Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine Establishes Institutional Partnership With U.S. Navy, Streamlining Pathway for Servicemembers
Application cycle underway on August 1; applicants must be on active duty
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) has established a streamlined pathway for active duty service members in the United States Navy and Marine Corps to apply to medical school prior to completing their service commitment.
The program allows provisional acceptance unencumbered by the traditional science requirements and MCAT. To be considered for admission, applicants must be on active duty with the Department of the Navy, which includes the Marines, and hold a bachelor’s degree recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Candidates admitted into the ISMMS/Department of Navy program are offered provisional acceptance to ISMMS and then may defer their acceptance to continue their military service.
“Military veterans bring maturity, intellect, discipline, resourcefulness, and problem-solving skills that we value tremendously at the Icahn School of Medicine, where a variety of voices is critical to medical education and to the health of our patients,” says David Muller, MD, Dean for Medical Education and Marietta and Charles C. Morchand Chair in Medical Education.
According to Dr. Muller, the Navy pathway provides a mechanism for recruiting servicemen and women while integrating a layer of flexibility to ease the transition from their undergraduate careers. The partnership is a product of the Icahn School of Medicine’s popular FlexMed program, which allows college sophomores to apply for early assurance of acceptance.
1st Lt Chris Bellaire will be the first student to matriculate at the Icahn School of Medicine through the Navy pathway. As an officer transitioning from active duty in the Marine Corps, Lieutenant Bellaire says he feels that medicine is a natural progression of a career spent in service to others. While stationed in Hawaii, Lieutenant Bellaire explored his interest in medicine by volunteering at a local hospital. Later, in 2017, while deployed in Southeast Asia, he saw first-hand the health care consequences of poverty, disease, and conflict. “My commitment to medicine and global health really took off after that experience,” he says. The Icahn School of Medicine’s emphasis on cultivating young doctors with different backgrounds and different voices appealed to him. “When I first read about the Institutional Partnership program, I thought, wow, Mount Sinai has a very inclusive idea of what it means to be a med school student. And I really gravitated to that.”
More information about the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, is available online.
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with 48,000 employees working across eight hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, more than 600 research and clinical labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time—discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.
Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 9,000 primary and specialty care physicians and 11 free-standing joint-venture centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida. Hospitals within the System are consistently ranked by Newsweek’s® “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals, Best in State Hospitals, World Best Hospitals and Best Specialty Hospitals” and by U.S. News & World Report's® “Best Hospitals” and “Best Children’s Hospitals.” The Mount Sinai Hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report® “Best Hospitals” Honor Roll for 2024-2025.
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