So you've got into medical school, you choose your branch, you filled out a lot of paperwork, wrote your motivational statement, got your recommendations, and got your physical. Now we...
Wait. Your recruiter collects all your paperwork and submits it to "the Board" to see whether or not they will grant you a scholarship. I believe they meet once a month to go over the applications. And in the meantime you wait. And wait. And wait. My paperwork was submitted at the beginning of March and I heard word two weeks after the Board meeting: I got it!
Do not take that call while driving. All of my happy dance and exuberant cheering was muted by staying focused on the road. Excellent, I thought now I could be commissioned and start my new chapter. Except. Except I had to wait on "my scroll". I spent so much time researching the scroll and all I could come up with was that it was about the Defense Secretary signing off on the new officers, a formality, but a lengthy one. I read the scroll could take anywhere from two weeks to two months.
I got the scholarship, but I had to wait. So I waited. Luckily for me, it was only two weeks to be approved. This was at the end of March, and at the beginning of April I was getting commissioned. Though the final step was to sign the official formal contract, in triplicate in ten different places. (Which I ended up having to sign twice because I changed the school I was going to from a D.O. school to a M.D. school.) READ THIS THING. It is a legal binding contract and will affect your life for a long time, perhaps the rest of your life.
Again I stress do your research. If you have any questions ask your recruiter or better yet, those who have been there before. Like the misconception of when your serve your four years of active duty. You do your residency first and then once you're done with all your training you serve those four years. That most likely you will do your residency within the military and if you do a civilian residency or a military residency longer than four years you could have to pay back more additional years of active duty service. Or how about the four years after your active duty service where you are in the IRR, Individual Ready Reserve, out of the military, but still deployable.
Great HPSP resource
Anyways, once you sign you can schedule your commissioning ceremony. You can invite any officer of any branch, active or retired, to commission you. With my utter lack of a military background I didn't know any officers, so my recruiter found one for me, who ended up being a friend of a friend, so that worked out well.
I invited a few friends and coworkers, dressed up for the occasion, and then took the oath. I went then from Lister, EMT, to Second Lieutenant Lister, future Army physician. It was a proud moment. My recruiter gifted me with Army swag and a cake with my new title on it. All my research and applying and effort had brought me to this point. I was now a solider. So of course my next question was: now what do I do?
2LT Lister
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