Second Thoughts...

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laxBro

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I recently received an appointment to the academy, which I was initially ecstatic about since attending has been my goal ever since I participated in AIM last summer. However, I've recently started having second thoughts. I also received a full NROTC scholarship and was accepted into Virginia Tech’s engineering program, which was my second choice if I didn’t get into the academy. Now that all my options are on the table and I need to make a decision, I find myself questioning my choice.

Virginia Tech has an excellent engineering program, and the Corps of Cadets seems like a great way to balance military training with a traditional college experience. Many of my close friends are going to VT next year, including some who will be in NROTC. Part of me wants to go with them. I won’t lie the academy’s fully immersive military lifestyle seems daunting. NROTC at Virginia Tech appears to offer a more balanced experience while still providing many of the benefits of both a service academy and a civilian college.

Does anyone have advice on how I should approach this decision?
 
laxBro said:
I recently received an appointment to the academy, which I was initially ecstatic about since attending has been my goal ever since I participated in AIM last summer. However, I've recently started having second thoughts. I also received a full NROTC scholarship and was accepted into Virginia Tech’s engineering program, which was my second choice if I didn’t get into the academy. Now that all my options are on the table and I need to make a decision, I find myself questioning my choice.

Virginia Tech has an excellent engineering program, and the Corps of Cadets seems like a great way to balance military training with a traditional college experience. Many of my close friends are going to VT next year, including some who will be in NROTC. Part of me wants to go with them. I won’t lie the academy’s fully immersive military lifestyle seems daunting. NROTC at Virginia Tech appears to offer a more balanced experience while still providing many of the benefits of both a service academy and a civilian college.

Does anyone have advice on how I should approach this decision?
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Well do you want to be a officer in the Coast Guard or the Navy?

Have you visited VT? If not you probably should.
 
Both great opportunities, but you need to be sure to think beyond the 4 years of college as well. Which branch of service do you want to dedicate at least 5 years of your life to after school? If you have ever considered making it a career, where do you see yourself more?

I don’t know that I’d call life at CGA daunting. It’s certainly different than civilian school, but they have fun there. One thing I noticed watching my kid go through is they’re sort of integrated in many of the same systems and process as they will be out in the fleet. So the immersion aspect sort of sets you up for ideally a smoother transition upon commissioning. That’s at least been my observation and what I’ve gathered from some others.

You may get some of that in ROTC as well, but I’m not as familiar.

Either way, best of luck!
 
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Make your decision based on whether you want to spend 5+ years in the Navy or the Coast Guard. Focus on the officer specialty paths available out of both and think about where you might see yourself fitting in. Look beyond the path to get there, which is important, but don’t get lost in that.

Do a mental exercise where you also work through variations such as the ones below. These are thought exercises to help you examine the core decision - Coast Guard or Navy.
- You really want Coast Guard but not the Academy experience, so you go to “regular college,”or VT, excel, apply to OCS.
- You attend CGA for a year, but realize that service AND academy path is not for you, voluntarily disenroll, go to college and possibly join a NROTC unit as a college programmer, excel, earn a scholarship, IF you decide the Navy is your path.
- You do NROTC for a year on your scholarship (no obligation or payback) but realize you shouldn't have declined CGA, and reapply. That may or may not be successful. Your essays would have to be brilliant.

Friends are certainly important but not necessarily the reason to do something. Throughout your life, you will have friends of an age, friends of a stage, friends for the rest of your life. You don’t know what kind they will be.

Life at USCGA would indeed be daunting, hard, different from a college experience. Either you want to push yourself through that, bonding with classmates for life and taking a challenging path, or you don’t. It is natural to start backing away from the edge as you realize you are very close to leaving home and embarking on your young adult life, where everything familiar and comfortable is left behind. You want to hang on to something or someone that is a known constant. But - do not doubt for one minute they have fun there, get to do amazing things, and build a unique family rooted in shared experience. Coast Guard, as a smaller service and smaller academy, is known for the depth of their bonds as a class and a service. You get to know everyone in your class, as compared to the bigger DoD academies. USMMA is similar in that respect as well.

Is there any possibility of a USCGA visit or overnight experience with the cadets that can help you get a more realistic look at everyday cadet life during the academic year? Call and ask. The AIM experience, while excellent, is a carefully designed outreach and engagement experience.
 
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My DS2 got accepted to both VMI and VaTech on ROTC scholarship. He accepted his appointment to USCGA. He is 2/C now and has traveled Europe aboard the Bargue Eagle and sailed to Martha's Vineyard. He goes ski boarding and go to cooking lessons with his friends over the weekends. He is happy and calls USCGA his home now :).
 
All of this advice is excellent. You are experiencing a bit of FOMO which is a real tangible fear for many young adults who enter a service academy. I had 2 (USMA and USCGA) and it can challenge you. My thoughts are slightly different from what you have seen as I am going to pitch taking a chance on USCGA over VT. You must do the USCG vs USN officer thought exercise, but you were certain and excited at one point about USCGA. I would dig deep and see if this FOMO is just overshadowing that right now. High School friends are great, I have them to this day, but the friends you make forged through the same experience and struggle will last a lifetime. That will happen at VT or USCGA, the point being they likely wont be the same friends you know going in, and if that is the case, why not stretch your limits and experience in CT and make some amazing Coastie friends? Like 3Bros said above, the training, the travel, and the amazing experiences are there at the USCGA. After deep reflection, make your choice, just don't go in half committed, it'll be hard to finish otherwise. I wish you the best of luck and hope you find peace with your decision soon.
 
I wish more folks gave voice to this struggle so they'd make a conscious decision rather than letting friend or parent expectations shove them on to their next stage.

You've got two things to deal with, the short-term and the long-term implications of the choice in front of you. You spoke about the immediate college experience, so the first step is to visit both VT and CGA again and focus on the SA vs ROTC lifestyles to make sure you're comparing apples to apples. AIM is not about the four years, it's mostly about swab summer. Then with enough info to stare down FOMO you can take a hard look at the rest of your career. Do you intend to five and dive or do you envision a career in the service? What specific duty draws you to the Navy or Coast Guard? What's it look like if you get something else? Moving around from one Navy career path to another (eg out of subs) is harder when the specialization is so much stronger. The Coast Guard is much smaller, where everyone wears multiple hats and responsibility comes faster but they don't do as many cool things in as many cool places. OTOH they don't spend as much time away from home. The officer retention is much higher coming out of CGA, as most Coasties end up getting graduate degrees and extending their obligations (~80% of CGA grads). OTOH if you want pointy jets or explosions or subs or Marines then Navy has what you need.

You need to identify some personal priorities and then see how the paths ahead of you align with those goals. And as Capt MJ alluded to, you actually have more than two options ahead of you, so make sure you consider your contingencies like OCS or reapplying in a year or two. You gotta do some serious career planning in the next five weeks to make this choice. Welcome to adulting, and good luck.
 
Do you want to be a life-saver (Coast Guard) or a war-fighter (Navy / Marines)? Their missions are completely different.
 
laxBro said:
I recently received an appointment to the academy, which I was initially ecstatic about since attending has been my goal ever since I participated in AIM last summer. However, I've recently started having second thoughts. I also received a full NROTC scholarship and was accepted into Virginia Tech’s engineering program, which was my second choice if I didn’t get into the academy. Now that all my options are on the table and I need to make a decision, I find myself questioning my choice.

Virginia Tech has an excellent engineering program, and the Corps of Cadets seems like a great way to balance military training with a traditional college experience. Many of my close friends are going to VT next year, including some who will be in NROTC. Part of me wants to go with them. I won’t lie the academy’s fully immersive military lifestyle seems daunting. NROTC at Virginia Tech appears to offer a more balanced experience while still providing many of the benefits of both a service academy and a civilian college.

Does anyone have advice on how I should approach this decision?
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So, you can go to VaTech and still obtain a commission in the Coast Guard participating in the NROTC as a programmer. If you had the credentials to receive an appointment to the USCGA you may also qualify for academic merit scholarship awards at Va Tech.
See:

Eligibility Requirements | United States Coast Guard

www.gocoastguard.com www.gocoastguard.com
 
glen said:
So, you can go to VaTech and still obtain a commission in the Coast Guard participating in the NROTC as a programmer. If you had the credentials to receive an appointment to the USCGA you may also qualify for academic merit scholarship awards at Va Tech.
See:

Eligibility Requirements | United States Coast Guard

www.gocoastguard.com www.gocoastguard.com
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Good call @glen! This DCSS program is a good option that many don't know about. Honestly, even the schools on the list tend to be a little fuzzy about it since it's not huge volume participating at any given time.

My daughter was dead set on CG as a service, so if the academy didn't pan out, this was a back up plan. I think it began as a plan C with CGA and Kings Point being Plans A & B. She applied to both VMI and Norwich which are on the list as she was also a recruited athlete and that was also important to her. Honestly, as she continued to evaluate, Merchant Marine slipped to Plan C due to the lack of major options.

While you need to do ROTC (without scholarship) for different branch, some of these schools have Coast Guard "clubs", if you will, for those who are interested in going that route.

Granted, the financial path is a little less clear than an academy since you would be relying on other scholarships or means of financing.

Financially speaking, if that's high on the list of importance, Service Academies are the best bet with full tuition, room and board and a nice stipend (other than KP). ROTC is a close 2nd with tuition being covered (I believe room and board may vary by school?), and a small stipend. The DCSS option could be all over the board, although some of those schools offer nice merit money plus potentially athletic money for the D1s.
 
27BearDad said:
Good call @glen! This DCSS program is a good option that many don't know about. Honestly, even the schools on the list tend to be a little fuzzy about it since it's not huge volume participating at any given time.

My daughter was dead set on CG as a service, so if the academy didn't pan out, this was a back up plan. I think it began as a plan C with CGA and Kings Point being Plans A & B. She applied to both VMI and Norwich which are on the list as she was also a recruited athlete and that was also important to her. Honestly, as she continued to evaluate, Merchant Marine slipped to Plan C due to the lack of major options.

While you need to do ROTC (without scholarship) for different branch, some of these schools have Coast Guard "clubs", if you will, for those who are interested in going that route.

Granted, the financial path is a little less clear than an academy since you would be relying on other scholarships or means of financing.

Financially speaking, if that's high on the list of importance, Service Academies are the best bet with full tuition, room and board and a nice stipend (other than KP). ROTC is a close 2nd with tuition being covered (I believe room and board may vary by school?), and a small stipend. The DCSS option could be all over the board, although some of those schools offer nice merit money plus potentially athletic money for the D1s.
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Actually The Citadel was one of the first colleges to establish a Coast Guard Auxiliary Detachment on its campus, and cadets following the AUP program can direct commission into the Coast Guard with just a 6 week orientation program vs the 17 week regular commissioning through Officer Candidate School. Located in Charleston, SC, cadets have access to the largest Coast Guard base on the East Coast and plenty of opportunities to engage in advanced training with the Coast Guard. Typically a couple of cadets each year choose this route. See: https://www.citadel.edu/coast-guard/
 
Iwutke said:
Do you want to be a life-saver (Coast Guard) or a war-fighter (Navy / Marines)? Their missions are completely different.
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Agree that you need to determine which branch’s mission aligns with what you are looking for in a career. It was described to us as “Search & Rescue” (CG) vs “Seek & Destroy”(Navy).
 
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