I chose an Army ROTC scholarship a couple months ago, but my parent's hostility towards my decision recently peaked. They believe that I have been seduced by army marketing, and that I am joining some suicidal cult that I am going to hate or be brainwashed into liking. Whenever I try to convince them that they are entirely wrong, they tell me that I have only talked with the propaganda wing (ROTC) and that I have no idea what army life is really like. I am getting extremely tired of this and I would really appreciate having some veterans answer some questions so I can definitively disprove their erroneous paranoia. I would really appreciate any advice.
1) If I go into reserve, either immediately after I commission or after a 4 year active duty commitment, is there any chance of me being called again to serve unless there is a war? They are convinced that the defense cuts will mean that I will never get out and constantly get called back.
2) If I choose a reserve option after commissioning, what sort of commitment would I have in the reserve? They think it would derail any other career I would be interested in.
3) If I wanted to do reserve rather than active duty, how likely is it that I would get it?
4) Does ROTC really present an experience that is similar to active duty life?
I feel that I know the answers to most of these questions, but I want to hear from people who actually have actual experience.
I'd iike to comment and will try not to repeat from above responses:
1) Yes, there is a chance that within your 8 years of Reserves or Guard duty, you will be called up to Active Duty. It doesn't depend only upon another Iraq or Afghanistan. There are peacetime initiates in the Army that could require a call up to a several month commitment to Active Duty. I don't know if that is a 1% chance, or 20% chance since it is a newly evolving change in the role of the Reserve forces.
2) Not derail, but it will create obstacles you need to clear. Firstly, if you do CULP or Project GO after sophomore year in college, you obviously can't be doing a summer Internship at a possible future employer. Second, the summer after Junior year, which is the Internship that is really an extended job interview and out of which most Interns are hired full time after college, won't be available to you because you will be on duty for 30 consecutive days that summer for LDAC. Since LDAC doesn't start until first week of June, and then for the following 6 weeks starting weeks, it is almost impossible to qualify for a formal Internship after Junior year. The earliest you could start an internship would be first week of July. I am not aware of any Internships that allow that, at least not formal ones for which you interview. That might be a big deal, or not, depending upon what your career interest is. For a corporate job in management, marketing, finance operations, etc., most new college graduate hires come from the Internships, which you won't be able to have. The job market is still pretty tough out there, especially for entry level management or operations jobs, and without an offer coming from an internship, you're behind the eight ball there.
That also means that you will have a hard time finding a full time job for the summers after Sophomore and Junior years. That is potentially a lot of money, but since you are on Scholarship, it balances out. Non-Scholarship cadets really have it rough because they probably need summer jobs to help pay for college.
As to your parents, that can get bad if they choose to play hardball. By that I mean, you as a freshman have to pay Tuition, and for room and Board that first year on a 3 yr. AD scholarship. If they choose not to help you financially that first year, where are you going to get the money? A student is only allowed to borrow, by Federal mandate, $5,500 total their freshman year of college. Most families supplement that with a PLUS loan, which the parents take out. Without the PLUS money, and without parents money who are playing hardball, how will you pay for Year 1? It's clearly doable at State schools, but I don't think there is any way for a Private school, unless that school's financial aid office comes through in a big way for you... and they don't care in the computation if the parents refuse to contribute. So bottom line, you need to come to some sort of agreement with your parents to give you a year to make sure the Army is for you, and to have them help you pay for that first year.
