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What can a freshman in college do to get ahead?

undrgrad

Member
This is a followup thread to my past posting which you can find here: https://www.airwarriors.com/communi...young-aspiring-aviator-do-to-get-ahead.48419/

I just finished up my senior year of HS, and am planning to attend the University of Arizona. I am trying to make myself as competitive as possible to seek a pilot slot through ANY means including ROTC, OCS, etc. I have completed a few steps so far as per the last post, but looking for more information on what I can focus on NOW to get started once the school year begins. Over the last few years I have accomplished the following towards my goal:
  • Finished my Private Pilot ASEL rating and tacked on about 90 hours to my logbook.

  • Working out 6 times a week for the last 10 months, focusing on weightlifting to build muscle. I definitely need to focus on the cardio based aspects of the PRT requirements, however I am a relatively lean person already at 6"0 and 150, so wanting to gain some more mass before I do so.

  • I am majoring in Pre-Business on a Finance track, planning to join intramural sports leagues, both a social & business fraternity, and considering Navy ROTC just not 100% certain on how that works if they offer guaranteed paths to flight, etc.
Besides these things, is there anything else I can do to put myself in a better position? Thanks for any advice beforehand.
 

FormerRecruitingGuru

Making Recruiting Great Again
Besides these things, is there anything else I can do to put myself in a better position? Thanks for any advice beforehand.

Without sounding rude, 80-90% of the answers provided in your original post still apply.

So my advice would be to pay attention what was said before instead of asking the same question over and over…
 
I would strongly recommend ROTC over trying for OCS later if you are an incoming freshman or sophomore.

If you have questions about ROTC programs you can always reach out to the cadre at the battalion you're interested in and talk to them. Their job requires them to be knowledgeable and up to date on this stuff so that's where you are going to get the best and most accurate information.

This is the link for Arizona's NROTC Program https://nrotc.arizona.edu/contact-information.

If your main goal is simply to be a pilot I'd also recommend looking at Air Force ROTC.
 

space_sailor

Well-Known Member
I would strongly recommend ROTC over trying for OCS later if you are an incoming freshman or sophomore.
someone pls correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it a better bet to be a pilot if you apply through OCS (since you get accepted as a pilot before leaving) than doing ROTC where you might not get a pilot slot but will still need to serve to pay back your scholarship money?
Also look into BDCP - might be the actual best route for being a USN pilot.

If your main goal is simply to be a pilot I'd also recommend looking at Air Force ROTC.

Also, I believe a number of advice from folks on AW is that if the goal is to just be a pilot in the armed forces, Air (or Army?) National Guard is kinda the way to go.

if the goal is to be a pilot in the USN then studying for the ASTB and getting the best college GPA is best to focus on for going the OCS route.

I'm just a random civilian who has too much free time that lurks on AW - jhays just look around the site, there's plenty of solid advice all around
 

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
This is a followup thread to my past posting which you can find here: https://www.airwarriors.com/communi...young-aspiring-aviator-do-to-get-ahead.48419/

I just finished up my senior year of HS, and am planning to attend the University of Arizona. I am trying to make myself as competitive as possible to seek a pilot slot through ANY means including ROTC, OCS, etc. I have completed a few steps so far as per the last post, but looking for more information on what I can focus on NOW to get started once the school year begins. Over the last few years I have accomplished the following towards my goal:
  • Finished my Private Pilot ASEL rating and tacked on about 90 hours to my logbook.

  • Working out 6 times a week for the last 10 months, focusing on weightlifting to build muscle. I definitely need to focus on the cardio based aspects of the PRT requirements, however I am a relatively lean person already at 6"0 and 150, so wanting to gain some more mass before I do so.

  • I am majoring in Pre-Business on a Finance track, planning to join intramural sports leagues, both a social & business fraternity, and considering Navy ROTC just not 100% certain on how that works if they offer guaranteed paths to flight, etc.
Besides these things, is there anything else I can do to put myself in a better position? Thanks for any advice beforehand.
Same as before, do well in school, don't get in trouble, and stay physically fit.

If you want to fly and that is really all you want to do then go for OCS, ROTC will get you a commission but no guarantee on anything else. In 4 years you could have your eyes go bad, you could suffer an injury that would keep you from flying etc.....

No one wants to work with a person that is always going "I wanted to fly but......" and I have seen too many of those that came from the USNA and NROTC
 

TF7325

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
Bear Down! Enjoy Tucson, and like the others have said.. don’t get in trouble. Know a few good dudes who went through NROTC there. OCS is also a good option if you decide to go that route instead.
 

MIDNJAC

is clara ship
pilot
If you want to fly and that is really all you want to do then go for OCS, ROTC will get you a commission but no guarantee on anything else. In 4 years you could have your eyes go bad, you could suffer an injury that would keep you from flying etc.....

I'll leave the "spigots" discussion to another thread, but what you say about medical things would apply to any accession source, would they not? I never, to my knowledge, signed anything on paper obligating me to anything prior to my junior year of NROTC. And even then, it was just tuition that I could have paid back had I been medically DQ'd during my pre-commissioning physical and quit. It is of course correct that you won't get an OCS style "contract", at least not prior to your senior winter/spring, but I also knew a lot of folks who wouldn't have come close to being competitive for an OCS-Air contract, but got it (even against their will/voluntold) in NROTC.
 

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
I'll leave the "spigots" discussion to another thread, but what you say about medical things would apply to any accession source, would they not? I never, to my knowledge, signed anything on paper obligating me to anything prior to my junior year of NROTC. And even then, it was just tuition that I could have paid back had I been medically DQ'd during my pre-commissioning physical and quit. It is of course correct that you won't get an OCS style "contract", at least not prior to your senior winter/spring, but I also knew a lot of folks who wouldn't have come close to being competitive for an OCS-Air contract, but got it (even against their will/voluntold) in NROTC.
They would but with OCS you have the choice to decide to not send in the application and walk away clean. The most common story I heard was eyes degrading to the point of not being in limits for SNA, and to be fair the numbers that have had issues are few, very few.

If a person is truly set on only being a pilot maybe ROTC isn't the place, the reality is that a person that joins ROTC is getting their education paid for in exchange for service to their country, and that service may or may not be something you have a desire to do.

If anything I hope the OP looks at all the things said and figures out the best course of action, in most things we do their is risk vs reward, the OP or anyone in his circumstance needs to evaluate that and decide if the chance of not getting to do what they want is worth the reward of getting college paid for, I feel nearly everyone would take that chance.
 

undrgrad

Member
They would but with OCS you have the choice to decide to not send in the application and walk away clean. The most common story I heard was eyes degrading to the point of not being in limits for SNA, and to be fair the numbers that have had issues are few, very few.

If a person is truly set on only being a pilot maybe ROTC isn't the place, the reality is that a person that joins ROTC is getting their education paid for in exchange for service to their country, and that service may or may not be something you have a desire to do.

If anything I hope the OP looks at all the things said and figures out the best course of action, in most things we do their is risk vs reward, the OP or anyone in his circumstance needs to evaluate that and decide if the chance of not getting to do what they want is worth the reward of getting college paid for, I feel nearly everyone would take that chance.
Thanks for the insight man. I am fortunate enough that my schooling is going to be almost all paid for through scholarships, grants, etc. so the benefit of ROTC seems to be negated by that. However like others have said, it might be worth the commitment if it means I might have a higher chance of selecting SNA through that. My only issue would be eye sight degradation or some other past medical stuff that might mess up my plans, which is why I’m leaning towards OCS at the moment.
 

Gatordev

Well-Known Member
pilot
Site Admin
Contributor
It's been a long time, so I may be remembering incorrectly, but I believe ROTC pays the balance of what's owed from other scholarships/grants. So if you have a nearly full-ride, get NAMI'ed, and decide to quit ROTC after signing the papers, you may not owe much at all.

There are other benefits to ROTC, like increased exposure to the fleet compared to OCS before getting commissioned. The value of that can vary. Personally, I found it to be a huge bonus, but I also got to go around the world and fly in a F-14 (not at the same time).
 
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