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1. Lighten up 2. Read between the lines: The reason that you can't decide what you want is because the whole "I want to help people" thing is a croc of shit. There are 9,000,000 different ways to help people that don't involve either a commission or a master's degree. As a matter of fact, almost...

No wonder you can't make up your mind -- you're in the wrong field. What you really want is to be a janitor or waiter.

No shit. The fact that the usefulness of such a trip is questionable only makes me that much more ticked off that my application is now going to be delayed 3 months because of it...

Did you read my post? You certainly can do both as a staff officer. I was curious why he was going to give up the PA part, albeit temporarily, to become an unrestricted line officer. If he applied for a commission as a staff officer, his primary job would be seeing patients, so my question was...

Nuke officers have to go down to the Naval base in GA for a couple days to get lectured about what an NTO does, and then tour a SSBN. This is so that no one applies for submarine NTO without actually seeing what being on a sub is like.

Ok, so I was supposed to take the VIP trip this week. My paperwork would subsequently be submitted on Monday, and all would be happy. Exceeeept that even though I submitted everything for the trip 3 weeks ago, they were unable to clear the funding until this morning. Needless to say, they...

I was pre-med myself once upon a time: Bear in mind that PAs don't have a residency the way that MDs do, and if you look through the papers you'll notice that all PA jobs require "3 years of experience." If you know someone as an "in" to a hospital so you can get hired out of grad school...

Meps is a bitch. I went through it in NY a couple weeks ago -- you spend most of the time waiting around to get herded like cattle to a station where some doc who speaks broken English is going to check you out. As others have said, the personnel assumes that you are looking to ship out to...

Since when does a city government have the right to ban filming of the people who protect them?

So how exactly does this work? Does you put in your preference for homeports, then put in preference for boat once they tell you where you got assigned? Or do you have to put in the preference for fast attack vs. boomer first, and then after that you are restricted to whatever ports have those...

I realize this is a Naval aviator forum, so you guys may not know the answer to the following questions. However, maybe you have access to someone who does. Regardless, I'm asking them here because, quite frankly, I don't expect my recruiter and the people I interact with on the VIP trip in 2...

I've been told that the line between officers and enlisted military personnel is very distinct, and is there on purpose. The nuke community, if it's the way my uncle said, is an exception, not the norm.

This is quite an odd statement. I've talked to multiple people who said that part of the purpose of OCS/military college is to build dependency and trust with your classmates, since they're the only friends you have while there. Something one of my friends at a military college told me: "The...

How do you know for sure if you've never had anyone edit it?

Yea, I made it up. I teach part-time at the high school level, and my mother teaches at the masters level. The difference between the average student essay, other than length, is marginal. Both are often very poorly written. You'd be surprised how many junior and senior year students I...

As long as people don't give him advice like "say that you have XYZ traits because the board likes people who say that," I don't see a problem. Most people are looking to have their personal statements edited for grammar and clarity. It's a very smart thing, too, because 75% of people coming out...

Yea. He told me he was amazed at how many applicant's he'd see that can't do 20 pushups after months of training.

I have no intention of "sandbagging" at OCS. I actually asked my recruiter about this, and he said the reason for such a high attrition rate is that people would take and barely pass the PRT after being pro-recced. Then in the next couple months they'd let themselves go and end up failing the...

The only time where this can be somewhat true, from what I've been told by my uncle who served as an enlisted nuke in the 90s, is when talking about enlisted nukes and junior nuke officers. To quote what he said "when you're in the engine room, everyone is working together. No one really cares...

The only reason I ask is because I want to be as prepared as possible, so I was curious if the guys who attrited were just lazy slobs, never memorized the stuff they were supposed to going in, dropped out voluntarily, or had bad attitudes; or if it's really just that rigorous. I was under the...

I don't think people are shitting on enlisted guys, but rather trying to inform the OP that if his goal is a commission, he shouldn't enlist. It's like going to nursing school when you really want to be a doctor. Yes, you'll be in the medical profession either way, but the jobs and career paths...

So basically, you only fail out if you either have unforeseen medical issues, or you are a complete jackass and don't deserve to get a commission anyway?

Of those that don't make it, how many dropped out themselves vs. how many get told that they didn't make the cut? Also, what is the most common reason people get the boot?

Only one problem: If your goal is to serve as an officer, you are not obligated to serve if you don't get selected. You can then reapply/do something to boost your application. If you apply for both and don't get accepted to serve as an officer, you are now obligated to serve 4 years as an...

I suppose that would depend on whether that someone could become qualified or not. Regardless, OP never gave any indication that he was told that he wasn't qualified to become an officer.

# of people going for NA/NFO slots >>>>> number of people going for NTO slots. Yes, the nuke spots could fill up, but from what I've been told it doesn't happen as often. They also just raised the bonuses NTO's get because they are still coming up short. That's why you NA/NFO guys compete...

Ok, so not all recruiters are officers; I was mistaken. Regardless, an officer recruiter would never try to get you to go enlisted, so it's possible that the OP called an enlisting recruiting center. Assuming you are calling the correct number for the officer recruiter, you could try calling...

Are you sure that you didn't call the enlistment recruiting center rather than the officer recruiting center? An easy way to tell is that officers recruit officers, so if you're not speaking to an LT you're probably in the wrong place. Either way, you need to be more persistent than just...

That's because you were applying for an NFO slot. Recruiter sent me an email, which he sent to all his potentials, that the fiscal year was ending in Sept. I then replied asking if this affected anything, and he said it was a form letter and that nuke candidates aren't really affected by it.

No. He just went on vacation for the month of August, and the VIP tour for Sept was the very first weekend after he got back. According to him, Nuke candidates aren't affected by the time of year they apply, anyway. Regardless, my app isn't going in until after Oct anyway, so that still doesn't...

108 views and no one knows the answer?

My application isn't going to go in until October because my recruiter couldn't get me in on the Sept VIP tour. Do they break in taking OCS classes after a certain period for Thanksgiving/New Year's, or do they take you whenever?

-You don't need a technical degree. One is preferred for nukes, but even then from what I've been told you can get in as long as you have one year of calc and one year of calc-based physics -While I can more than understand that you are worried about your gpa (I was pre-med and didn't get into...

You are correct. http://www.navy-prt.com/index2.html Yet another site for training programs. Seriously, though, it's just a matter of getting off your ass and doing the exercise.

The PRT is pass/fail. I don't know the exact number, but the cutoff for a 20-24 yr old male for pushups is somewhere in the 50's range. Just do pushups every other day for 2 weeks then every day for another two weeks and you'll be fine. This is also one area where lifting weights actually helps...

/signed. Is it really that difficult to do 60 situps, 60 pushups, and run 1.5 mi in under 12:30?

My google skills must be lacking. Regardless, this forum section is titled "questions about becoming a navy officer," not "questions about becoming a navy pilot."

Thanks for the advice. I actually haven't turned it in. My recruiter was taking his month-long vacation in August, and upon his return could not set up an appointment for me to visit GA until the first week of Oct. (the tour for Sept is this week). I have knocked out MEPS and the ESPQ, though...

MEPS in NY wasn't any better.

AFAIK, there is no SWO forum open to people who aren't officers yet. Like it or not, this place has a ton of useful information for anyone seeking a commission, not just people interested in flying.

I'm still in the application process, but was told by my recruiter that you should live off base because they take away your housing allowance if you live on base. The housing allowance is a flat rate and is untaxable. If you find an apartment/home on the cheap, you get to pocket the rest of the...

From someone who obviously didn't know the difference between officer and enlisted recruiters ;).

That sucks. Oh, don't feel TOO bad for the recruiter -- correct me if I'm wrong, but word is they get a nice check for any applicants they get accepted.

Well, I'm going nuke so the application process is ordered differently, but yea...they just wanna make sure you've never been canned and that you didn't lie about where you worked.

Don't even worry about it. You have to list all your employers for the past 3 years, but it's not uncommon for a company to refuse to give a letter of reference. You have character references so there shouldn't be a problem. Some of my past bosses have agreed to do it "under the table" as...

Yea, hopping around in tighty whities next to some 220 lb 5'6'' kid who smelled like onions wasn't exactly fun. Damn recruiter should've warned me to wear boxers! The recruiter said that he even failed the depth perception thing on a couple of his retests throughout his flight career. I just...

deleted post, forgot to check dates

Check on both those...I had 20/40 distance vision (I knew I was slightly nearsighted going in) that was easily corrected with that odd semi-circle spoon thingy they hand you. Color vision is fine. Anyway, the answer you gave is pretty much what my recruiter said. Anyone know for 100% certain...

I just visited MEPS on Thurs. and I failed the depth perception test. I couldn't see the difference between any of the circles on the page. When I told the tech that, she just said "ok" and stopped the test, so I didn't even answer any of the lines. Thing is, I know that my depth perception is...

Well, I'm currently reworking the entire essay as the theme was no good, but tiz hit the nail on the head with how being a black belt entails leadership. I think that all good martial arts schools operate in this manner. Unfortunately, explaining all that in under 400 words in addition to my...