<p>I would say being in the reserves IS detrimental to my studying…having to travel every month and spend a weekend on mindless tasks instead of studying isn’t the best way to spend time. Then there’s ORE/ORI’s that we do (might just be a guard thing) where they expect you to miss days during the week to again sit around and not accomplish much of anything. I’m pre-med and missing 3 days of chem/bio class is terrible. Since you’ll already have post 9/11 GI benefits not sure why on earth you would bother…I did it to get in-state classification in my state of enlistment so that I have easier med school options, as well as tuition being waived for my current school. </p>
<p>And then there’s always the threat of bi-annual deployments…depends on what reserve branch you join but even for the AF, those 2 month deployments can make you miss a whole semester. I have friends that chose to go to the desert, haven’t even gotten back into classes, and the unit returned mid fall.</p>
<p>So since you don’t need these perks as you’ll have full use of post 9/11 GI Bill I can’t imagine why you would want to. You enlisted for educational reasons so take things full circle and focus on school when your contract is up. Go to Columbia and focus on that top 5 ranked education you gave up 6 years of your life to earn! Best of luck!</p>