I am senior in high school and was wondering the benefits of joining the military after college. I understand that the military can help pay for school but i want to know how and to what extend. Is it worth it? Also, what branch would be the best to join? I wanna major in business. Please let me know with any responses or comments. Thank you!
It is only “worth it” to join the military if you want to be IN the military.
Please don’t do this for the college benefit. Do it because you have a strong desire to serve on our military.
If you joined BEFORE college, you would earn help paying your tuition, via the GI Bill. If you wait until AFTER college, the benefit would be a steady salary, to help pay off any loans. You could attend a service academy or join ROTC, and have some or all of your expenses paid, but would then have an obligation to serve for a set period of time.
As thumper says, don’t do it for the money. Do it because the military interests you. Otherwise, get a good job that you enjoy, and that allows you to pay off your debt after you graduate.
i understand and i actually would like to join the military because i feel like it will help me build on as a stronger better individual.
The military isn’t a scholarship service.
However if you want to combine the opportunity to serve with a scholarship, what you want is ROTC.
Therefore, look Universities that have ROTC.
Some ROTC scholarships have been phased out for freshmen, meaning you need to complete first year ROTC satisfactorily in order to get a scholarship. It depends.
That scholarship may cover full tuition and books, plus a small stipend.
You need to meet physical requirements and these scholarships are competitive.
If there’s a war, you’re sent to fight, so you have to be certain that what you want.
There are other very good options for funding a college education based on military service in addition to the ROTC program, which as noted is highly competitive. Anyone considering military service who also wants to pursue a college education at some point should educate themselves about the Post-911 GI Bill, which is an entitlement (not a competitive selection process) as long as certain requirements are met.
If you join the military after you have a college degree, you will enter at a higher rank than someone with just a high school diploma. You could also apply for Officer’s Candidate School.
A friend just joined the Coast Guard after graduating from college. Both her parents were in the Coast Guard, and she had Post 911 GI Bill benefits through them to go to college. She still had to go to boot camp, but she starts at a higher rank. She didn’t want to do ROTC or go to an academy so she went to college first.
A friend I was in law school with dropped out to do the OCS thing. The plan was for the marines to pay for law school (this was many years ago when this still was possible) after he did his training.
I was friends with two N-ROTC guys when I was in college. One was a very good business student and good at ROTC. Upon graduation, he got to go to the supply school, similar to getting an MBA. The other was a screw up in school and ROTC, and was assigned to a ship. We were all sure he was swabbing decks.
Another option is to join the National Guard and participate while in college. My neighbor’s son is doing this. Biggest potential pitfall is that you can be deployed if there’s a major disaster in the US or some other need, in which case you’d miss classes. For more info: https://www.nationalguard.com/college