ASVAB required?

snowieWI3

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My daughter joined her "Eager to Serve" school club and was asked by one of the Naval recruiters if she was planning on taking the ASVAB in December. She said no, because she is wanting the USCGA & she has specific majors in mind. At the Service Academy event we went to last month, were told that the ASVAB is for direct enlistment and not for those wanting to attend an academy. The Naval recruiter told her it wasn't correct & to take it so her results would be available for application and look good if she gets a good score? I'm confused....so is she.
 
The recruiter is wrong. The ASVAB is a general aptitude test used for enlisted personnel only. It is not needed for any commissioning programs. I doubt ROTC or a service academy would even look at the results. They look at SAT's and ACT's.
 
The ASVAB is a vocational aptitude battery designed to help identify and steer enlistment candidates toward specific military occupational specialties (different terms in different services).

Enlisted recruiters will work on recruiting likely prospects to fill their quotas until that candidate is out of reach and on the way to another program. That’s their mission.

Enlisted recruiters may or may not know what SA requirements are, but quite likely they won’t know much about process and admissions specifics. No reason for them to.

The SA will look at the things they request in the application. If they thought the ASVAB was key to their decision-making, they would ask for it.

The savvy recruiter is hedging his or her bets with a promising candidate by getting an ASVAB score, critical to enlisted recruiting. If said candidate decides against SA, recruiter can say “hey, you look great for cyber or intel, I can get you a guarantee on that with automatic promotion to E-3 at completion of X School and a bonus.”
 
The ASVAB is a vocational aptitude battery designed to help identify and steer enlistment candidates toward specific military occupational specialties (different terms in different services).

Enlisted recruiters will work on recruiting likely prospects to fill their quotas until that candidate is out of reach and on the way to another program. That’s their mission.

Enlisted recruiters may or may not know what SA requirements are, but quite likely they won’t know much about process and admissions specifics. No reason for them to.

The SA will look at the things they request in the application. If they thought the ASVAB was key to their decision-making, they would ask for it.

The savvy recruiter is hedging his or her bets with a promising candidate by getting an ASVAB score, critical to enlisted recruiting. If said candidate decides against SA, recruiter can say “hey, you look great for cyber or intel, I can get you a guarantee on that with automatic promotion to E-3 at completion of X School and a bonus.”

Capt MJ provided a much better answer than mine. But the recruiter still told you something that is not correct. He could have given you an accurate explanation -- like Capt MJ just did - - and told you that it couldn't hurt you to take the ASVAB in case you change you mine and might want to consider enlisting at some time down the road. Recruiters get a bad reputation by being less that 100% accurate in the information they give out. My advice to any young person dealing with a recruiter is to be very wary and take a parent or other adult along. I have heard many stories of bad information being doled out at the recruiting office.
 
I second that it'snot a bad idea to take the ASVAB, and also agree that it is 100% not necessary. However, a great plan be to service academies is certainly enlisting, and taking the ASVAB can give you an idea of what types of jobs you might be eligible for on that side of the house.
 
My daughter joined her "Eager to Serve" school club and was asked by one of the Naval recruiters if she was planning on taking the ASVAB in December. She said no, because she is wanting the USCGA & she has specific majors in mind. At the Service Academy event we went to last month, were told that the ASVAB is for direct enlistment and not for those wanting to attend an academy. The Naval recruiter told her it wasn't correct & to take it so her results would be available for application and look good if she gets a good score? I'm confused....so is she.
Other service academies may feel differently, but the ASVAB is neither required nor requested for CGA.
 
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