ranking the difficulty of getting each of the 17 army branches.

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Williamt45

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I am planning on commissioning army from VMI and I was wondering how hard it is to branch in something like Finance corps. I am not too interested on branching combat arms or something like transportation, but it’d be interesting to know how competitive all of the possible career options are. Any useful information is greatly appreciated.
 
Well. I've been on this board almost 10 years and while I'm sure it's happened, I've never heard of anybody coming on here and wanting to branch Finance Corps as their 1st choice. While I'm sure the standard answer to your question is the rankings change yearly based on needs of the Army. That being said, unless things have changed since both my kids went thru AROTC, Aviation (very limited number of spots), Infantry and Military Intelligence were the most popular. They were immediately followed up by the other combat arms. Signal Corps seemed popular as well if I remember correctly.
 
The new branching system that includes the Talent Assessment Battery may limit your options.
You will basically be told what you personally have the best chance for and will be advised to list your choices accordingly.
Having said that, excel, be at the top of the OML and take your pick.
Your only competition will be yourself.
 
Two options to pursue for Finance really. You can aim for direct commission into Finance using the above mentioned talent management model. The battery will be a part of it and part of it will be how your interview with the branch goes. They then will vote on you. However, you are competing with every cadet in the nation for a limited number of slots. Finance is a an inverted branch so fewer requirements at the O1/O2 level then more requirements at the O3 level. DA PAM 600-3 specifically mentions having a degree in business or accounting and definitely seems they weigh more to accounting than what the VMI EC/BU program does (which is set you up for a MBA).

Hence, your safer option may be to pursue a branch detail and spend 3-4 years in another branch and then designate finance once your reach captain. Finance is a great branch to do that because the lieutenant jobs (working in a Finance Management Support Center as a disburser) don't necessarily correlate to where a lot of the higher level jobs do in the way it does in Infantry or Artillery. Basically beyond O3 as a Finance officer you are a comptroller or overseeing larger budgeting issues for major organizations.

Good luck and Rah Va Mil!
 
Williamt45 said:
I am planning on commissioning army from VMI and I was wondering how hard it is to branch in something like Finance corps. I am not too interested on branching combat arms or something like transportation, but it’d be interesting to know how competitive all of the possible career options are. Any useful information is greatly appreciated.
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I had this same question, and found this resource from West Point. It doesn’t directly answer your question for ROTC and is a bit dated, but seems like a good sample to show which branches are most popular. See slide 23. https://www.west-point.org/parent/wppc-wa/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/2011-Branching-Brief.pdf
 
More recent data from USMA is discussed here:

Distributions of cadets USMA Branching

Does anyone have any numbers as to how many cadets go to each branch? Or a general idea? I would imagine most go into either Artillery, Armor, and Infantry.
www.serviceacademyforums.com

There was only one FI slot for the class of 2020, but this is not ROTC.
 
AJC said:
The new branching system that includes the Talent Assessment Battery may limit your options.
You will basically be told what you personally have the best chance for and will be advised to list your choices accordingly.
Having said that, excel, be at the top of the OML and take your pick.
Your only competition will be yourself.
Click to expand...


How do you get high on the OML? Is it your fitness test scores and your grades at college?
 
Cadet35 said:
How do you get high on the OML? Is it your fitness test scores and your grades at college?
Click to expand...
Based on what i have read here, the OML ranking criteria is no different than any SA's. It takes into account your grades, physical, leadership components.
 
Cadet35 said:
How do you get high on the OML? Is it your fitness test scores and your grades at college?
Click to expand...

Attached is the 2019 OML criteria for Army ROTC. Be aware that this may vary year to year.
Note how leadership outranks academics and how your Advanced Camp performance is 1/3 of your leadership score.
 

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k2rider said:
Well. I've been on this board almost 10 years and while I'm sure it's happened, I've never heard of anybody coming on here and wanting to branch Finance Corps as their 1st choice. While I'm sure the standard answer to your question is the rankings change yearly based on needs of the Army. That being said, unless things have changed since both my kids went thru AROTC, Aviation (very limited number of spots), Infantry and Military Intelligence were the most popular. They were immediately followed up by the other combat arms. Signal Corps seemed popular as well if I remember correctly.
Click to expand...
@k2rider I had to laugh at this. 32 years ago when I was graduating and getting commisioned through AROTC, I happened to be an ROTC Bronze Legion of Valor Winner, putting me as one of the top cadets in the whole country. The AG Corp was my #1 choice. I knew how few graduates got assessed into the AG Corp, but that is what I wanted. I probably could have gotten any single branch that I wanted, but it was AG Corp All the Way for me. It makes me laugh at just how so many new grads would be devastated to get AG, when that is all I really wanted. When I went off to my Officer Basic Course, I was the ONLY actively duty AG Officer in the whole course. In retrospect, i wish I had gone Aviation! LOL!
 
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