<p>I have no real idea what I want to do. I am considering a career in the military, but am unsure if that is the life for me. I want to be able to dedicate myself to the military or to a specific academic area of study while in college. What should I do?</p>
<p>Why not start college undecided and then join the ROTC? Use the resources of the career center to better determine career opportunities, etc, and see if you are a good fit for the military by participating in ROTC. There is no commitmentfor a few years, and it is a great experience in and of itself.</p>
<p>Excellent advice, MizzBee.</p>
<p>Don’t join the military purely because you don’t have an idea of what to do, especially if you want to go to college. Though getting the college assistance benefits offered by the military is a really good deal, it is very hard to get your degree while you are enlisted. Long term deployments, and being very busy makes it extremely tough to get it done. Often people don’t start their education until they are out. Starting college and joining ROTC (during the time frame where there is no obligation) will really expose you to different aspects of the military and allow you to learn and make choices that are right for you.</p>
<p>A third vote for the strategy of enrolling in college and signing up for ROTC to fully explore your options. </p>
<p>The distribution requirements or core curriculum or whatever they are are called at various colleges and universities provide the opportunity to explore the “specific areas of study” before making a decision. How many high school students have studied anthropology, for example? This is your chance to explore. (Engineering is a different story. PM me if that is your interest.)</p>
<p>Similarly, ROTC classes and the required training will help you decide if the military is for you. Granted, the ROTC is for officer training and, if you enlisted right now, it would not be as an officer. Also, graduating from an ROTC program does not guarantee a full time commission. But that it something to consider once you get to the “commitment” part of the ROTC decision.</p>
<p>Please let us know what you decide.</p>
<p>S1 did the NROTC program…'09 grad. He had a scholarship. He says it’s pretty difficult now to get in ROTC without having a scholarship. The Navy has a glut of junior officers right now and are trying to reduce their numbers.<br>
Army might be different because they need more people and have no academic major restrictions. I know Navy and Air Force require a very large percentage of scholarship recipients to major in engineering,physics, other hard sciences. So it would be very difficult for someone who is “exploring their options” to get in.<br>
With govt. funding being slashed everywhere, most units aren’t interested in taking on a non-scholarship student who is not sure they are serious and really have nothing on the line to lose if they decide to take advantage of the program but slack off or decide it’s not for them… unlike scholarship recipients who have to work hard/take it seriously or lose their scholarship money.<br>
ROTC is hard work and in many cases nessescitates a semester to year extra to get through college depending on how many AP/college credit they bring in from h.s. and what they are majoring in. The Val of S2’s class is on AFROTC scholarship majoring in aerospace enginnering. He’s a Dean’s List kid but will still need extra time to graduate. </p>
<p>I’m not trying to be discouraging just want the op to realize that it may not be possible to do ROTC w/out the scholarship (esp. w/ undecided major) so he would need to do a lot of research before making a decision.</p>
<p>It is possible to enlist and then gain scholarship entry into a ROTC program. S1’s NROTC unit had several “prior enlisted” midshipmen in his class. One of his best friends in the Navy was an enlisted Navy diver for years before going to Penn State NROTC on a scholarship.</p>
<p>excellent information, PackMom.</p>
<p>To the OP:
Absent the burning desire to enlist, and assuming that you have a way to pay for college (only because no such consideration was mentioned)–true? I still suggest that you enroll and explore the academic options open to you.</p>
<p>You will not have closed any doors in the process. Should you decide that the military is the path for you, you will still have the college credits, and you will know that the military choice was not just the result of indecision or lack of imagination.</p>