirement program in America--Bar none! You will be in your prime as a
doctor, and your advanced education oportunities are the same, or better,
than civilian doctors. If you want to become a surgeon, and your skills aren't
the best in med school, the military has a battlefield program that will give
you practical surgury experience on both friendly and enemy patients. The
number of cadavers to practice on, are almost unlimited. For example, I got
a B in Gross Anatomy, but after 6 months in Iraq in 91, I was able to conduct
all manner of procedures, and my amputation rate was the lowest in the unit.

Is it really impossible to get into med. school to be a doctor without
the aid of the armed services?

Yes. Go to any med school web site, and read the entrance requirements.
If you are a 4.0 student with a science degree, you are almost a sure bet.
But, there are many other ways to become a doctor.

What if you avoid the top notch
schools in California, Massachusetts, New York and Florida? Is it
still not practical?

Top notch schools are for millionairs. Forget about it unless you get a full
scholorship with tuitions and fees. You can't afford it, and it isn't necessary.
The people who go to those schools are well bred, but fare no better than
any other doctor in life. Money buys the college, not the degree. I've seen
Pakistani doctors who learned their skills without 24 hour electricity do as
well in the field as top school graduates.

Remember, you will not see third-world disease and problems in American
schools. These are very sanitary facilities, and do not reflect the real world.

I have a cousin who is now a doctor and she had to go to the Caribbean
to find a college that would accept her and this was over 5 years ago.
Maybe things are changed since then?

If your grades are poor, or you have a non-science degree, and you really
want to be a doctor, then take whatever you can get. An M.D. or D.O.
degree. As screwed-up as the M.D. program is, I would steer anyone into
the Osteopathic field, for sane medical training, without the bull****:

http://www.amops.org/

Good Luck,

S. Sampson, DO
U.S. Army Field Surgeon 1980, 2000
Riyadh University Medical Center 1976,1979
Karachi Medical School 1976
University of Montana, BA