Military and College

Sportsman88
Fri, 02 Jun 2017 04:12:52 +0000

Lot’s of questions built in to yours. I don’t have time to answer all nor am I best qualified on all but I can point you in the right direction.

1. Columbia School of General Studies likes Vets and is GI Bill friendly. You still need the stats but you might have a better change there than Columbia straight out of HS. Penn has a similar program. There may be others.

2. One of my good friends enlisted out of HS and then went to college on his GI Bill. It worked out great for him on all accounts and he is highly successful decades later.

3. I reiterate what @50N40W said. ** If you talk to an enlisted recruiter, you will get enlisted solutions. ** Know that up front. Recruiting is a tough job so I'm not poking recruiters but I've known folks with college degrees who enlisted because they didn't know options for officer. That is not you right now but you should speak to an enlisted recruiter and an officer recruiter to get both sides.

4. NROTC: One great thing about USMC ROTC is they don't care about your major. You can major in English or engineering. I know the Navy has quotas geared to STEM and Army at least used to have quotas for majors.

5. Service Academy vs ROTC: I would say Service Academy is far tougher for many reasons and while it's a great education, the Georgetown example above is true. And I believe great officers can come from many accession points. Lots of pros/cons and if you are interested we can go there. Top hits: ROTC has a commitment very early, either right away or after first year, I forget. USNA you have two years that you can just walk away and say it wasn't for you, no harm no foul. However, a USMC ROTC contract is just that. At USNA (and I expect other SAs), you don't get your assignment until senior year and USMC is competitive.

6. Why do you want to be a Recon Scout Sniper? That's an important question and has multiple layers. You can be a scout sniper in an infantry battalion as well. The Marines also have MARSOC now which muddies the water on where Recon belongs.

7. Last response hits all of the above. Talk to as many people as you can starting with your parents but also enlisted and officer recruiter, active duty or recent active duty Marines to get their opinions, vets now in college, etc. ** The more perspectives you get, the more likely you are to make a good decision. **

There is a thread from a few weeks ago of a Vet who got in to Columbia and Penn and was deciding on which one. Find the thread and PM him.