As a guy thinking he wants to go to the boat, let's start a frank, no bs/party line discussion about the work/return ratio in the jet pipeline/fleet. I think there is no doubt where my heart lies in terms of pure flying...but I am married and old and have been in school for the last 20 years. To be blunt, I wonder about the sacrifices. There is also a serious deficit of educated opinions in Corpus as most dog the J1/J2 pipeline as too much work and up tight a$$es...a combination of jealousy, and ignorance no doubt.
Frank opinions and stories encouraged...compare the workload to primary...power school for those in the know...etc...
First off, don't ever listen to a Primary instructor, who flew anything but jets, talk about jets. They don't know sh!t. End of story. Just like a jet guy talking to you about helos or maritime, they also won't know sh!t about that. You are correct, it's very tough in Primary to get a true picture about the jet OR the E-2/C-2 pipelines. The experience just isn't there. However, you're lucky. You live near Kingsville. That resource is available, as well as a phone call. I know guys that called E-2 and C-2 squadrons to ask what life was like before selection because we had no instructors that flew in those communities.
Like zippy said, the studying never stops. In fact, it gets worse (in a different respect though).
The rumors of tight-a$$es and jerks... not true. Every community will have tight-a$$es here or there, but the jet pipeline doesn't have any more than any other community. What some may confuse for being a tight-a$$ is the endless pursuit to be perfect. There is a reason for that, your life depends on it, literally. There is no slack at the boat, there is no slack flying in thick goo on your lead's wing, there certainly isn't any slack when they're shooting at you. Each community will focus its energy in a different area. Jet guys don't tend to be NATOPS nazis. We have more important stuff to worry about, like tactics and threats. No one gives a sh!t how many microns the oil filter seive is, or what an obscure pressure is in a fuel line that you can do nothing about. It. Doesn't. Matter.
Work/Return? Well, that depends what you want out of it. Like airgreg already said, if you want to be the pointy tip of the spear, employing weapons, having to know EVERYTHING from air-to-air, air-to-ground, tanking, recce, the boat, EVERYTHING, if that's for you, then jets is the way to go. Dropping LGB, rolling on on a dive bomb, shooting BVR and then fighting at the merge... you're not going to get that in any other community.
It's up to you in what you want. Every community has its perks and its downs. Yes, the jet pipeline SUCKS at first. It's painful. It's a long year in advanced and you will do more and have more expected of you than any of you counterparts in other communities before you wing. Make no mistake, you have no idea what you're getting yourself into when you select jets from Primary. It's eye opening.
Take it for what it's worth.
