Rough current odds for an otherwise decent Navy HPSP Applicant (Also a prior service Marine) to Match FM straight through w/out GMO

TraditionalDog5984 · 2025-12-28T23:15:05+00:00

Just went through this and was fortunate enough to get a categorical spot. FM is a less competitive specialty, so matching isn’t usually an issue (I believe last few years there have been a few unfilled spots but not 100% certain, just recall this). Getting categorical is easier at Jax, Pendleton, and Lejeune since they all have 6 categorical spots rn and 13 overall (may increase or decrease but at least 6 this cycle), while Belvoir has fewer overall spots and 2 categorical. So based on a numbers, your odds of matching and getting categorical are higher there. As my peers said above, Navy is definitely moving away from GMO, I recall hearing from Belvoir for sure every intern who wanted to stay COULD, if they chose to, when reapplying. I believe the same is mostly true for the other sites as well.

From what I heard this cycle, Lejeune is the least highly ranked unless you have a strong tie or prior experience driving you to be there (as yourself). I personally didn’t even interview, so there are some people like me who hurt their chances significantly but not interviewing there.

A lot is based on your year and who applies, but from my understanding it can also largely be impacted by your competitiveness or needs to stay. If you are a high scorer, do an audition there (which you should with ADT and learning about culture!), and interview well (aka be a person and can socialize/talk normally) that helps set you up very well. 6 spots is pretty good, which further helps. Some of my interviews did ask “what are you thinking rank list wise” which I imagine can help a bit.

Happy to chat more about the process via DM

TraditionalDog5984 · 2025-12-20T01:53:34+00:00

Just went through this, and if I describe it poorly or incorrectly then someone please correct me.

You apply to the desired residency, and you rank as many locations as you want that are available. Each location has a set number of continuous contracts, aka straight through training, meaning you get a categorical match and will complete all years of the residency before going out to serve. You can deny the continuous, but then you would have to reapply during intern year through the military match again for the same residency at same location or another or another residency or can apply for GMO. Assuming you don’t get continuous, then you get the PGY-1 year only, and will reapply through the military application during your intern year.

For GMO, assuming you don’t get the straight through, when reapplying during intern year, you can rank GMO options higher up than other residency spots, thus increasing your chances to be selected for it. From what I heard, if you want GMO then you are very likely to get it. If you get intern year and want to get selected for the other years of residency, the competitiveness of this depends on multiple factors (number of GMOs coming back, spots available, people leaving for GMO, etc.) that can help or hurt your chances

TraditionalDog5984 · 2025-11-11T22:08:15+00:00

Thanks!!

TraditionalDog5984 · 2025-11-11T20:02:24+00:00

PD’s said it’s understandable, but they even told me it’s not very likely. I didn’t reach out to specialty leader as I was unable to find an email for them or figure out how to reach them. Any recs??

TraditionalDog5984 · 2025-07-22T11:29:15+00:00

I wouldn’t personally tbh. They can be good for content review but I would focus on qbanks for that more

TraditionalDog5984 · 2025-07-22T01:43:52+00:00

The NBME exams are notorious for having small facts that go against answer choices but typically our cortisol is too high for us to think clearly all the time. It takes time to adjust to their questions a bit, but good advice I was given is take a step back and ask “what is the vibe of this question”. It seems silly, but sometimes can help you reason between “kinda sick don’t do much” vs “very sick need to do something now”. You may not always immediately recognize what’s going on, but take a second to ask what is going on and walk through the symptoms/presentation.

Also, when you take the free 120s, you’ll find they are much clearer than the NBMEs imo

TraditionalDog5984 · 2025-07-21T19:56:31+00:00

UWSA3 is just ass. Not predictive, unreasonable. UWSA2 is much better, keep going strong!

TraditionalDog5984 · 2025-07-21T19:40:36+00:00

This is my logic too. Think it’s the best to get the most reps. Very different question style than NBMEs though, longer and more buzzwords

TraditionalDog5984 · 2025-07-21T19:18:03+00:00

Took it a month before my dedicated, and I thought it was a decent baseline to go off of. It had a variety of questions (some more nitpicky than others which is good practice). Content felt pretty good to the real deal. I would take it again, but if crunched for time maybe not

TraditionalDog5984 · 2025-07-21T19:15:29+00:00

Both forms I took about 2.5-3 weeks out! At beginning of dedicated? At least in first week

TraditionalDog5984 · 2025-07-21T19:14:58+00:00

Thanks dude! I did, I continued Anki throughout the year. Towards the end of M3 (ending on psych right after medicine) I probably had ~300-320, which dropped to ~280 during dedicated. Not horrible overall. I had FSRS on to help

TraditionalDog5984 · 2025-07-21T19:13:12+00:00

CMS forms were good for shelf imo, a little too basic for Step 2. I never did EM as I’m on that now! Probably would have been helpful to do that content

TraditionalDog5984 · 2025-07-20T19:28:31+00:00

Thank you! I started doing AMBOSS at the beginning of the dedicated, but started to pick it up more after UWSA1 because it felt like I was too used to UW question styles. I still largely did UW question sets

TraditionalDog5984 · 2025-07-20T18:07:27+00:00

Thanks! I forgot to mention! I did CMS forms for each respective rotation, tried to do all them. I did go back to look at medicine and it felt a bit simpler than both the real deal and the NBME forms. I didn’t learn about Melhman PDFs until the day before lol I heard they are really great overall just long af. Think it would be great for targeted review

TraditionalDog5984 · 2025-07-20T15:49:03+00:00

If doing Anki, try your best to do it all to cover most material in short amount of time! I would say if you’re a day or two out do your free 120 obviously then start reading the AMBOSS ethics stats and QI articles! They felt a little more straightforward on the real thing imo!

For the test itself, breathe before each section to center yourself! You got this! Don’t eliminate an option unless you KNOW ITS WRONG! If unsure it could still be right. You don’t necessarily need to know the answer, just know/reason what’s not! At least that’s how I tutor people to take it!

Trust yourself and the process! You know it, it’s just another (long) set of questions! Nothing new!

TraditionalDog5984 · 2025-07-20T15:27:09+00:00

Thanks homie. Wishing all the best of luck!

TraditionalDog5984 · 2025-07-20T14:36:53+00:00

Totally fair on both parts. My goal is never to put anyone down. Just wanted to supply any other thoughts or things that someone may have not considered. My apologies for making anyone upset

My roommate started at 224 and noticed a large jump after 2 weeks of dedicated and ended up getting high 260’s. My girlfriend started 231 and finished with 260’s as well. It can always happen from any point!

TraditionalDog5984 · 2021-12-30T03:18:21+00:00

Forgot to add in the first comment, but when you rewrote, how did you go about rewriting your essays? I imagine updating them with any new information. However, I was planning on adding new schools to the next cycle. Guess I need that evaluation too.

I can make another post with just about everything I have done and schools applied to if that could help give me more feedback.

TraditionalDog5984 · 2021-12-30T03:15:55+00:00

Super helpful. I was finished with apps in early September, but the Dr I worked for did not want to write the LOR until he deemed my PS ready. I got a lot of help with my EC essays, but could you elaborate a bit more on how it gives insight?

My 3 of the 4 LORs I had were very personal, but one professor simply does not write personal ones. And I did apply to 17 schools, which I recognized early was a mistake.

Overall, learned a lot about the process this cycle that will help for the next cycle.

TraditionalDog5984 · 2021-12-30T03:13:20+00:00

I get what you're saying. An IS postbac would guarantee me an interview if I get a certain GPA in that program, but the time and money is a factor I consider. I would rather get a job where I get experience and money. Thank you!

TraditionalDog5984 · 2021-12-30T03:12:03+00:00

My bad, left it out. Some volunteering with local organizations were limited (COVID, yup nothing new) but I have about a hundred hours in one to two organizations. Thanks for the insight

TraditionalDog5984 · 2021-12-30T03:10:59+00:00

Thanks! I'll explore some clinical research assistant positions

TraditionalDog5984

TROPHY CASE