Options

tsparks21

USNA Class of 2020
Joined
Nov 9, 2015
Messages
22
My current college does not have any form of ROTC but I plan on joining after I graduate through OCS or ODS with the Navy as my first choice. I am applying to an academy for next year but if that doesn't work out what are my options. Can I still be a commissioned officer with out ROTC? I can't really transfer schools because I am an athlete where my school is being paid for. How does OCS/OCD work. I plan on being a physician or a normal officer. I haven't decided if Med school is for me or not.
 
If you decide that medicine is for you, check out HPSP for med school. The military pays for your med school and you commission after done with a service obligation.
 
Think of OCS as the flexible tool used by a service to top off the new officers it needs in any given year, depending on what has come out of the SA, ROTC and enlisted and direct commissioning routes. OCS will take just as many as it needs, and if it has enough, may stop acceptances for the remainder of a given fiscal year. OCS is also used for enlisted personnel who already have a degree, to recruit those who came late in their college career to wanting to be an officer, to take care of those strong candidates who were perhaps married or too old for a SA. There is always the emphasis on top-tier college grades, STEM skills and diversity of background.

OCS is designed to produce line (warfare) officers and will typically not send anyone to medical, dental or nursing paths, as well as some other communities. Those folks use different scholarships and go through another kind of officer indoc school after they commission.

Everyone attending OCS has their undergrad degree, and the focus is on distilling what SA and ROTC have learned in 4 years of military knowledge/training into an intense cram session of a few months. I was a "4-month wonder" myself. Classes, marching, physical fitness assessments, driving YPs, lots of shots, physicals and admin, in an immersion environment. Then the very steep learning curve in the real Navy - painful, but I caught up, and many of the SA and ROTC advantages diminish after about 2 years.

OCS is doable, but it's a fine needle to thread. If you are a physically fit and healthy under-represented minority with stellar grades in a STEM major, OCS recruiters will jump up and down. A young friend of our family, with excellent college and grades, honors degree in criminal justice, plays rugby, applied for three years straight and didn't get in. He is now applying to NCIS for a civil service job.

Not to discourage you, but to set expectations - work hard at whatever path you choose.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top