Many Questions About Disenrollment

FgH

5-Year Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2013
Messages
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Hello All,

I go to a school in New York and am an MSIII scholarship cadet who has contracted. I have decided enlisting is the route I should take, rather than commissioning as an officer in the United States Army. Though I know breaking contract and scholarship agreements is not ideal, I am considering it. I have a few questions about the process and thank each and every one of you who have some information to contribute to my ordeal.

1. I realize that you are not guaranteed either enlistment or scholarship repayment and it is up to the board. I realize that I may be able to defer payments until after I continue and finish school. Could I choose to repay my debt in active duty time and defer this obligation until I am done with my undergraduate studies?

2. If allowed to repay my debt in enlisted time, am I allowed to choose my MOS (I would like 11x) Will this interfere with promotions, etc.?

3. Will this occurrence stay in my "Army permanent record" so to speak. If so, how will it look? Honorable discharge? Will it interfere with any future Army opportunities, such as SoF (Specifically Ranger battallion and SF), security clearances, etc.?

4. Anything else to add on the subject, personal experiences? Specifically in regards to enlisting after, either as payment for debt, or paying back the debt and then choosing to enlist later.

5. If I pay it back monetarily, will I be allowed to enlist later if I want to?
 
I am going to respect your decision as an adult to choose to leave the program but let me say a few things first:

1. With the budget and recent disenrollments I have seen I doubt you will be able to pay back the scholarship with enlisting. So if you do enlist not only will you be making PFC pay but also forfeiting a decent amount every month to the govt with interest to pay off those years. However, if you are allowed to serve the time I haven't seen a deferment for school but maybe it's possible. I am sure the cadre could find out.

2. I had a buddy 3 years ago who chose to enlist in order to repay his debt and he got a handful of choices. I imagine 11X won't be hard.

3. Just curious, why 11X? Are you sick of boring ROTC time and want to see some action to the point where you can't wait for 11A? Look at current war environment, do you know what a 11X does when there are no deployments.....Base beautification, gate guard, picking up rocks in the motorpool and looooong periods training in the field if the budget allows.

4. You aren't technically in the military like the SA ,so you don't get a discharge. I don't see any negative ramifications to your future military service promotion wise and I have not heard of it flagging anyone for future enlistment but I am not 100% certain. I could see problems if it flags you for high debt.

5. I know personally 3-4 guys who dropped out to enlist and all but 1 regret it. Another 1-2 guys got the option to enlist after they quit ROTC a few years ago and I don't think they plan on making the Army a career.

Think long and hard about this decision, the current job market as well as the conflict situation we are in. This isn't 2003....
 
FgH, you chose to not give background for your decision, and that is fine with me, but some background about why you have arrived at your decision may improve the advice.
It seems you must be doing OK in school as you appear to want to finish your degree. And since you want to enlist, I assume you are OK with the military stuff at ROTC. So I wonder what is the issue with doing both at the same time?
 
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