College GPA too low for OCS. Go enlisted?

[Danny Jimenez]

I was talking to a recruiter and they told me that because my gpa is 2.6, I will not get a chance for OCS. He told me the best way to go as officer is to go in as enlisted, come out as a E-4, and apply within for officer.

Is this accurate? Or some bull for him to meet his quota?

 

[dtxz]

Did you go to a standard Marine Recruiting office or an Officer Selection office (OSO)? You need to be in direct contact with an OSO first. If he (the OSO) tells you that there is a GPA minimum and you still want to be a Marine Officer, enlisting might be your only option.

As far as I can recall, there was no 'minimum GPA' when I selected but that was also before the Marine Corps started its diet. If there is no hard minimum for the OSO to clear, he'll probably look at 'where' you went and 'what' you studied when sizing you up against the competition. Keep in mind that academic performance is only one piece of the pie. Your PT ability (you need to hit as close as you can to a 300 PFT), work experience, how you interview with the guy (or gal), etc. is also important in the decision process.

If you haven't already, check out www.MarineOCS.com as well to help answer some questions you may have.

 

[Danny Jimenez]

Thanks for the response dtxz. I was told due to these economic times, it is more competitive to get on board for OCS. Scoring near a 300 pft is part of it, and I struggle with the 3-mile run. I still have no idea how people can run 3 miles under 20 minutes, let alone under 18.

 

[BACONATOR]

The plan will work. There was a guy in my class who had a crap GPA. Went Nuke enlisted and made it to OCS, pilot.

 

[HAL Pilot]

The plan will work. There was a guy in my class who had a crap GPA. Went Nuke enlisted and made it to OCS, pilot.

BS. More often then not, enlisting to eventually be an officer fails. Many try but fewer succeed. If you want to be an officer, then apply for officer. If you want to be enlisted, then enlist.

And if his 3 mile run time / lack of a 300 PFT is keeping him from OCS as a civilian, it will keep him from OCS as an enlisted Marine where it will play an important part in his evals.

Danny, you never answered the question if ou talked to an OSO or a regular Marine recruiter. The regular Marine recruiter's job is to get you to enlist, not apply to OCS. If you want to be an officer, you need to talk to an OSO and ignore the regular recruiters.

 

[KBayDog]

BS. More often then not, enlisting to eventually be aN officer fails. Many try but fewer succeed. If you want to be. Officer, poly for officer.

And if his 3 mile run time / lack of a 300 PFT is keeping him from OCS as a civilian, it will keep him from OCS as an enlisted Marine where it will play n important part in his rivals.

Where's the layover tonight, HAL?

 

[HAL Pilot]

Where's the layover tonight, HAL?

At home in Vegas, no booze yet.

I'm typing on my iPad, always a frustrating experience with its fucking autocorrect, auto complete, etc.

I think I a posted once that it always changes helo pilot to hell pilot.....

 

[Brett327]

You can disable that. I do when I use my bluetooth keyboard. I find that autocorrect just gets in the way most of the time.

 

[BACONATOR]

BS. More often then not, enlisting to eventually be an officer fails. Many try but fewer succeed. If you want to be an officer, then apply for officer. If you want to be enlisted, then enlist.

And if his 3 mile run time / lack of a 300 PFT is keeping him from OCS as a civilian, it will keep him from OCS as an enlisted Marine where it will play an important part in his evals.

Danny, you never answered the question if ou talked to an OSO or a regular Marine recruiter. The regular Marine recruiter's job is to get you to enlist, not apply to OCS. If you want to be an officer, you need to talk to an OSO and ignore the regular recruiters.

Absolutely agree with you. But when you have a 2.5 GPA (as did my roommate at OCS), every OSO told him "No fucking way" you'll get selected. He can certainly apply and apply, but sometimes short of getting another degree or enlisting, there's nothing you can do to make a bad GPA go away or an irreversible bad mark on your record go away. Enlisting in something like Nuke which has a very difficult school track can prove you're worth your salt, and you never even have to make it to the fleet. My roommate was a 3rd class select in nuke school for OCS.

 

[HAL Pilot]

^ So what you should have said was "for a very few, there is a very slight posibility that plan might work but probably not."

 

[Spekkio]

Question you need to ask: Will enlisting make your college GPA suddenly eligible? You may run into that brick wall again someday, even if you enlist.

I have met many Sailors who have college degrees and were told by the recruiter to enlist to go Officer, or just simply didn't know that there was a separate process. They are all still enlisted, years later.

@Otto: Not sure how your nuke guys went pilot without hitting the fleet first, but the nuke pipeline picks up something like the top 10%-ish of their class during prototype for STA-21 nuke option. I'm not saying it's impossible to get an OCS spot out of TRACOM, but I don't know how many people would convince the CO of NNPS that you're Officer material for another community based on passing a few tests.

 

[Brett327]

Question you need to ask: Will enlisting make your college GPA suddenly eligible? You may run into that brick wall again someday, even if you enlist.

I have met many Sailors who have college degrees and were told by the recruiter to enlist to go Officer, or just simply didn't know that there was a separate process. They are all still enlisted, years later.

@Otto: Not sure how your nuke guys went pilot without hitting the fleet first, but the nuke pipeline picks up something like the top 10%-ish of their class during prototype for STA-21 nuke option. I'm not saying it's impossible to get an OCS spot out of TRACOM, but I don't know how many people would convince the CO of NNPS that you're Officer material for another community based on passing a few tests.

In my peer group, that happened all the time. We had a whole host of guys who had completed prototype, then picked up some commissioning program without ever hitting the fleet. I called them fake priors, because they had no real fleet experience. Can't imagine it's a whole lot different today.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

In my peer group, that happened all the time. We had a whole host of guys who had completed prototype, then picked up some commissioning program without ever hitting the fleet. I called them fake priors, because they had no real fleet experience. Can't imagine it's a whole lot different today.

Still happens, but it is a crapshoot, I am sure there were many that wanted to apply to OCS during the nuke pipeline but found out that boards were cancelled for nearly a year.

There is also more people to pick from so some people that were being picked up 4 years ago or so probably wouldn't be picked up now, I would have never told a person "enlist then try to go officer" unles they told me they would be happy if they stayed enlisted.

 

[Brett327]

Agree. It's a bad strategy.

 

[phrogdriver]

Again, it comes down to whether one would still be happy enlisted if the officer thing doesn't work out. We always ask about people's motivations. If that motivation includes serving ones country, enlisting may still be the way to go.

One new wrinkle. MECEP now has a minimum rank of Sgt with college credit to apply. In a lot of MOSs, that will require more than one enlistment to achieve. That's a serious commitment. In infantry, for example, it's nearly impossible to make Sgt in 4 years now.

Start thinking of going to grad school to pump up that GPA. Maybe reserves, as well.