jeeplovindad
FY13 Sta-21 Applicant EDO/SWO
I am by no means an expert on this subject, as I too will be applying this year, but breaking out on the ship is about doing your job brilliantly and taking every opportunity you can to help the command out. Meaning, don't take a job because it looks good on your eval, take it because you feel you'll do it well and that you'll do it better than anyone else. You do that and you'll get noticed because being motivated and genuine are often qualities overlooked due to our quantitative eval system (Meaning the more crap you can put on an eval, the better it tends to look). As for the STA-21 program, it's been my observation - and probably everybody else's out there - that the more credits you have, the better. The government is trying to slash budgets, so if they can get away with sending your for 1-2 years, then you'll have a better chance than the sailor that will need every moment of three years to make that degree commission come to fruition. That's hard on the ship, I know, but if you can manage it - and you said you were on an extended inport period - take all the classes that you can handle while maintaining as close to a 4.0 GPA as possible. This will show the board - as well as your command - that you are driven to obtain this goal. You can't do anything more than that, not really anyways. Good luck!