ROTC or academy?

[JJaeger]

Once in the military proper, how are officers from academies viewed compared to those who commissioned through ROTC? i.e. are there preferences for duty stations, promotions, etc.? Specifically interested in Army and Navy/Marines.

[dlee96]

No difference in officers regardless if you were commissioned through the SA's or ROTC (made very clear, threads on this topic available). However, I believe you get to pick your first assignment in the academies, not sure about ROTC

[-Bull-]

ROTC allows you to request choice of first post as well.

[nick4060]

One difference to consider is the fact that all academy grads are commissioned directly onto active duty. That means they get paid starting the day they graduate. ROTC works a bit differently, wherein you may be commissioned initially into the inactive reserves (unpaid) and later transferred to active duty when you report to your first duty station (could be a wait of several months or even a year).

[LineInTheSand]

Originally Posted by dlee96

No difference in officers regardless if you were commissioned through the SA's or ROTC (made very clear, threads on this topic available).

I think each discussion concluded that there were differences, especially with regard to an officer's first assignment, but we weren't willing to sum those differences up into "better or worse".

[raimius]

For rank advancement, etc, there is no difference.

I don't know how Army and Navy do their assignment process, but for AF, the academy generally gets a certain number of slots for each career field. USAFA generally gets about 40% of the total AF pilot slots, although it graduates less than 40% of the AD AF officers. So, for certain jobs, academies might get greater or lesser percentages than ROTC or OTS/OCS.

Obviously, the experience between and academy, ROTC, and OTS/OCS is going to vary pretty substantially. Academy grads usually have a half-way decent grasp on how their service tends to work for day-to-day stuff. Also, they are highly likely to know people at whatever place they are stationed. For example, I can easily call up a friend who works in Finance and ping a question off them. ROTC detachments (on average) are quite a bit smaller, so it is less likely you will know people already when you get to your 1st assignment. Depending on how good a networker you are, and what you need to get done, that can be a nice thing to have.

[AJM7680]

Originally Posted by dlee96

No difference in officers regardless if you were commissioned through the SA's or ROTC (made very clear, threads on this topic available). However, I believe you get to pick your first assignment in the academies, not sure about ROTC

If there are no positive differences for the military, the federal government is wasting a lot of money keeping these five schools afloat. You should contact your congressman.

[osdad]

Has to be something - as evidenced by 80% of submarine CO's being NA grads. (Yes, it might be nepotism but might it be something else???)