New to the program

[MrArmyAnt]

I am 20 (well in a day anyway) and am a freshman at the University of Oklahoma in EE. I was a candidate for the Naval Academy and NROTC, and one of my recruitment officers suggested I try for BDCP due to my "technical background". I also looked at the merchant marine academy, trying to find as many ways in to flight school as possible.

This first semester sort of put me in my place, I never had to study in high school and didn't really know how to here, so my GPA isn't great, but that is being fixed.

What steps should I go through? You all seem to have been through it.

I am an active member on our Formula SAE team (society of automotive engineers) and might be able to have a mentionable position in it soon. It seems extracurricular activities help.

I was also wanting to stay for my masters degree, should I wait to apply then?

 

[WishICouldFly]

First of all, Happy birthday!

What do you mean by 'steps to go through'? If you want to go BDCP, look for an Officer Recruiter nearby. It's really a great program (From what I've seen so far, I'm not enlisted into it yet), just make sure you get as much information as you can.

If you want to get a Master's Degree before your service, then you should wait until within 2-3 years of when you will be FINISHED with school completely. Another option is to go BDCP, graduate, serve, and then go back to school after a couple years.

 

[mxracer19]

Wow youre in the same boat I'm in, except I'm applying through PLC. I'm just getting involved with SAE too. Nice.

 

[Sly1978]

Ditto what "WishICouldFly" said. Just grab an officer recruiter and ask him specifically about BDCP. It was a beautiful program! As far as staying for your masters, if that's what you want then you should wait and apply after your degree. I had a couple buddies in flight school with their masters' degrees, but I don't know their backgrounds enough to tell you how it came about. I can say that they were LTJGs while the rest of us were still hanging out as Ensigns. I'm not sure if that was because they had masters' degrees or if it was just because they had gotten commisioned by some normal source and then gone to grad school before flight school.

Otherwise, you become like the rest of us holding on to our bachelors degrees until our first shore tour and then trying to knock out an EMBA; but in the meantime we're flying.

 

[xmid]

Does anyone know if VGEP is available to everyone? That might explain why there were some O-2's with masters in flight school. That or Monterrey.