Seems like there is a different scheme in the States.
For us, Aussies, the Army will pay for your college, however you will be an Officer at the end of it. You do the same thing - one PT session a month and a few weeks out bush a year.
If you want to go to college, but be a soldier, you wouldn’t be funded by the Army (in Oz), but that seems to be an option that you have? Am I reading that correctly?
If that is the case, that seems like a great option. Study, then become a soldier, after a few years transfer across and get some rank.
I left high school, went to university, gained my degree and am now an Officer, as a pilot. Love it.
But, I have a mate, who went through as a soldier and transfered across and is now in the same position I am. He has 2 deployements and understands the enlisted ranks ‘better’ having come through them. He wishes he went to college, I wish I came through as a soldier.
I’ve been in AROTC for 2 years and can probably answer a lot of your questions.
The Army is about to have budget cuts and you probably won’t get a 4 year scholarship (went down from 22 my freshman year to 2 this past year) and with ROTC you do a lot more PT than twice a semester or whatever you thought you’d do with SMP (we do 5 days a week, 1.5 hours starting at 0500) and it’s kind of a headache managing school and 20+ hours of ROTC (it’ll be about 35+ your junior year if you stay).
The guys that come in from green to gold (enlisted to officer) definitely tend to do a lot better in the program and in school. The other negative is if you want to branch something specific, like infantry, it’s in no way guaranteed unless you’re in the top 10 percent of cadets in the country which takes around a 3.5 gpa and 280+ pt score. Personally, I’m getting out of the program to start the journey of hopefully enlisting with an 18x contract when I graduate and try out for SF.
It’s a good program and it will definitely teach you a lot about what you want to do, either in the military or on the civilian side. If you do ROTC and really want to be an active duty officer, work your balls off in the classroom your freshman year. That’s what hurt my gpa.
I did the Army right after HS, THEN ROTC/college which got interrupted for a return to the sandbox because I had certain skills that were needed — a danger depending on your MOS.
I eventually got back to college, but my plans were certainly not as anticipated. In this world, I would anticipate that.
Regardless, I enjoyed being both enlisted and being an officer.
Showing up on my first day as an officer with a good conduct medal(you’ll know what this means later) and some tour ribbons and a bronze star made the enlisted pay special attention to a normally green LT.
I joined ROTC and am now an O3 in the Army. It was the best decision I ever made (i also debated dropping out of school and enlisting), also you can commission straight from ROTC to active duty, you dont need to go guard/reserve. It would help to have some experience under your belt as enlisted but you would be amazed how much you learn after you commission.
At the age of 22 years old you will be taking on more responsibility than most people will ever have in their lifetime. The pay, benefits and the honor in the job are exemplary. Any way you serve is absolutely honorable but if you have the opportunity to become an officer you should.
Look at the military retirement pay calculators. I wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to start as an officer. With the talk about reduction of force I can’t imagine its going to be easy to commission much further down the road.