Applying for Intel, May board - advice/chances?

[nevergreen]

Hi Airwarriors, I've been lurking for awhile now and decided to post. I filled out my info on my profile but will expand on that here.

I'm a military dependent, and was homeschooled as a child. Because of this I was able to start college at 14 at the local community college. I graduated with an A.A. at 17, and transferred to the University of Connecticut, where I got my B.A. in English & Political Science (taking mostly IR courses for poli sci) with a 3.87 cumulative GPA. I do have some STEM coursework on my transcript with strong grades as well. I just graduated back in December and am submitting a commissioning package in the coming weeks. I recently took the OAR and scored a 61.

My main concern/question is regarding my age and experience. I am a recent graduate and also even younger than the average recent graduate (currently 20 y/o), which means I am extremely limited in terms of work experience. I had a writing/editorial internship where I created a large alumni newsletter from scratch, writing all the articles/designing everything, I've worked as a copy editor, as a residential assistant, I've tutored (mostly ESL/ELL foreign students) in writing and have about a year of volunteer experience. I also lived abroad for 2.5 years. That's it. I'm aware that I'm up against prior military and people with master's degrees etc. So it almost seems like a waste of time to be worrying about Intel, and I should just put down other designators that I have a good shot of getting.

I'm planning on putting Intel #1, Suppo #2. Is there any chance that they would be like "cool this kid knows early he wants to be a naval officer and is getting a headstart" thus maybe my age/background could help me, or are they just gonna be "this dude has 0 experience get outta here"? If it helps at all I do have a lot of military family: father is an Active Duty O-5 XO LDO with 30+ years in the Navy, my brother has been in for a couple years enlisted now, I think he's like an E-4, and my cousin is an Active Duty O-3 in the Navy (also her brother is Air Force).

Sorry to post my life story, and thanks if you read through it/have comments.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

OCS applicants are not expected to have work experience, the age limit is low, my NRD sent a person to OCS at age 19.

your GPA is great, your degree doesn't fit either IDC or Supply and they are 2 of the most difficult designators to get into. SWO would probably grab you right away.

Don't hold your breath on a May board, they just released the last round of selections and IDC rarely holds all the boards that are scheduled, the same can be said of Supply as well.

 

[LFCFan]

Given that you are so young, I'd recommend that you go to grad school and get a degree in something that would make you more attractive to intel. And it would save you the trouble of dealing with advanced degrees down the road. I went to OCS at 26 with a Master's under my belt and I'm glad I don't have to worry about that later.

Having said this, I know plenty of non-priors with Poli Sci degrees. I'd still give it a shot.

 

[MGB001]

You have a very strong GPA (especially considering your age) and a great OAR score. However, the last IDC board had a selection rate of about 14%, which is noticeably higher than the 9.5% selection rate from the September 2014 board. So as you can see it is highly competitive. I wouldn't expect the next scheduled IDC board to take place, but that's just my personal opinion looking back at previous trends. A Master's degree would certainly be something that would improve your package. Ultimately I think the question you should ask yourself is do you want to be a Naval Officer or do you want to be a Naval Intelligence Officer? If you are dead set on Intel then I would recommend getting a Master's degree in a relevant field. If serving in any designator would be fine with you then, as stated above, I'd imagine you'd be an easy select for SWO. I don't know enough about Supply to comment.

The other thing that I'd like to point out is that if you submit a package for a designator and receive a Pro-Rec N it is detrimental to future attempts at that designator unless you have significant changes in you package. So something to consider. Honestly, with IDC it is so hard (read: impossible) to predict what will happen. Take the last board for example, Intel was supposed to be 'closed' according to strong rumors through the grapevine, yet it saw 19 civilian and 6 fleet selects, very high numbers. High number of OCEANO selects compared to normal yearly goals as well (from what I've heard at least, I don't know a ton about that designator) and relatively low number of fleet selects for IW (which as I've gleaned from AirWarriors, is a designator that generally tends to favor AD selects). So anything can happen, lots of good information and advice to be found on this site but always remember to take everything with a grain of salt (including everything I just said!) and remember that stranger things have happened.

Best of luck!

 

[exNavyOffRec]

You have a very strong GPA (especially considering your age) and a great OAR score. However, the last IDC board had a selection rate of about 14%, which is noticeably higher than the 9.5% selection rate from the September 2014 board. So as you can see it is highly competitive. I wouldn't expect the next scheduled IDC board to take place, but that's just my personal opinion looking back at previous trends. A Master's degree would certainly be something that would improve your package. Ultimately I think the question you should ask yourself is do you want to be a Naval Officer or do you want to be a Naval Intelligence Officer? If you are dead set on Intel then I would recommend getting a Master's degree in a relevant field. If serving in any designator would be fine with you then, as stated above, I'd imagine you'd be an easy select for SWO. I don't know enough about Supply to comment.

The other thing that I'd like to point out is that if you submit a package for a designator and receive a Pro-Rec N it is detrimental to future attempts at that designator unless you have significant changes in you package. So something to consider. Honestly, with IDC it is so hard (read: impossible) to predict what will happen. Take the last board for example, Intel was supposed to be 'closed' according to strong rumors through the grapevine, yet it saw 19 civilian and 6 fleet selects, very high numbers. High number of OCEANO selects compared to normal yearly goals as well (from what I've heard at least, I don't know a ton about that designator) and relatively low number of fleet selects for IW (which as I've gleaned from AirWarriors, is a designator that generally tends to favor AD selects). So anything can happen, lots of good information and advice to be found on this site but always remember to take everything with a grain of salt (including everything I just said!) and remember that stranger things have happened.

Best of luck!

It is actually a lower percent, CWE was included on the list, but they go through a different process and are not seen by that board, they are screened, then go to an interview, and from their given a yes or no, they also have very strict application requirements and only a few schools meet that, so when you take them out it is more like 13% which is actually outstanding since it is normally about 10% and has been as low as 3%.

On one of the times when it was a very low selection percentage the board had NRC do a cut, we never knew the exact parameters but one was a GPA cut, everyone below a certain GPA was automatically pro N