DS @ North Georgia...

CoachBart

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DS @ North Georgia...informed me that he has joined the Georgia Army National Guard and will be attending Basic training and AIT at Ft. Benning in January so he will be back in time to attend the Summer language Institute at North Georgia in July. DS is a member of the Corp of Cadets at UNG. When he graduates he will receive an Honorable Discharge from the National Guard and accept a commission as an officer in the U.S. Army. I am sharing because I am proud of him. Thanks for listening ;)
 
Thats great news! My daughter is still waiting to see if she gets to come off of the waitlist for North Georgia. They said they would look at her again in December.
 
Congratulations. I wish him and your family many blessings. Thank you
 
Additional Update

DS has been very involved at North Georgia during his freshman year. He joined a few clubs and participated in several things that were happening on campus and has made some new close friends. I asked him recently to give me his "take" on North Georgia since the semester was almost over and what he thought about the school. He told me that it has surpassed his greatest expectations. He said he made the right choice and was honored to be a member of the Corp of Cadets. He said he loved every single thing about the school from the food to his professors and looks forward to the next few years in Dahlonega, Ga. He said he has even started to become an Atlanta Falcons fan! (gasp!!!) I am very happy for DS. We have absolutely no ties to the state of Georgia and I was concerned DS may get homesick or if there was a problem we were too far away but all of those worries were for nothing. DS came home for Thanksgiving break and couldn't wait to get back to North Georgia and his new friends. DS also loves the military lifestyle and I can already see the discipline he is getting as he spent much of his time over the break writing a term paper. In closing North Georgia is the right place for my son and I am very happy about that.
 
DS @ North Georgia...informed me that he has joined the Georgia Army National Guard and will be attending Basic training and AIT at Ft. Benning in January so he will be back in time to attend the Summer language Institute at North Georgia in July. DS is a member of the Corp of Cadets at UNG. When he graduates he will receive an Honorable Discharge from the National Guard and accept a commission as an officer in the U.S. Army. I am sharing because I am proud of him. Thanks for listening ;)

CoachBart -- I just wanted to thank you for all your UNG posts! DS is a freshman now, with very similar plans as your DS, though we're trying to talk him out of National Guard basics in the spring semester. (We think it will create a massive time-management issue and won't end up being worth all the trouble. Wondering your thoughts on this.) Also, we live in NJ and are coming to grips with various transportation headaches. I'm wondering if you'd be open to talking about ride-sharing. Are you going to Parents' Weekend this fall?

Edit to add: I totally agree with everything you are saying about UNG -- DS is absolutely in the right place for him. He loves Dahlonega, the university, the cadet admissions staff, his classes, professors, froggy buddies, his dorm room -- he even was telling me yesterday that he LOVES PT, inspections and having to keep his room so orderly and clean -- a general is coming tomorrow and so there's a gigantic inspection tonight of the entire dorm, ceilings and all -- not a speck of dust is to remain! He says he actually finds relaxation from cleaning the common areas of his suite. Man, this is stark contrast to a "regular college," that's for sure. And the cadre, he says, is doing a great job -- so far it's pretty much all good!
 
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There seem like ALOT of National Guard members at UNG compared to other SMCs. I wonder why this is....

At cadet admissions, I will say that in the financial portion of the parent and prospective meetings, they stress National Guard as a way to pay for school. They did rather make it sound like an easy thing, as easy as 1-2-3.
1- Join guard, go to basics
2- Drill on campus
3- Upon graduation, you will be honorably discharged in order to accept your commission in AD.

And oh yeah, they'll pay you money for weekend drills and pay your tuition! They made it sound like a no-brainer. Join the guard to pay for school. I do not think they were trying to snow anybody. I just think, now that I know a little more about it, that none of this is really as easy as they make it out to be. The whole "drill on campus" thing is more like ... drill on campus until you have 60 credit hours, and then there's a good chance your unit will want you to drill in Atlanta or Athens or Central Florida or something, so you'll need a car and gas money and time to travel away from campus, and hopefully the unit's drill weekend isn't concurrent with ROTC FTX weekends, and since it doesn't always coincide there's a good chance you'll have to deal with paperwork to try to get drill weekends changed. And then there's the issue of the summer training falling at times concurrent with other ROTC training ops, and the issue of getting summer training moved to your home state if you don't live in Georgia. And the issue of there being HUGE questions about how truly easy it is to switch from NG to AD upon graduation.

Don't get me wrong though. The people in cadet admissions are caring, sincere people who answer questions quickly and thoroughly. They probably even went into some of these issues during admissions meetings, but you know, after a while your brain starts to blank out. There are a lot of cadets at UNG involved in Guard, so it must be working out for many.
 
There are a lot of cadets at UNG involved in Guard, so it must be working out for many.

This is what concerns me about going to UNG. I wonder if there's some sort of peer pressure or something to join the NG? Sure the money is great, but all of those problems you just listed are pretty major and could really hurt someone's grades or standing with ROTC (missing FTXs).
 
This is what concerns me about going to UNG. I wonder if there's some sort of peer pressure or something to join the NG? Sure the money is great, but all of those problems you just listed are pretty major and could really hurt someone's grades or standing with ROTC (missing FTXs).


There is no peer pressure to join National Guard at all, in fact, I believe my son is getting more input to NOT join -- from us, from other adults, and from other cadets too. Let me be clear -- it's INPUT, and not pressure, from other cadets, including cadre. The only people putting actual pressure on him is us, and himself. Our plan this weekend is to lay out the pros and cons and hope he makes the right decision for him.
 
Sent U a PM

I sent u a pm[

QUOTE=payitforward;330226]CoachBart -- I just wanted to thank you for all your UNG posts! DS is a freshman now, with very similar plans as your DS, though we're trying to talk him out of National Guard basics in the spring semester. (We think it will create a massive time-management issue and won't end up being worth all the trouble. Wondering your thoughts on this.) Also, we live in NJ and are coming to grips with various transportation headaches. I'm wondering if you'd be open to talking about ride-sharing. Are you going to Parents' Weekend this fall?

Edit to add: I totally agree with everything you are saying about UNG -- DS is absolutely in the right place for him. He loves Dahlonega, the university, the cadet admissions staff, his classes, professors, froggy buddies, his dorm room -- he even was telling me yesterday that he LOVES PT, inspections and having to keep his room so orderly and clean -- a general is coming tomorrow and so there's a gigantic inspection tonight of the entire dorm, ceilings and all -- not a speck of dust is to remain! He says he actually finds relaxation from cleaning the common areas of his suite. Man, this is stark contrast to a "regular college," that's for sure. And the cadre, he says, is doing a great job -- so far it's pretty much all good![/QUOTE]
 
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