Congratulations, graduating medical students!

Congratulations to everyone who matched in the military match. I understand that the MODS website went down, which I’m sure added a bit of extra anxiety to the day. I hope the match went well for everyone, and that you are all off to exciting new places next year. Now, I’m going to ask you for something. Please, now that

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Can civilian students apply to Air Force residencies?

Recently, I have had a few people ask me about whether civilian students, without a military scholarship contract or obligation, can apply to Air Force residencies. The short answer is yes, under certain circumstances you can. The long answer is that, like everything else in the military and in graduate medical education, it’s complicated. You can find the official memorandum on

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Reader Questions: Do I have to rank civilian deferral?

Hey, first off, thank you for your site and sharing info. I am currently a third year medical student in AFHPSP as well. And I’m not really interested in civilian deferred position. So if I am interested in EM and FM or IM, can I put multiple EM as primary, FM or IM and secondary and not put civilian deferment in my rank

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HPSP Student To-Do List, by Year

In the spirit of New Year’s resolutions… I get a lot of questions from people about what they should be doing. It goes something like this: “Um… I’m an M1 and I started classes a week ago… Am I supposed to be doing something to prepare for the military match?” Or this: “I’m in my last week of M3 and

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So I guess I’m a doctor now…

Hey everyone! I’ve been meaning to write an update for a while now, and I haven’t quite gotten around to it yet, so here goes! It’s 1 July 2015, the date that all of my med school professors loved to threaten us with. I lost count of how many times someone said “You know, when 1 July 2015 rolls around, you’re

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So you want a civilian deferral

January 2016 Update: This page really talks about the Air Force process for requesting civilian deferral, as well as general considerations in applying for civilian deferral. Another post will be coming soon about the Army process.   So you’re a medical student on a military scholarship and you want to train in a civilian residency – you want to defer

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How the military match works (as of 2014)

As a graduating medical student on a military scholarship, I get a lot of questions about how military scholarships and the military match work. I plan to write another post in the near future that explains how the military scholarships work in general, but since it’s match season, let’s talk about the military match process first. I’m going to assume

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