A dilemma

[Enishi1983]

Boy, it's been awhile since I've logged onto Airwarriors...

This semester I decided to "tryout" the Army ROTC at my university as a junior-grade/MSIII. The thing is, I'm academically a senior and will graduate this upcoming semester. The problem that I'm facing is: should I just leave the program and go for OCS (if this occurs, I planning on applying for an NFO slot with USMC), or go an extra year of college for BS classes and get commissioned w/AROTC?

Money is a huge problem at this moment, and so is room/board (when my parents find out about me joining the military let's just say that they'll be excommunicating me). If I don't pick up the AROTC scholarship next semester I will most likely have to pay my university an excruciating-$8k for a whole year by myself while living out of my car.

Anyone got any suggestions, faced same problems, etc?

 

[zippy]

Well, if your finished with your degree, you can get another job while you apply for an OCS slot. If you don't owe AROTC anything and they aren't paying for it, why are you going to spend an extra $8k to extend your degree time when you can get you can start your application process for any services OCS and have your degree at the end of next semester? That doesn't make any sense to me (providing i understand what you are saying)...

 

[Enishi1983]

i'm just afraid that with my poor GPA as a chemistry major, my application will be ignored. i chose the rotc option b/c one's practically living a real military life- a person having to balance military life to normal life, that is. if the nation's application is much better than mine i'll have to wait a while before i get a hearing as well. in the end i will most likely be commissioned earlier w/rotc than OCS, too.

i don't know, i just wanted to see others' opinions of my situation.

 

[zippy]

I think it would be a good idea for you to make contact with officer recruiters for the branches of service you are interested in- see what they have to say about your potential as an applicant. There is more to an application then just a GPA...

 

[invertedflyer]

My GPA, I'm sorry to say, was well below 3.0 when I applied.. many things factor in. Marine Corps. side, there is definitely not as much emphasis on G.P.A. -- contact your local Officer Selection Office and start your rough application.

 

[ArkhamAsylum]

Concur. I applied with a 2.3 GPA, but extra-curriculars, ACT, ASTB, and PFT scores got me in the first available slot.