<p>IBfootballer, </p>
<p>you should talk to the commander of the unit at your school. He can answer a lot of your questions.</p>
<p>Also, look up the medical requirements. Google DODMERB = Department of Defense Medical Examination Review Board. There is a comprehensive list of disqualifiers. Asthma can be a tricky one. I think it’s okay if you don’t need to take the medicine often but I am not positive.</p>
<p>Sometimes the military is a great carrer, other times it is a place that people go to hide from life or because they have no idea what they want to do. </p>
<p>If you think it would be a great carrer then go… If you just dont know what else to do, there are plenty of other options and maybe you should go to your Universities carrer counseling department and read “What color is my parachute”</p>
<p>Just make sure you are going into the military for the right reasons, you honestly do not gain much employability by going or job skills like you used to, because of the MASSIVE amount of veterans coming home. In addition you will be older when you come back and competing with people younger than you for jobs, and marriage prospects/ all the while having lower opportunity costs because you are older.</p>
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<p>The job market is much different for an officer with an education and someone who enlisted out of high school. Many companies look for people with military experience.</p>
<p>OP, all of your questions can be answered by going to the Navy ROTC web site and by a 30 second Google search. If you want to be an officer and a leader start taking initiative. </p>
<p>I will correct you on a couple things. First, you would be commissioned a non-restricted line officer. Either aviation, SWO, or subs. You cannot go into Intelligence. ROTC is to create officers to command something that floats. If you want restricted line get your degree and then apply for OCS. </p>
<p>Second, you service select the end of Jr year and Navy notifies you around Oct of Sr year what you got. You are ranked with every other Sr. What you get is determined by your ranking and the needs of the Navy. Want aviation and got SWO? Too bad. </p>
<p>Third, you would have to come in as a college programmer to compete for a commission and scholarship. Those scholarships were shut off last year due to funding. </p>
<p>Finally, do a search for DODMERB and lookup the list of disqualifying medical conditions. Asthma recently is one of them. They are extensive with no appeal. </p>
<p>My advice is to forget ROTC and do the best you to finish your degree. If you still want to serve go OCS. I’ve seen too many kids start ROTC only to quit. The only ones that survive these days are the ones that want to serve as an officer more than anything. The others wash out.</p>
<p>Iron Maiden has excellent advice.</p>
<p>You need to go through OCS for any Staff Corps or Restricted Line designator. While it is possible, it is very difficult to do a lateral transfer from the huge SWO community to the smaller intel community down the road.</p>
<p>I suggest looking into AFROTC if it is available to you. Maybe you can get into intel that way.</p>
<p>But above all else, as other posters have mentioned, please be sure that service to the country is your priority. It is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, but it certainly isn’t for everyone.</p>
<p>Best of luck!!</p>
<p>Thank you, Iron Maiden. That was very informative. From what you’ve said, OCS sounds like the direction I’d want to go. I could also probably use a few years’ more maturity before making this decision. Can’t say I’m enthusiastic about doing basic with a Marine Corps DI, however lol.</p>
<p>Navyncsu, I have a buddy in AFROTC, so I know it is available. I’ve always been interested in the Navy, however, which is why that’s what I’m currently considering.</p>
<p>In my deliberations about this, I’m being careful about making sure that I’m not just considering this to get away from life. One day I feel like I need a big change, the next I feel general contentment. That’s why I haven’t taken the path that my friend who joined the marine corps did (even though it turned out quite well for him).</p>
<p>If I wanted simply to do something to get away from the pains of life, there are certainly less intimidating options than the military (peace corps, trekking around the world, City Year, some other gap year activity). But I’m looking for something else. I find myself disappointed in my personal drive and focus in life, and I don’t see that being corrected through study. Perhaps it will change with age. But I’m relatively certain that there are few better ways to become a driven and focused individual than to be faced with a choice of being driven and focused or facing the wrath of an arbitrarily angry drill instructor or CO. The folks I know who are going or who have gone through the military have a certain air of decisiveness and experienced wisdom to them. This is something that I admire, and I think that having it myself would make me a finer individual.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t consider myself an American exceptionalist, but I have a principled and well-rationalised love for my country. Moreover, I’m intending to make a career out of service to my country (working in foreign policy and national security). I can’t say I’m sold on the whole laying-my-life-down-for-my-country thing (especially because I don’t think much of that has happened since World War II), and that’s certainly a reason to be hesitant about making this sort of commitment.</p>
<p>Btw, SWO= Surface Warfare Officer, correct? forgive my civie ignorance lol</p>
<p>IB, SWO does equal Surface Warefare Officer. </p>
<p>It sounds like you are thinking this out well. I wish you the best. If you have other questions about NROTC either post or send a PM.</p>
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<p>It can get pretty tiresome.</p>
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<p>Extremely.</p>
<p>sounds like a dissatisfied customer…</p>
<p>Yup. I guess if you are not in the military everyone at work in a position of authority over you is so brilliant that you never question them. </p>
<p>Wow</p>