AD SSG applying for ROTC

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kSmeuse

5-Year Member
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May 3, 2014
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5
Hi,

I'm a Army SSG in Active Duty and I'm considering applying for Active Duty Green-to-Gold. I am pursuing a Bachelors Degree in Cybersecurity, I have 63 credits, a 2.6 GPA, a 300 PT score and 3 1/1 NCOER's. I have been in the Army for 5 years, I made SGT at 2 1/2 years and SSG at 4 1/2 years.

What are my chances of being approved for ROTC? If I am approved for ROTC, what are the chances that I will be able to choose my own branch? Is it possible for me to sign a longer contract in order to reserve the branch I want or at least reserve the duty station that I want? If I fail ROTC for some reason, will I be kicked out of the Army?

Thank you for any information
 
With your GPA you are not competitive for the active duty green to gold option. If you're interested in the non-scholarship option, you meet the minimums for that. It's not competitive, it's just a matter of getting the approval of your chain of command.
 
If I chose the non-scholarship option, will I still be able to receive an Active Duty Commission upon completion of ROTC?
 
Yes, so long as you make the active duty cutoff. I'll PM you with some more details.
 
I am unable to send private messages so this is a reply to your PM

Thanks,

I really want to be an officer but I just don't know if it's the right thing to do or if I am even ready for it.

I am considering Warrant Officer as well but still not sure if that is something I want to do. I am a 13FL7L8 so I think I would do well as a warrant officer, but I feel like as far as my career goes and retirement, commissioned officer would be much better. I want to retire with a good retirement and get a great job after my 20 years. I am only 24 years old, so I still have plenty of time to fix my grades, correct?

I was thinking about just finishing my degree and going OCS but I heard they don't really get the opportunity to choose their branch.

Thanks for the info
 
Congrats on the fast promotion pipeline, but here are a few things you need to know about ROTC or commissioning in general.

1. AD is getting VERY competitive as each year passes, when I commissioned in 2012 it was 50/50 AD or reserve now I imagine the odds are even harder (for some branches very difficult).

2. You don't choose your branch. It goes by OML based on GPA, PT and a number of factors or major (Engineers, Nurse Corps, Signal get allotted slots for certain majors). Same goes for duty stations. While there is an ADSO option for a better shot at what you want it's not even close to guaranteed. It's not like enlisting.

3. 2.6 is not even close to competitive for AD nor G2G. You need to do some grade rehabilitation ASAP.

4. OCS traditionally gets the short end of the stick for branches but they reserve some slots for every branch so there is a chance.

Good luck
 
Thank you for your response,

1-3 I have pretty much heard that same thing. I understand G2G is becoming more and more difficult, especially for someone like me who is not academically gifted, haha.

I am curious about 4. You are saying that OCS gets the short end of the stick, does that mean upon graduation of OCS you are given whatever job is left? or Do you mean that upon graduation of OCS, they tell you what branches are left, and you are able to choose from those branches?

From experience, what branches are typically left for OCS? I was hoping to branch Signal, I figured that would be good for after I retire.

Thank you
 
kSmeuse said:
Thank you for your response,

1-3 I have pretty much heard that same thing. I understand G2G is becoming more and more difficult, especially for someone like me who is not academically gifted, haha.

I am curious about 4. You are saying that OCS gets the short end of the stick, does that mean upon graduation of OCS you are given whatever job is left? or Do you mean that upon graduation of OCS, they tell you what branches are left, and you are able to choose from those branches?

From experience, what branches are typically left for OCS? I was hoping to branch Signal, I figured that would be good for after I retire.

Thank you
Click to expand...

Preference for branches goes from:

Westpoint
ROTC
OCS

DC (direct commissions) are a non factor in most cases.

I have seen OCS officers in every branch but for the most part they get the last picks proportionally which are usually transpo, chem, ordnance etc. If you are a stud at OCS I am sure you will have a good chance of getting what you want.

With cybersecurity that might be a preferred major for signal but I am not 100% certain. I am sure someone has the OML slide deck floating around here...
 
Awesome, thanks for the info.

I think I am going to go for Warrant Officer first, then follow up with OCS after Warrant
 
Out of OCS there is an option to put in a package for a branch based on pervious army experience. From recent classes most of the prior enlisted who put in packages to stay in the same branch go it. Also Field Artillery is not a competitive branch right now so if you do reasonable while at OCS you shouldn't have a problem. If you want to learn more about OCS go to http://www.armyocs.com/ its like this forum but for the OCS route.

Personally I think OCS is your best option, you'd have to wait a couple years for the pipeline to get better but in that time you can go back to school online or near your duty station and fix your GPA. I'm pretty sure, not positive, that OCS will also include grad school GPAs is that might help as while. With things like an amazing interview and a great PT score you could probably overcome the GPA thing in an OCS package where it is impossible to overcome that in an G2G package. The average GPA for prior enlisted into OCS right now seems around a 3.4 as long as you are extremely strong in all other categories. To answer your other questions though you can only ADSO (request duty station with a longer contract) out of ROTC and I think West Point.

Have you talked to the warrants and officers in your battalion? Ask them about their job and what they do on a day-to-day basis, that might help you make the decision. If you want to become a technical expert in your field and only really do FA stuff, go warrant. Officers are usually pulled to do many additional tasks and get put in more leadership positions, if that is something you want, go officer.
 
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