Road from ARMY ROTC to JAG Officer

[ryrymogel]

I was wondering exactly what I would need to do/ the best path to take to have a chance at becoming an Army Jag Officer. I am currently entering my second semester of freshman year at Loyola University of Maryland and I am a 4 year active duty army rotc scholarship recipient. Any help would be appreciated as I couldn't really find any info on the path from rotc to jag.

 

[clarksonarmy]

First off, there is no such thing as an Active Duty scholarship...you have a 4 year scholarship, and you could potentially be required to serve your obligation in the Guard or Reserves when you graduate...but that is beside the point. If you would like to be a JAG officer you will have to request an Educational Delay when you go through the accessions process. You will also have to start applying to law school and take your LSAT around the end of your junior year/beginning of senior year. Ed delay is VERY competative, so for now you need to work on maximizing your OML points. If you don't know what that means you need to talk to your cadre and find our what you need to be doing. High GPA is one of the most important things though, so study hard!!

 

[mbitr]

There are three ways for you to become a JAG officer if you go active duty out of ROTC.

1.) Request an educational delay prior to commissioning. This is essentially you asking the Army to delay your entry to active duty in order for you to attend law/medical/seminary school. Ask your cadre about this and do a quick Google search for accessions briefings that define what an ed delay is and how it works. You need to have already been accepted to an accredited law program. A word of warning: Accession into the JAG Corps is very competitive. You could have your ed delay approved, graduate from law school and pass the bar only to be turned down by JAG. You will go into the regular Army in one of the basic branches just as you would have when you graduated from undergrad. You'll have a nice fancy law degree and be fully qualified to practice law in your state. You simply will not be an attorney for the United States Army nor will you be a member of the JAG Corps.

2.) Apply for FLEP after you've gone on to active duty. I believe you can do this as a 1LT or junior Captain. Again, use some Google fu to find out about the program.

3.) Get out of the Army, go to law school and apply for accession to the JAG Corps like anyone else off the street.

If you branch Reserve out of undergrad rather than going active duty you can attend law school and apply similar to option 3.

 

[ryrymogel]

Thank you for the quick and resourceful responses guys I really appreciate it. Questions after reading your responses:

1.) If I was granted this educational delay by the Army could I serve in the reserves while at graduate school and fulfill part of my required scholarship service time?

2.) If I am granted this education delay would the Army pay for any of my schooling as a result of me having a scholarship? Or are they completely separate of each other.

3.) Anything I need to do immediately to better my chances at achieving this goal besides the obvious high GPA and OML?

And @clarksonarmy don't worry I know that my scholarship doesn't guarantee me active duty it's just that my Cadre always refers to it as that so it's just habit.

 

[wulaw]

Army JAG

As someone who went to college on a four-year Army ROTC scholarship and ended up in the JAG Corps, I can attest that the previous poster is correct. Ed delays and FLEP are both extremely competitive and always have been, but I have known people who did both. While it's possible, I think it's unlikely that someone approved for an Ed Delay would be turned down by the JAG Corps, assuming they passed the bar. Unlike other branches, JAG is top-heavy, meaning that there are far more field grade officers than company grade (a JAG 2LT is unheard of). JAG staffs like the other professional branches do; they figure out how many positions they can fill from in-house sources (such as people coming in from Ed Delay), and fill the remainder from outside recruiting at law schools.

For what it's worth, I branched Engineer in a year that the Army was downsizing significantly. As a result, I did my OBC and went straight to the reserves and served as an Engineer platoon leader. I went to law school while in the reserves and once I graduated was recommissioned as a JAG in the reserves with the same commitment (note there is no branch transfer with the JAG Corps, you literally have to be recommissioned). I then did JAG OBC. Note that as a reservist, you can be called up at any time, and that can make school difficult - it happened to me during Desert Storm.

 

[Aglahad]

As far as I know you time in law school under the education delay does not fulfill your service requirement. It is a delay and not a fulfillment of service. If you decided to just go reserves during the accessions process obviously your 8 year commitment would be fulfilled on the weekends and at AT.

Now when choosing a law school it is very important to pick one that is reputable and ranked well. Unlike med school (where anywhere you go to fits the bill because matriculation and school openings are kept artificially low) it is important to research and ask questions so you don't end up in a fly by night law school. I have many friends in law or currently in school and this is the number one thing they tell me. I don't think the Army cares where you go but success in the civilian world can sometimes be determined by it. Some law schools are extremely hard to get into like Yale or Chicago and others accept 50-75% of applicants.