If you think you have the legitimate prospect of not only getting "frocked" but actually getting paid as an E-7 for some amount of time, then I would absolutely give it my best shot. But since you indicated you would be commissioning about three months after the results are out, I'd guess the chances of that are pretty slim. While making chief in itself is an accomplishment to be proud of, you wouldn't go through initiation, you wouldn't put on the anchors, your career wouldn't be advanced and in all likelihood you would never see it in your paycheck. For me personally I didn't see the potential benefits to me (negligible) outweighing potential benefits to a career enlisted type. I wouldn't fault anyone in your position for choosing one way or the other, that was just how I looked at it.