The number didn’t matter.

I graduated from the Univ. of Wisconsin in 1968 and went on to the UW School of Medicine.  Graduating in 1972 and completing an internship the following year, I was 100% draft eligible and in the sights of the draft board as the military was in dire need of physicians.  The draft number meant nothing if you had an MD behind your name.  I volunteered for the US Navy and retained some control of my life.

[Editor’s note. As this story illustrates, physicians were subject to their own separate draft priority and were not exempted by a high lottery number.]