<p>So I'm thinking about joining AFROTC my sophomore year. </p>
<p>I really like the idea of becoming a scientist or work with aerospace in the Air Force. It's just I'd also like the opportunity to continue onward with grad school (I know they have AFIT, but I'm not exactly sure how that works, it seems fairly selective but I don't know.) I'd like to get either my MS in Astronautical Engineering or Planetary Geology. Eventually I'd like to end up with NASA (yes nerd) but that's the idea for now.</p>
<p>The other thing is, if I do do AFROTC, I'll be a sophomore. Is that a bad thing, being in later than the rest?</p>
<p>The last thing is the commitment. I always hear these horror stories about how such-and-such didn't get xyz job, or how they were unaware of commitments involved, and now they want out (i.e., "It was longer than I expected, I don't want to be here anymore") etc etc. Should I just chalk these experiences up as anomalies, or maybe even a lack of reading the fine print in a contract?</p>
<p>There aren’t many surprises in a military contract. You know how long the total contract is, how many years must be served in active duty, and how many must be spent inactive. </p>
<p>Some units were facing stop-loss which is an extension of your contract, but it’s mainly combat units, I don’t think I ever hear someone from the AF having this done, certainly not in non-combat roles. This was pretty rare even at the height of the wars, and things appear to be cooling down in the next couple years. Certainly, nothing to worry about.</p>
<p>I’m not completely familiar with how the AF does their selection for Officers, but if it’s like the Army/Marines you don’t get a guaranteed branch/career field. </p>
<p>Below is a link to Officer career paths in the Air Force.</p>
<p>I don’t think they guarantee career fields. It depends on your PFA scores, AFOQT scores, and I believe assessments from the people who run your ROTC detachment.</p>
<p>Basically, “be all you can be” as the Army says and you’ll probably have a good chance of getting what you’d want.</p>
<p>Clinch a perfect score on the ASVAB and you can pick what ever job you want and they’re seriously not that hard at all I got an 88 and I was an idiot back then. </p>
<p>Don’t worry about stop loss. I knew many people that I deployed with that were stop loss but I believe Congress did away with that and when my contract runs out I’m either going to say **** you right to the recruiter’s face or only do one year contracts so it’s impossible to get deployed again (I’m not sure which at the moment).</p>
<p>^ I don’t think USAF Officers get to pick their career field. It most likely operates like the other branches where you go through an OCS then get placed according to need and your preference sheet.</p>
<p>One other question that I can’t seem to find the answer to, is how ROTC vision waivers for UPT work.</p>
<p>So let’s say I decided to go chase after a pilot slot, and I’m perfect in every regard save for vision. I’ve heard of there being waivers for vision, but in terms of undergraduates, how would this work? Would one get surgery during their school year and then wait a year before being processed at Brooks? If so, who foots the bill?</p>
<p>I’m AFJROTC right now and what I know is you have to take the AFOQT and pass it to be commissioned as an Second Lieutenant. I’m also sure that you can not join your sophomore year because you have to go to field training in the summer before your junior year of college. You can only skip the first year of college ROTC if you’ve had three or more years of JROTC. On the subject of MOS, the Air Force gives you what is available and many times that means anything but what you prefer. To be honest with you technical majors like engineering and medical majors such as nursing are the only “guaranteed jobs”</p>
<p>If I were you I would graduate first, go to OCS, pass the AFOQT, and then get the MOS you like. Get more information from your detachment instructors :)</p>
<p>Twobittehz- You clearly don’t know enough to give advice on this subject.</p>
<p>You CAN join as a sophomore and be dual enrolled in both the AS100 and AS200 classes, or you can enroll in just the AS200 class and compete for a slot for the 5 week field training, which has a week of academic material at the beginning. Either way, know that it is VERY competitive, and joining as a sophomore does not not help. You’ve had a year less to impress cadre, and your ranking in the detachment is the largest part of what determines if you get your enrollment allocation to field training.</p>
<p>As far as I know, and I could be wrong, if you are not selected for AFIT, then you would just have to pursue your masters on your own time, but the AF will still cover the cost of your tuition.</p>
<p>Lastly, you get to put in a sheet of the AFSCs that you would like, but the needs of the AF really come first, so it is entirely possible that you won’t get the job you want. As far as commitment, it is 4 years for non-rated AFSCs, and 6 for ABM/CSO, and 10 for pilot.</p>