<p>It's been a while since I've been on this board, but you were really helpful last time, so here goes:</p>
<p>I've looked it up online (extensively) and think that being a Marine sounds really, no, not neat, but invigorating. Important. You know, the dutiful/honorable/intelligent/disciplined choice. I'm sure most everyone here is familiar with that idea.</p>
<p>What I want to know is the difference between being an officer in the different military branches vs. the Marines. Is USNA the only affiliated academy? Will the Marines pay for some of your college education in order to become an officer?</p>
<p>If interested in becoming a Marine go visit USMMA. You can usually fit all your Officer School during the summers and if you end up deciding not to become a Marine you still have many options graduation from Kings Point. </p>
<p>Now, for some real answers. You can go into the Marine Corps out of any of the service academies. The order of ease to go into the USMC from the Academies is probably USMMA easier than USNA easier than any of the others. I say USMMA is easier to go into the Marines because USNA has a class quota system that USMMA does not have. </p>
<p>Someone else will have to give you input on the availability of ROTC or other college programs. I'm not familiar with that area.</p>
<p>I had no idea that the Marines were a branch of the Navy! Marines.com is a pretty website, but pretty useless when it comes to giving out information (props go to GoArmy.com, it's quite informative).</p>
<p>What is USMMA, really? I haven't heard too much about it, to be honest. My grandfather was a star fencer at USNA way back when, so that's really all I hear about; that and he <em>would</em> have gone to USAFA had it existed when he was that age.</p>
<p>Have any of people's family member taken the Marines route? What preparation did they do?</p>
<p>Check out the US Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY. In 4 years you serve in the Naval Reserves, get an engineering BS degree, go to sea for a year and then can be commissioned an officer in any branch, become a pilot, work for Coast Guard or NOAA, work merchant ships or other transportation. There is a nice link in the service academy area here. Do your homework and start revisiting the boards again!</p>