Marine Commissioning Likelihood

maschneider93

USAFA 2025
Joined
Sep 29, 2020
Messages
124
Greetings all,
I recently met with a USMC recruiter about a possible future as an officer in the Marine Corps. The USMC seems like an incredibly challenging yet rewarding career path. I am applying to USNA as one of my top choices for college and wanted to know how many USNA graduates per class commission in the Marine Corps. Is this a competitive process or can anyone that wants to be a marine be a marine?
Thanks to everyone who responds.
 
Currently 25% of a class can go Marine Corps. Marines focus more on leadership and physical fitness than GPA. That doesn’t mean you can fail things. There are lots of Marine training options and clubs at USNA to get more acquainted with what being a Marine Officer is, the different MOSs out there and the training path. If you do well in leadership and are physically fit, participate in Marine training options and attend Leatherneck summer training before you senior year... your chances of getting USMC are very high.

Also subscribe to various USNA social media platforms. USNA Marines have a specific one that talks a lot about all the t
 
It’s competitive but there are many spots available like Hoops mentioned. Selections are made by a panel of Marines on the Yard and the biggest factor is how the midshipman is evaluated at Leatherneck.

The trend seems to be that most mids who want to be marines get selected, but every year there are several who are not selected despite being apparently qualified. Last year there was a handful of cases of that, I think there were about 30 mids who put USMC as their preference and didn’t receive it. Part of the equation is also whether USNA is meeting its other accession requirements for SWO and subs.

if you’re certain you want to be a Marine and attaining that specific goal is more important to you than the Academy experience, I say look into NROTC Marine option. My understanding of that program is that it reserves a USMC commission for you, provided of course that you successfully complete the training over your four years of college. You’ll also enjoy a much higher quality of life at a civilian college versus what’s offered at USNA. (Though I still think there’s something to be said for the Academy path: Lots of mentorship available, great professors and small class sizes, and you make great connections).
 
All good points. My DS was in a similar situation. He wanted to be a Marine and specifically a pilot. He opted for the NROTC-MO route and is very happy. No bad choices here - good luck.
 
Also, Marine is spelled with a big M.
> Of course, its easier to write that way with a Crayon :) .
(Forgive me 'Hoops, 'Grunt, and THP --sometimes I can't help myself and say the first thing that comes to mind !)

Seriously, with Service Selection, er Assignment, each year comes all of these questions about "how many get ...", "what are my chances...", " can I get drafted and have to go ...... ? " First, I would suggest that you are looking at it the wrong way . Everybody that is admitted to USNA has the ability to get any Service Assignment (of course, some are not physicially qualified right away, but they typically know the limitations going in).

Beyond that, your service selection is largely within your control - If you perform well in all aspects of your USNA career, and show the proper motivation and aptitude for a particular community , you have a pretty good chance of getting your first choice. In fact, I do think that the Service Assignment process is better than the old lineal Service Selection, as it gives each community some say in who gets in , and keeps the guy who could barely pass the PFT and never attended any USMC activities in the Yard from selecting USMC because all USN flight billets were gone (that guy was my Squad Leader as a Plebe).

USMC does it right -- they have a program at Quantico during First Class summer that exposed Midshipman to the USMC, and also gives them a chance to evaluate a persons aptitude. I will defer to the Marines in the group, but suspect that performance at Leatherneck is as important to your assignment to USMC as your USNA GPA. (As an aside, the 18 year old PFC in your first Platoon really doesn't care what your GPA was....).

Yes, it is competitive and no, not everyone can be a Marine.
> Of course not, otherwise it would be the Army ! :)
 
Any current Mids have the breakdown of those who requested Marines as #1 and did not get it?

For those that are lurking or new to this... Numbers for those who want USMC can vary every year. Some years it can be more competitive than others. Rumor mill (we know those are always right) this year is there are alot of Mids who wanted Marine Corps this year.
 
Any current Mids have the breakdown of those who requested Marines as #1 and did not get it?

For those that are lurking or new to this... Numbers for those who want USMC can vary every year. Some years it can be more competitive than others. Rumor mill (we know those are always right) this year is there are alot of Mids who wanted Marine Corps this year.
What I heard was that there were about 70 mids who put USMC first and didn’t get it. Number is higher than usual. I really don’t know what to make of why some classes have more interest in certain communities. There are definitely a few marine mentors on the Yard who are beloved by the whole Brigade. I think interest in SEALs went up after the Bin Laden raid. This was long before my time, but didn’t the movie Top Gun make aviation way more competitive for a while? If the sequel ever comes out, I wonder if it’ll have a similar effect this time.
 
Thanks for info. 70 is a lot! I think my class had 30-35 who didn’t get it. But our percentage was much lower, 17ish% to 25%. Also, question about the Cyber piece as that is fairly new. Is that a separate interview beyond the USMC one? Is it done at the Academy or more like a Sub interview where there is a USMC panel that interview? Hope that makes sense.

I do think a lot of it is Marine mentors on the yard. I also think how well Leatherneck is ran plays a part. How they balance the reality and pushing Mids physically with the ‘work hard, play hard’ part of the Marines. I also think how solid the mentors assigned to the Leatherneck plays a role too.

Top Gun 2 will make everyone want to fly Navy!
 
I also heard that Marine Corps was pretty competitive in the 2003ish time frame. That was the start of GWOT and then the following years brought on the heart. USMC was one of the communities that stood an incredibly high chance of seeing combat. That's not to say other communities did not engage (Warfare takes the whole team), but it was a way to be literally boots on the ground.
 
It was competitive during those years because of exactly what you stated... young Lt... fastest way to seeing what Iraq and Afghanistan were all about.
 
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