Since I don’t want to have too little information posted I’ll just go through the whole story, I’m writing this because I would like some opinions and what you would recommend. Currently I’m a sophomore, last year I was in the Criminal Justice program but this summer I decided to change things up a little bit and decided to join the army ROTC program. Plus I decided switching my degree to health care administration. Because of that I now have 4 my years of college so I’ll start as a MSI. I switched because that field is hard to get into and I didn’t like it as much as I thought. Also I’m quite interested in health care administration and for the battalion I’m joining if you want to go active duty you have a much better chance with a technical degree since they pick 10 cadets with that degree type compared to the general degrees where they cut down to 5 a year. Anyways during the summer when I was making the switch (keep in mind I really wanted to join the ROTC and was committed) I met the commander and we talked about financing and he recommended joining the Nation Guard while I was in ROTC and doing the SMP program. Keep in mind my school is very friendly towards the National Guard. I believe there are more kids here in the guard then with scholarships. Also don’t confuse this with the National Guard scholarships. But I ended up joining the Guard but there was a problem, I’m colorblind and I was originally going to have my MOS to 88N, but the day I was going to swear in they told me I’m now not eligible. This was a problem because I was supposed to get done with Basic and AIT in the summer then go back to college after. Then with all the positions that I’m allowed to do, the AIT would take too long to complete and I would miss the fall semester. It was difficult for me because I had 5 recruiters telling me to skip a semester but I really didn’t want to do that. I ended up calling my commander and he was very against me skipping a semester and we tried working with the recruiters to find a MOS that would work but none would. So we ended up just picking 42A and picking the split option. The commander told me that we can try to get a scholarship later during the year, because through the National Guard I can’t get the GI bill until I’m done with AIT and that would be at least 2 years. I forgot to add this was during the end of summer so I would have attended boot camp after my first year of ROTC.
Now that you know the situation I’ll just say that I was just awarded a 3.5 year active duty scholarship. So now my main question, do you guys think I should accept the scholarship or continue with the National Guard? Ill state the pros and cons.
With the scholarship first off it would come into effect in January, about 1.5 years before the National Guard would come into play. Plus I would be contracted right away. If I stayed with the Guard I wouldn't be able to contract until I was a MSIII because of the AIT thing. Since if you’re contracted cadets aren't allowed to go to boot camp and ait. But not being contracted is scary since there is no guarantee you will be contracted if I go that route since there is a lot of competition since half the kids are doing it that way… but they don’t have the AIT problem I do. Plus I’d be discharged from the Guard once I accept the scholarship and worried if there would be any problems, shouldn't be but always a possibility they might not like it. There was lots of drama involved originally with the guard because after I joined 2 recruiters where fighting over me because long story short I was supposed to be recruited by my college recruiter but I wasn't aware of that and this other recruiter got me in so they fought for a while for who gets credit. I believe the recruiter who recruited me said some lies about recruiting me according to ROTC commander and recruiter (they were involved) and fought hard so I’m nervous if his department will try and stop me from getting discharged.
Now the advantages of going the guard is I can go to boot camp, I know it won’t be a fun experience but I would gain a lot from it, and from not going I feel like I’ll be behind at ROTC since many have gone and know a lot more. Plus with my commander we did the numbers and staying with the guard I actually still would get as much as with the scholarship, maybe more in the long run. After adding the TA, GI Bill, Grant, Guard Duty, and the time of service. I would have 4 years of time in service through the guard so when I’m commissioned my pay would start higher.
Just to point out, this is a small branch with maybe around 20 contracted cadets and 30 non contracted. So the chain of command is possibly a lot different than what many of you are used to. I don't attend the university where the battalion is located so that's why its much smaller, Central Michigan is the host school.
I apologize this post is so long and if there are many grammar issues, its late at night and I tried at least to include the entire situation so you know what I’m dealing with for deciding. If you guys have any more questions about the situation I’ll respond. But I’d like to hear your opinions on if I should accept the scholarship or not… Thank you for your time.
Now that you know the situation I’ll just say that I was just awarded a 3.5 year active duty scholarship. So now my main question, do you guys think I should accept the scholarship or continue with the National Guard? Ill state the pros and cons.
With the scholarship first off it would come into effect in January, about 1.5 years before the National Guard would come into play. Plus I would be contracted right away. If I stayed with the Guard I wouldn't be able to contract until I was a MSIII because of the AIT thing. Since if you’re contracted cadets aren't allowed to go to boot camp and ait. But not being contracted is scary since there is no guarantee you will be contracted if I go that route since there is a lot of competition since half the kids are doing it that way… but they don’t have the AIT problem I do. Plus I’d be discharged from the Guard once I accept the scholarship and worried if there would be any problems, shouldn't be but always a possibility they might not like it. There was lots of drama involved originally with the guard because after I joined 2 recruiters where fighting over me because long story short I was supposed to be recruited by my college recruiter but I wasn't aware of that and this other recruiter got me in so they fought for a while for who gets credit. I believe the recruiter who recruited me said some lies about recruiting me according to ROTC commander and recruiter (they were involved) and fought hard so I’m nervous if his department will try and stop me from getting discharged.
Now the advantages of going the guard is I can go to boot camp, I know it won’t be a fun experience but I would gain a lot from it, and from not going I feel like I’ll be behind at ROTC since many have gone and know a lot more. Plus with my commander we did the numbers and staying with the guard I actually still would get as much as with the scholarship, maybe more in the long run. After adding the TA, GI Bill, Grant, Guard Duty, and the time of service. I would have 4 years of time in service through the guard so when I’m commissioned my pay would start higher.
Just to point out, this is a small branch with maybe around 20 contracted cadets and 30 non contracted. So the chain of command is possibly a lot different than what many of you are used to. I don't attend the university where the battalion is located so that's why its much smaller, Central Michigan is the host school.
I apologize this post is so long and if there are many grammar issues, its late at night and I tried at least to include the entire situation so you know what I’m dealing with for deciding. If you guys have any more questions about the situation I’ll respond. But I’d like to hear your opinions on if I should accept the scholarship or not… Thank you for your time.
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