<p>My daughter is convinced she wants to enlist in the Navy. She thinks the Navy will be exciting and provide real life experience before college as well as pay for her education. I want her to go to a four year college but most of the people she has been talking to other than myself support her decision. Does anyone have personal experience regarding enlistment for girls into the Navy directly out of high school?</p>
<p>Does your daughter have any academic inclinations? Is there an ROTC thing for the navy? or is she not really all that into school? At least she has an idea of what she might want to do. How long do you have to stay in the navy if you enlist? Did you speak to anyone about this, yourself? Who is giving her advice on this?</p>
<p>Yes, who is telling her this and why don’t you think the navy is a good idea?</p>
<p>Has she always been a tough and adventurous kid? If so, then it might be the ticket!</p>
<p>BUT it would be MUCH better to go in as an officer. If it were my kid, I would TOTALLY support the following:</p>
<p>Enroll in the Texas A&M Corp of Cadets</p>
<p>The Corps of Cadets offers scholarships ranging in value from $1,000 - $20,000 that carry no military obligation.</p>
<p>Stay in for a year or two and see if you love military life, and if so, THEN double up with Corp of Cadets and Navy ROTC.</p>
<p>A full scholarship may be available if you enter ROTC your sophomore year.</p>
<p>In the Corp, you have until the end of your sophomore year to decide if you want to commit to the military. Until then, you can still back out. Even then, if you decide you love the Corp, but don’t want to commit, you can still be a “drill and ceremony cadet”.</p>
<p>If she decides to go the distance, she’ll enter the navy as an officer! Much much better. And she’ll have more time to think it through, learn a lot and make solid decisions based on something closer to reality and less romanticized.</p>
<p>What state are you in? If she’s out of state for Texas, Texas A&M could be expensive.</p>
<p>GorillaGlue: Maybe, but maybe not. Wouldn’t hurt to talk to A & M and Corp of Cadets to see if an out of state tuition waiver might be possible.</p>
<p>I don’t know if there are any other military type academies that still give you TRUE room to back out.</p>
<p>If your D is under 17, you might look into this:</p>
<p>[U.S</a>. Naval Sea Cadet Corps - Cadet Programs : Sea Cadets](<a href=“http://www.seacadets.org/public/programs/nscc/]U.S”>http://www.seacadets.org/public/programs/nscc/)</p>
<p>My niece went into the Army Reserve immediately after graduation. She was still 17 at the time. She spent almost a year as an enlisted soldier in Basic and Advanced Training, and then started at North Georgia College (which has a large student military corps) the following fall. She still does her Reserve duty, plus she is in the Corps of Cadets at school. Upon graduation, she will be commissioned as an officer. This is not a typical path, but one that has worked well for her. </p>
<p>She did JROTC all through HS and had a good sense of what she was getting into (and has done very well at it, winning awards and promotions). She talked to the JROTC advisers at her school, my dad (career military) and others who have served. </p>
<p>Her family could not afford to send her to college, so this has been a chance to attend a school she loves and to cover her expenses. Frankly, that was secondary to her love of the military and the chance to get her music degree AND serve.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, I should have been more specific in my original post. I have strongly encouraged the Naval Academy and ROTC but she is hard headed and determined to enlist. I want to know what I can expect for her if she takes this path and hopefully some real stories and experiences will help her make the right decision.</p>
<p>The Naval Academy is one of the most selective colleges in terms of admission. </p>
<p>I am guessing that the real life stories you want to hear are NOT success stories. We know a young man who enlisted right out of high school. He completed his term of service and is now finishing his bachelors degree. He considered career military but decided not to go that route. Still, he was happy with his decision.</p>
<p>If your daughter does decide to enlist, count me among the folks saying “thank you for serving our country”.</p>
<p>I was in the AF, not the Navy, but had many young female airmen in my squadron. They go through basic training and tech training like everyone else. They can be assigned to any number of occupational specialties. Some of my best airmen left the service after their term of enlistment to get what they want from college. I’ve kept in contact with one who just graduated with her nursing degree, paid for with her GI Bill.</p>
<p>OK, then I would ask her if she’d be willing to do the Naval Sea Cadet Corp while in high school and to start doing physical training - just for me.</p>
<p>The thing is, if this is what she REALLY wants, you’re not going to be able to stop her, and if you fight her too hard you’ll damage the relationship…</p>
<p>So…you might have to get behind her and support her with EVERYTHING YOU’VE GOT.</p>
<p>Congratulations on your daughter’s commitment and desire to serve her country. My daughter was very seriously interested in gaining admittance to the Naval Academy, but after a certain point she chose a traditional 4 year college. There are many reasons your daughter would benefit from this training, but perhaps you can ask her to enunciate the attraction this has for her. My husband has said several times he is glad she didn’t pursue it because he feels the increasing hostility overseas means more ships (and more naval officers) on these ships.</p>
<p>Sent you a PM</p>
<p>If your D goes enlisted had has a strong STEM aptitude academically, she may want to consider going to “Nuke school” which is not only highly respected and competitive(only around top 3% of enlisted sailors make the initial cut), but some of that training can be applied as college credits towards an engineering/STEM degree. </p>
<p>One younger female HS classmate went this route straight from HS and then had no issues finishing up her engineering degree in less than 4 years and free courtesy of the GI Bill and scholarships.</p>
<p>@poetgrl
When you enlist you sign up for 8 years- usually 4 years active and 4 years inactive reserves.</p>
<p>My husband served 6 active 2 inactive in the Navy.</p>
<p>My son, who is currently a college freshman, said he was interested in going into the Army. His dad, a career Army officer, essentially said to him that the life of an officer in the military is a much better life. My son was not interested in the Academy ( dad is a grad). He enrolled in ROTCClasses at his college. We have learned along the way that there are several options for getting school paid for. In Ohio, for example, students can join the Guard or reserves and their tuition is paid while they are in school and they are told that they will not be deployed. They owe time upon graduation. It might be worth looking around, and I do not know whether the Navy offers the same.</p>
<p>My S1 wanted to be in the military ever since middle school. He never changed his mind. Some kids just know.
He went the NROTC route and is now a Navy Spec. Ops officer. He loves his job. He will deploy right after Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>After boot camp and job training,your D be assigned to a base and begin working.<br>
She won’t make a lot of money but will be provided with room and board,uniforms,health benefits,paid vacation. The GI Bill is a great benefit. </p>
<p>She will be deployed for six months at the time. The ports of call are fun/exciting. On board the ship she will likely share small sleeping quarters with five other women (three bunks stacked on each wall)…little privacy. She will work long hours. Hopefully she would be assigned a MOS she likes but that’s not always guaranteed. She needs to have a discussion with the recruiter about that because someone has to peel potatos so to speak. </p>
<p>If she is determined to enlist, you should go to a recruiting office with her and take a list of questions with you. Learn all you can so you can help her in making her decision.</p>
<p>I really don’t know anything about entering the military, but I believe there was a long thread on CC about women at boot camp maybe 2 years ago. I also think it referenced a book about one young woman’ s experience. Maybe some CC expert can help you find that thread. The thread was interesting and mention all kinds of practical things for women to know. Good luck with a serious decision for your daughter.</p>