Pay and BOLC questions

Hello All, I am an MSIII Army ROTC Cadet about a month away from LDAC. I plan to go either Reserves or Texas National Guard and branch AG (Adjutant General). Right now I am weighing my options between either Guard or Reserves because I want to be able to attend law school immediately after BOLC. I know AG BOLC is at Ft. Jackson and is 12 weeks long. My questions are:

What is the average pay of a 2lt going to BOLC for the duration of the 3 months?

What can I expect to make as a 2lt after finding my unit in the Texas National Guard OR Army Reserves?

I was originally going to use the Education Delay Program to delay my service commitment and go to law school and receive a direct commission into JAG, however that program was cancelled a month after I contracted. I plan to go Guard or Reserves to ensure that I stay in one place to be able to complete law school. Is this plan feasible? What are my other options?

Any information is welcome! Thanks in advance!

C0l1E3N said:

Hello All, I am an MSIII Army ROTC Cadet about a month away from LDAC. I plan to go either Reserves or Texas National Guard and branch AG (Adjutant General). Right now I am weighing my options between either Guard or Reserves because I want to be able to attend law school immediately after BOLC. I know AG BOLC is at Ft. Jackson and is 12 weeks long. My questions are:

What is the average pay of a 2lt going to BOLC for the duration of the 3 months?

What can I expect to make as a 2lt after finding my unit in the Texas National Guard OR Army Reserves?

I was originally going to use the Education Delay Program to delay my service commitment and go to law school and receive a direct commission into JAG, however that program was cancelled a month after I contracted. I plan to go Guard or Reserves to ensure that I stay in one place to be able to complete law school. Is this plan feasible? What are my other options?

Any information is welcome! Thanks in advance!

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You can google O-1 Military Pay, you will be paid as active duty while you are at BOLC.

You can also google the O-1 Military Pay for Reserves and NG.

These pay charts are public and the same for all service branches.

There is a cadet in my daughter's battalion that did this path. She graduated from college in CA, enrolled in University of Washington School of Law and joined the Washington National Guard. I do not know which branch she selected. It seems possible to do.

One thing you need to keep in mind is you will likely not know your BOLC dates until late winter/spring of your MSIV year. The odds of you going to BOLC immediately after graduation, in time to start law school in the fall, are not great. You may not go to BOLC for several months after graduation.

In the Reserves you can choose when you go to BOLC easier than the active army. Also you have to go within the first 2 years(I could be wrong so double check and verify). Theoretically, you could wait to do BOLC until the summer after your first year at law school IF they couldn't get you to BOLC right away.

The OC Josh said:

Also you have to go within the first 2 years(I could be wrong so double check and verify..

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Its actually 36 months. This is because BOLC is a promotion requirement for 1LT and if you don't meet all the promotion requirements in 36 months you get separated. However 36 months is pushing it and in reality most units will try to get you there by the two year mark.

I'm AG and although I'm active duty, 90% of my BOLC class was Guard/Reserve. The big different I found between the reserve and guard guys was you can be a postal platoon leader in the reserve but there are not postal units in the guard so you can only be an S1 or Strength manager if you go guard. So if you want to be a Platoon Leader don't go guard. However guard seems to have more funding (this depends on the state you're in of course) so you will have more chances to go to schools and get more deployments (which you are put on active duty for and thus receive active duty pay for that time in addition to the training you get out of it). If that is something that's important to you since I saw your questions are mostly about money I would suggest guard, especially if you plan on going Texas Guard as they are very well funded. If you have any questions about AG feel free to PM me or ask on here.

C0l1E3N said:

I was originally going to use the Education Delay Program to delay my service commitment and go to law school and receive a direct commission into JAG, however that program was cancelled a month after I contracted. I plan to go Guard or Reserves to ensure that I stay in one place to be able to complete law school. Is this plan feasible? What are my other options?

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Who told you Ed Delay was cancelled?? We are sending a Cadet to Law School out of this graduating class on ed delay. It's right in the contract. look at your 597-1.
There is some crazy information floating around out there.
Also not sure why you don't know how to look up pay on an Army Pay chart. Not busting on you, but when I taught the MS I class I showed them how to google Army Pay chart and look up how much they are going to make.