SWO Board 19 AUG 2019

[kbal731]

Bro I feel this on a personal level hahahah. And my OR told expect a very quick turn around if you get selected on this board he said a month tops. I’m ready to go right now and I’m in the exact same situation as you.

I feel that 100%. My apartment lease is up mid September, but my OR told me that with a report for active duty letter, my property management will be required to let me out, so I'm just gonna ride it til I can. But I'm with y'all, I'm ready to go like yesterday lol

 

[buffunicorn]

It seems like most of you are prior-military or have experience working with the military.
As a civilian, are there different requirements the board looks for?
My OR recommended retaking the OAR, so would someone mind looking at my "stats" and letting me know if I should? I'd rather not, but will if I need to...

Age: 30
Applying for: SWO
OAR: 51
GPA: 2.9
Degree: BA in Political Science, MBA in Management
Work Experience: non-military, 4 years with Mohawk Industries (sales, project management, product marketing)
LOR: 1 Supervisor, 1 head executive (family friend) of major software company

 

[BroskiOCS]

So what are the chances that anyone who is Pro Rec-Y on the next board August or September or whenever it is, will make it to OCS before the end of the year? January in Newport sounds brutal.

At this point it is likely you will spend winter in Rhode Island. It seems like all the seats are full up through the September class according to CANTRAC (while this list is not concrete, it gives a good idea of remaining seats). This means that October 13th would be the next available class. That doesnt have you graduating until later in January. Better prepare for that cold weather! Hah. Trust me....I live in Hawaii so I feel ya. Gonna be SO cold. I was selected on the June board and am still waiting on a class date. From what I hear, they are pretty backed up with placing selectees in classes (at least from the active duty side).

 

[BroskiOCS]

It seems like most of you are prior-military or have experience working with the military.
As a civilian, are there different requirements the board looks for?
My OR recommended retaking the OAR, so would someone mind looking at my "stats" and letting me know if I should? I'd rather not, but will if I need to...

Age: 30
Applying for: SWO
OAR: 51
GPA: 2.9
Degree: BA in Political Science, MBA in Management
Work Experience: non-military, 4 years with Mohawk Industries (sales, project management, product marketing)
LOR: 1 Supervisor, 1 head executive (family friend) of major software company

I would not retake the OAR. I had a 50 and got selected. From what I understand, 50 is right at the average for SWO selects. The GPA is a little low so if for some reason you don't get selected then I would recommend retaking the OAR to boost your package.

 

[BroskiOCS]

It seems like most of you are prior-military or have experience working with the military.
As a civilian, are there different requirements the board looks for?
My OR recommended retaking the OAR, so would someone mind looking at my "stats" and letting me know if I should? I'd rather not, but will if I need to...

Age: 30
Applying for: SWO
OAR: 51
GPA: 2.9
Degree: BA in Political Science, MBA in Management
Work Experience: non-military, 4 years with Mohawk Industries (sales, project management, product marketing)
LOR: 1 Supervisor, 1 head executive (family friend) of major software company

I just saw that you have your MBA. Nevermind what I said about the GPA. Hah. I think your stats look great. Have you had any interviews yet?

 

[buffunicorn]

I would not retake the OAR. I had a 50 and got selected. From what I understand, 50 is right at the average for SWO selects. The GPA is a little low so if for some reason you don't get selected then I would recommend retaking the OAR to boost your package.

Thanks!
Yeah I had to sign a waiver for my GPA. In my defense (kinda), my GPA for my Masters was a 3.7, but I farted around the first 2 years of undergrad, which messed up my GPA clearly. I wrote all that out in a personal statement though, so hopefully they read that?

 

[buffunicorn]

I just saw that you have your MBA. Nevermind what I said about the GPA. Hah. I think your stats look great. Have you had any interviews yet?

I see everyone talking about interviews, but I haven't had any, I assumed this was a prior-military thing, but am I wrong? My OR has made no reference to having that.

 

[kbal731]

I see everyone talking about interviews, but I haven't had any, I assumed this was a prior-military thing, but am I wrong? My OR has made no reference to having that.

I believe that's just for priors, and certain communities (not SWO). Your OAR score is above 50, so I think you're good. The most recent PA for SWO (JUNE19) just lowered the standards for GPA and OAR.

 

[BroskiOCS]

I believe that's just for priors, and certain communities (not SWO). Your OAR score is above 50, so I think you're good. The most recent PA for SWO (JUNE19) just lowered the standards for GPA and OAR.

Yeah I think you're right. I guess I just assumed the packages were identical aside from active duty folks submitting evals and fitness scores. The interviews were one of the biggest pain in the asses for me to get because I didn't know anyone in the SWO community. Took me forever to get contacts.

 

[buffunicorn]

I believe that's just for priors, and certain communities (not SWO). Your OAR score is above 50, so I think you're good. The most recent PA for SWO (JUNE19) just lowered the standards for GPA and OAR.

Heard a rumor that they were extending the age without a waiver to like 32 as well? Not sure if that's true...I still had to sign one lol

 

[BroskiOCS]

Heard a rumor that they were extending the age without a waiver to like 32 as well? Not sure if that's true...I still had to sign one lol

Hah I'm old like you. If it weren't for my prior service I would need a waiver. I'll be 32 in a few months.

 

[buffunicorn]

Yeah I think you're right. I guess I just assumed the packages were identical aside from active duty folks submitting evals and fitness scores. The interviews were one of the biggest pain in the asses for me to get because I didn't know anyone in the SWO community. Took me forever to get contacts.

Is it harder for a civilian to be get a Pro Rec-Y? I would imagine prior-military would be most desirable

 

[kbal731]

Is it harder for a civilian to be get a Pro Rec-Y? I would imagine prior-military would be most desirable

In my opinion priors definitely have it harder when it comes to applying to OCS. Civilians have an OR to guide them through the process, and I'm sure Broski can tell you a lot of the legwork that our ORs do he had to do himself.

 

[BroskiOCS]

Is it harder for a civilian to be get a Pro Rec-Y? I would imagine prior-military would be most desirable

Not at all. Especially for SWO I'm sort of surprised that they took so many priors. One of the biggest issues with the SWO community is short termers. People are doing their initial commitment then getting out. That's why the bonuses for Department Head are so high. They are having trouble keeping people in long enough to make higher rank. As you probably know....military retirement is for at least 20 years of service. In order to retire, a prior must complete at least 10 years as a commissioned officer. So I've been in 11 years which means ill end up doing 21 years before I can retire. 10 years as a commissioned officer will probably put me at O-4 when I retire. So it would seem to me that it would be more beneficial for civilians to be selected to increase the chances of a person committing to a full 20 years. Maybe the board has to choose a certain amount of priors? I'm not sure. Sorry....that was a crazy long post.

 

[BroskiOCS]

In my opinion priors definitely have it harder when it comes to applying to OCS. Civilians have an OR to guide them through the process, and I'm sure Broski can tell you a lot of the legwork that our ORs do he had to do himself.

Well the application process may be a little more difficult for priors depending on our resources. We are supposed to have knowledgeable Command Career Counselors at every command. Unfortunately, smaller commands often have CCC's that don't have experience with officer packages.