Military specific questions with CASPA

[corpsman89]

I was lucky enough to partake in a lot of really exciting courses while I was a Corpsman in the Navy and desperately want to show these off in my CASPA APP. However, I am not finding a good place to document my courses. I see the document upload area, but it says course description. I also don't want to put it under my academics because CASPA does not take SMART transcripts anymore.

 

Also, I was an EMT while I was in the Navy (expired now) but can I still document that I took several refresher courses while in the Navy? Or does the fact that I have a lapsed EMT cert make those courses void?

 

Thanks

 

-Greg

[cop to pa]

I took a lot of similar course when I was in too. They definitely do not go under transcripts. I took a few and put them under achievements.

 

My EMT was expired, and I left it off. I was lucky enough to work education and training as my last duty, so I was able to list things like ACLS-I, PHTLS-I, TCCC-I, etc. under job description. Consider that. I did each position/ duty station as a different job.

[corpsman89]

Darn, I listed my entire elistment as one section. Maybe I should consider doing what you did and listing each duty station, possibly even my deployment as seperate? This makes more sense as I will be able to describe in better detail what I did while I was in the Navy. 

 

Question, when I delete my current job description (to make seperate, more speciic entries) will CASPA re order the chronologically or per PCE vs HCE vs Volunteering etc.? 

 

-Greg

[cop to pa]

CASPA says it lists them in the order entered. But, when I printed mine last year (I always had a hard copy with me when I went to interviews) it looked like it was separated by section.

 

Also, if you enter by duty station, you can get a more accurate HCE/PCE breakdown. For example, my time with 2d MARDIV was PCE, while my shore rotation at Annapolis was either PCE (working MILMED) or HCE (education and training). All three were separate entries on my CASPA. I think it made me look more "well rounded" than if I had just entered one job for US Navy.

 

I didn't list deployments as separate entries, but that was personal preference.

[cop to pa]

On a side note, I also list duty stations separately on my resume and CV. I highly recommend doing that, if you already do not.

[corpsman89]

Great advice! And thank you! 

 

I am a little annoyed with the way CASPA lists experiences and other information. I figure they would simply do it chronologically, this just makes sense to me, but maybe there is a method to their maddness? 

 

-Greg

[corpsman89]

By the way Cop to PA, are you in a program already, or are you applying this year? 

 

-Greg

[cop to pa]

Starting at Wake in a month.

[corpsman89]

Very cool, I bet you are super excited right now!

 

Ok, so I input my military experience separately, which equals 6 different entries for a total of 5 years service. Is that excessive? Much of this is due to my first duty station as I was deployed, worked in education and training, and also worked at the camp clinic.

 

Also, should I list boot camp, corps school, and field med as employment or health care experience?

 

Thanks again!

[cop to pa]

I put one entry in for basic, A and C schools. I didn't list them as HCE or PCE, just work experience, since they were training positions.

 

6 in 5 years isn't necessary excessive. But, try wrapping deployments into your duty station. Unless it was a platform deployment like the Comfort. I always considered my MARDIV time as one job, and deployments were part of the gig.

[corpsman89]

Its just that my deployment was so unique, and I was detached from 3rd Med Btn, to 4th Marine regiement to do a Embedded Training Team deployment. Very unique experiences and really shocases my medical ability. The 600 word description boxes can be frustrating if there is a lot to say.