I was in BDCP a few years ago and I just wanted to share an honest assesment of the program.
First, if you really want to be a Navy officer, you can't beat BDCP. You're paid to go to school, you accrue leave while you're in school, you have full medical benefits while you're in school. You can major in whatever you want and they give you a free trip to Pensacola before you graduate college so you can get a physical. You can't beat that, especially if you are majoring in something liberal arts related that doesn't have a lot of internship or work study opportunities.
With that said, I saw a lot of people, myself included, put themselves in terrible posititons because they joined BDCP more for money than for a real desire to be a naval officer.
I spent 11 months in GTX purgatory, being accused of malingering, encouraging other officer candidates to desert, and all manner of other stuff. I worked with 19 year old sailor recruits taking out trash, painting, and god knows what else because I injured myself and was unable to rejoin a class. The operating assumption if you are injured, particularly if you are a minority, is that you are running a scam, trying to beat the Navy out of money without serving your time.
While this was true in some cases, many people had legitimate injuries and issues and were railroaded because this sort of lynch mob mentality prevailed down there.
I wasn't the worst case either. A few of my friends were sent to the fleet as undesignated seamen despite being college graduates because they were unable or unwilling to finish OCS.
One BDCP guy did time in the brig, other guys were kicked out for being mentally unstable after spending months in GTX purgatory (some of these guys were faking, but some were legitimately ill, in my opinion). We had suicide threats, people going UA. You name it.
I was signed up as an NFO, but when I got to Pensacola, they told me I was physically unqualified (poor depth perception) to be an NFO, and I WAS FORCED to choose another designator. My question then was if I was unqualified to be an NFO, why was I allowed to enlist as one. I believe that the Navy does a bait and switch with aviation designators because that's what so many people want to do. I was not the only person that this happened to. A good friend of mine went through the exact same thing.
I finally got a medical discharge after a med board found me unfit for duty, but even after the board came back, the NASC commander initiated a line of duty investigation against me for malingering and dereliction of duty. The only thing that saved me was that investigating officer saw that this was nothing more than a witch hunt and wrote pretty much that in his report.
I am not trying to discourage anybody from serving. Being a naval officer confers many advantages and opportunities but I just want people to be warned to know the magnitude of what they're getting into when they sign up for BDCP.