<p>Can anyone tell me if there is an advantage to Annapolis since my primary goal is to be a Marine officer and I'm really not interested in the Navy. I am told there is no guarantee for a Marine assignment at Annapolis like the PLC does.</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>There are no guarantees in life. If the Marine recruiter makes a promise, please make sure that he kisses you before you sign the contract. :D</p>
<p>Also, the Marines are part of the Navy. So, if you don't have any interest in the Navy you had better think twice about becoming a Jarhead.</p>
<p>Can the academy make a the Marines an assignment if they dont want to be one ?</p>
<p>To the best of my knowledge that has never happened. Although on the Navy side of the house, some midshipmen do end up with their second/third choice for service selection.</p>
<p>My class had a draft for the Nuclear Power program which realy screwed up service selection. I won't go into all the gory details, but it was a fiasco.</p>
<p>
[quote]
My class had a draft for the Nuclear Power program
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Wow. Hook up a generator to Rickover's grave. You could do a few megawatts with the RPMs he's doing.</p>
<p>I don't believe they would ever assign someone to the USMC who didn't want to be there. (I hate saying "ever" BTW, but . . .). In fact, the opposite occurs -- you really have to be selected by USMC to become a Marine. </p>
<p>Generally, the "default" is surface line in that folks who don't qualify to be or don't want to be pilots, NFOs, SEALs, submariners, Marines, etc. end up with surface line as their selection. However, that doesn't mean that a large number in the class don't choose surface line as their first choice -- many do.</p>
<p>my original question was IF you want to be a Marine, is there any benefit to going to USNA. my situation is that I have a nomination waiting on appointment, am also accepted into the Marines Platoon Leaders Class program as I am a freshman in college. I am told there is no guarantee that a mid will get his assignment and I dont want to be on a ship in the Navy as I want to be a Marine combat officer. what are the chances of going to USNA and then not getting a Marine assignment assuming the Marine want me which they already do now.</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>MarineHopeful and ready to serve</p>
<p>^^^^^
If you have been selected for the PLC program, you should have no problem obtaining a Marine Corps service selection from the Naval Academy. The caveat is that there are no guarantees in life.</p>
<p>do you have the option of NROTC? if you're "Marine Option", you're guaranteed a Marine Corps commission as long as you pass OCS, which is 6 weeks from ROTC as opposed to the 10 week (or two 6-week) PLC program. maybe you don't have NROTC at your school but i'm just throwing that out there.</p>
<p>very helpful thus far, now a harder question:
since my goal is to be a Marine officer, will the Annapolis experience give me an advantage as a Marine officer later? I see that only about 12-14% of Marine officers come from USNA and most come from the Marines PLC program. Obviously the education is tops, but I see the first couple years is required to take pre-engineering classes with all the calculus, chem, physics which is not my interest at all. I know I will have to kill myself to pass all those classes. My current major is international studies/business minor which I like. Of course if I go to USNA, then I will lose my first year of college. It looks like most of the students at USNA are interested in engineering and/or being a pilot. I like the regimented military lifestyle of USNA and the prestige, but not sure it is worth it for me.</p>
<p>for me, that technical/engineering aspect was a big part of why i decided not to go to USNA. i'm very happy in NROTC as a Marine Option, and i don't have to take any calc, physics or chem at all! my dad was a PLC-er though, and it never hindered him; he's currently a Colonel in the reserves. there are definitely many many advantages to USNA when you're a Marine, including training, the friends you'll make, and the connections you'll have in the civilian world if you decide to leave active duty; (i'm sure someone else could tell more about the advantages for a Marine). but again, for me, i knew that i didn't want to deal with all that Navy stuff for four years and i didn't want to take such scientifically oriented courses. it was strange because when i asked my dad's friends for advice, all of his Navy friends told me to go to USNA and all of his Marine friends, including Academy grads, told me NROTC/Harvard, which i did, and i couldn't be happier. </p>
<p>here's the last thing to keep in mind: whether you graduate from USNA, PLC, or NROTC, you're going to be a 2nd Lt. when you get out of college. you ALL go to The Basic School together, and thus you all get the same training. a Marine's a Marine.</p>
<p>thanks so much for your direct, yet balanced views based on your experience, your dad and others.</p>
<p>it seems like for me that PLC is the best option, but I struggle to give up the Annapolis experience. they dont have NROTC where I go to school and I dont want to switch if I stay in college. I am in Army ROTC now and I am not that impressed with it to be frank. I like the Marines culture which I think will be a key part of the future war on terror.</p>
<p>this is VERY helpful.</p>
<p>No matter what path you take, in the end you will still end up a Marine Officer, the different paths usually help when getting an MOS though.</p>
<p>marinehopeful....It seems to me you are mixing alot of issues in your head and this is why you're confused.</p>
<p>By the way bostonusmc...Hello! Your comments to this thread are perfect!</p>
<p>Marinehopeful: Sort these out </p>
<p>1) Rate in your own mind how you want to look back on your college years. Do you want to have the Service Academy experience or not? This is a key issue. Being a Plebe at USNA, being there for 4 years as an engineering minor no matter what your major is something to think about - as bostonusmc notes. So you want a technical education presented to you in a military environment?</p>
<p>2) Rate how important your college experience is to you. Do you like the freedoms of a 'civilian college life?' You are in much more control of your time, your sleep, your study, your friends, your 'liberty' ( to use the military term)You may HATE the regimen of a full time military life FIRST, and college second. This is the absolute key distinction between a Service Academy education versus any civilian college experience.</p>
<p>3)Rate how you want to be trained. USNA has 4 years of non-stop training in all kinds of experiences and opportunities. You'll have world-class speakers at your doorstep. You'll practice in parades until you want to puke. You'll be a visible uniformed person in town representing your country even as an 18 year old whether you like it or not. You'll have teachers who have no mercy on how swamped you are with the military side of the equation that you are mercilessly being forced to juggle . You'll have the ability to hang out with military personell who have been on subs, landed on carriers, flown helos, commanded infantry in combat, served as diplomats in other countries. You won't have to put on a mental filter that everytime your professor opens his mouth you have to wonder if you are listening to the wisdom of a patriotic American or one who has an agenda with a decidely anti-American spin. These may or may not be issues to think about. You'll laugh and cry with a close-knit company of about 40 of you for 4 years. You'll sweat together, study together, love and hate each other together, hang out together and at the end of 4 years be bonded in ways no regular college could offer. Decades later you will still bump into one of your company-mates and class-mates and share something undescribable except to those who have gone before you as well.</p>
<p>4) You have to be willing to lay down your 'guarantee' that you will go Marine - but then there are NO GUARANTEES in the military - And in today's military if you work hard at USNA you can get your "Marine slot" come service selection in the beginning of your senior year. This past year 22% went Marine. This was due to the fact that USNA recognizes the needs of USMC in the current long war we are facing to have more officers trained - and so they allowed more USNA grads to select Marine. This is a pretty high percentage that will graduate in Marine Black uniforms next month and I suspect these numbers will only remain constant or go up if we continue with this long 'war on terrorism'. To put things in perspective. The Class of 2010 was 24% female - a high number - so USNA continues to adjust its numbers on all sorts of issues including Marine slots.</p>
<p>5) Finally - as others on this thread have said - when all is said and done every Marine Officer ends up at Quantico where the playing field is leveled no matter where you went to school - so it becomes not so much an issue as where you came from but what you do from Quantico forward that makes one a MARINE!</p>
<p>Some final thoughts. My daughter at USNA is hoping to go Marine one day. She is already involved in their semper fi group there - she has been noticed by other Marine officers/enlisted there even as a Plebe. She just goes about her personal quest to be focused and the best she can be no matter what - and it is that spirit that will probably stand her in good stead come senior year when she puts in for her Marine request. For her first summer training she requested an amphibious ship, in the hopes that she can hang out around Marines - so even this early one can try and begin the relationships that prepare the best opportunity for her goal to graduate in May of 2010 in Marine black! </p>
<p>Good luck marinehopeful as you think through these issues for yourself. May God bless your journey to serve your country in our military. We need young people like you, bostonusmc, and the many others who want to step up to the plate and be our defense in this volatle world.</p>
<p>irishrover- in answer to your question - according to info I heard once on GoNavy Radio the only time USNA grads were 'forced' to go Marine was during a brief time in Vietnam, when the death rates were so horrifiic. Oliver North mentions that when he was thinking about what to do ( he's class of 68) the Marines decided to have several perfectly uniformed spit and polished Marines standing by the table the day of service selection - so that they could inspire and motivate those mids to sign up Marine. It worked for Oliver and he reported that for his class year, unlike the previous year - they have an overflow of Firsties sign up Marine.</p>
<p>
[quote]
My class had a draft for the Nuclear Power program
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I would have volunteered! :(</p>
<p>MarineHopeful, going to USNA will not make or break you as a USMC officer. Diamonds and turds come from both USNA as well as ROTC, so don't sweat it.</p>
<p>If you want to be a USMC officer, there is no finer way to do it than USNA. It won't make you the best officer (only YOU can do that) but it WILL give you the best TOOLS to do it with. The rest is up to you.</p>
<p>As for your chances of going USMC, I know that there is a thread or two on this subject, but if you go USNA and do reasonably well, you should have no difficulty whatsoever achieving your dream. If you want to do something REALLY specialized like USMC aviation, you had better hit the books because those billets are few and disappear quick on SS night. In my day, snagging USMC NFO was right up there with snagging a SEAL billet.</p>
<p>Good luck, and Semper Fi.</p>
<p>hey</p>
<p>i go to usmma, but we send a bunch of kids to PLC unlike those pansies at USNA. In fact, USNA is the only place you can go to and avoid PLC or "Bulldog" cause they're mids are such hot you know what. that being said. you can go to civilian school go to plc during your summers and graduate a marine, and there's no committment after you finish your second stint at
plc. if you do usmc rotc you can do the bulldog course before your junior year for only 6 weeks and graduate a marine. if you really want to be a marine id say go to a civilian school, have all the fun and end up in the same exact place.</p>
<p>as for going air, i think you can sign a contract with the marine corps for a guaranteed flight spot (no specifics just that you will fly something or be an nfo, helos included) and i think you can do that either before your first plc session or right after. talk to the officer recruiters they'll hook you up.</p>
<p>Quote:
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My class had a draft for the Nuclear Power program
[/Quote]
</p>
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</p>
<p>I think they can only draft for surface. Subs are mandatory volunteers, correct??</p>
<p>As far as I know, that is the case today. It certainly was the case in my day.</p>
<p>Ask me how I know. :(</p>
<p>This thread has been extremely helpful, Thanks Ya'll.</p>