Recently Selected for Marine Corps OCS through the PLC-Combined Program

[Danimal223]

If anyone is interested in the PLC Program and was wondering what it might take to get selected I’ll give a break down on what helped me get selected.

I was a ground contract on this most recent PLC board that happened in November. This was my third board. My GPA was 3.4 and my PFT was a 295 (24 pull-ups, 115 crunches, 18:52 3 miler). I had decent extracurriculars such being an officer in a club, played sports in high school, and in a fraternity. What helped me stand out in my opinion was I showed up to all the PT’s hosted by my OSO and all the pool functions. This helps your OSO get a better idea of you as a leader and person, since it’s he or she who ultimately has the job of explaining to the selection board why you should have the opportunity to earn the title of Officer of Marines. I look forward to seeing anyone else on this forum who got selected for OCS this upcoming summer!

If you have any other questions please feel free to DM.

 

[USMCGrunt]

Congratulations Danimal223! Great job of focusing on the goal.

 

[kinnem]

Congratulations. Are you in college? What year? If you are so inclined it would be great if you could post on this thread about your entire experience, including pay, uniforms, etc. It would be so helpful to others. Do you go to your first session this summer?

 

[Danimal223]

Congratulations. Are you in college? What year? If you are so inclined it would be great if you could post on this thread about your entire experience, including pay, uniforms, etc. It would be so helpful to others. Do you go to your first session this summer?

I’m currently an undergrad at a small liberal arts college as a business management major. This will be my first go around at OCS, and since I’m a junior I’m doing the full 10 weeks. After that I’ll go back to college for my senior year and then hopefully commission sometime in May or June. I’ve been in the PLC program as a applicant/Poolee for 3 years, so I have a lot of experience with the application process for anyone who has questions about that. I would stress to anyone who is even just considering doing PLC or OCC to go talk to an OSO because the application doesn’t take a long time, but the medical process and the moral waiver process can take a significant amount of time. Also I know people will ask what’s the selection rate recently, so my OSO went to the board with 10 applicants and only 5 got selected. Again selection rate varies on the the strength of the applicant pool for that particular board and how many applicants each OSO brings to the board. So my best advice to help you get selected is have a high PFT in the range of 280+ and shoot for a GPA of 3.3 or higher. Another current trend I’ve noticed is air contracts tend to have an easier time getting selected due to the additional aspects that air contracts have to meet in order to be qualified such as passing the ASTB and meeting the vision requirements. So since there’s more hurdles for them to meet to get their contract there tends to be less air contracts competing for slots for OCS plus the Marine Corps is hurting for pilots and pilots have like a 98% chance for career designation or augmentation.