Taking Easy Classes In College to boost GPA? (higher chance of getting active duty)

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tnvr

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I heard some people talking about taking easy classes in college to boost your chance of getting active duty slot.

GPA obviously counts the most along with your physical fitness.

Should I take/do "easy" college classes/major to boost my GPA?

And IF so, what classes do you recommend?
 
I guess if you only goal is to serve in the military and never do anything else, there would be an argument for that. When my son commissioned in the AF, they had a ceremony where all the branches came together. I think it was army, but 75% of those commission got a degree in Law and Society. Not exactly a degree that will get you anywhere without going on to graduate or law school . Having said that, study something you will enjoy and something that that will give you a job if the military doesnt work out or when the day comes you leave the military. On the opposite end, I never got why so many AF pilots are engineers when they wont get to use it unless they becomes test pilots. I have to assume when a pilot leaves the AF after 12 years, the engineering degree he got 12 years ago isnt probably going to get him a job in engineering. That doesnt mean you cant take easy elective courses. I remember there was a music class in college that if you went to class, you got a B. The professor straight told us, the only way to get an A in the class was to write a paper and if you wanted to be his friend, dont write a paper. On the other hand, taking interesting courses is a way to figure out what you really want to do in life. My point is, if you bother to go to college, make it mean something.
 
What branch of service? If it is AF or Navy, there is HEAVY emphasis on STEM. If you are talking Army or Marines, then your major doesn't matter nearly as much.

This is a double edged sword.
  • "Easy" majors might not train you for a future beyond the military.
  • They also may bore you to death and it might be a grind to get through your four years.
  • Active Duty is easier to qualify for in the Army currently, as the military is not in reduction mode currently. (The other branches are all Active Duty).
Don't choose an "easy" major. Choose a major that you CARE about. Then you will WORK harder because you LIKE the subject and achieve BETTER grades.
 
Don't take easier classes, just make sure you spread out the harder classes so you don't have them all bunched up in one semester.

Nobody can offer advice on specific classes, nobody knows where you go to college, what your major is, what classes are available that are required for your major. Talk to your advisor, make sure whatever you take will count toward your major. Check your degree audit, some classes will count for more then one requirement which can lessen your load.

Bottom line, you need to discuss this with your advisor.
 
Humey said:
I guess if you only goal is to serve in the military and never do anything else, there would be an argument for that. When my son commissioned in the AF, they had a ceremony where all the branches came together. I think it was army, but 75% of those commission got a degree in Law and Society. Not exactly a degree that will get you anywhere without going on to graduate or law school . Having said that, study something you will enjoy and something that that will give you a job if the military doesnt work out or when the day comes you leave the military. On the opposite end, I never got why so many AF pilots are engineers when they wont get to use it unless they becomes test pilots. I have to assume when a pilot leaves the AF after 12 years, the engineering degree he got 12 years ago isnt probably going to get him a job in engineering. That doesnt mean you cant take easy elective courses. I remember there was a music class in college that if you went to class, you got a B. The professor straight told us, the only way to get an A in the class was to write a paper and if you wanted to be his friend, dont write a paper. On the other hand, taking interesting courses is a way to figure out what you really want to do in life. My point is, if you bother to go to college, make it mean something.
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What's a major that you recommend ? Marketing or something? I don't even know if that is relatively easy, however many people can get jobs w/ that degree.
 
Honestly, I'm super confused. I'm not even in college yet, I'm a junior in high school.

All these majors in college are BS other than STEM, but I don't want to take STEM haha.
 
Doesnt work that way. What would you like to do if you had to get a job. Once you figure that out, find the degree that corresponds to it. Or do the opposite, what do you like studying. Find a degree in that and figure out what job you could do with it. I will be honest,there are some degrees like philosphy which I think gets you nowhere or leads to graduate school. I am practical person and tend to shy away from things like that.
 
tnvr said:
^ what I meant by BS are the degrees that end in "studies".
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I dont know how it works with Rotc, but there is no law that says you have to have a major when you go to college. For the most part, you will spend the first 2 years doing general education. You will take all types of classes and you will get a good idea what you like and which classes you do well in. Also, there is no law that says you have to stay with the major you started with. CAnt remember the stat, but the average number times that students change their major is 3 times
 
Humey said:
I will be honest,there are some degrees like philosphy which I think gets you nowhere or leads to graduate school. I am practical person and tend to shy away from things like that.
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I beg to differ about philosophy
The following people were philosophy majors:
  • President of Morgan Stanley (Robert Greenhill)
  • Founder and Manager of a Hedge-fund (Don Brownstein)
  • Investor (George Soros)
  • CEO of Overstock.com (Patrick Byrne)
  • Supreme Court Justice (Stephen Breyer AND David Souter)
  • Mayor of Los Angeles (Richard Riordan)
  • US Secretary of Education (William Bennett)
  • Prime Minister of Canada (Paul Martin, Jr.)
  • Network Television Journalist (Stone Phillips)
  • Pulitzer-Prize Winning Author (Studs Terkel)
  • Host of an Iconic Game Show (Alex Trebek)
  • Co-founder of Wikipedia (Larry Sanger)
  • Comedian/Actor/Producer (Ricky Gervais)
  • Academy-Award Winning Filmmaker (Ethan Coen)
  • Four-star General in the US Army (Jack Keane)
  • Fighter in the French Resistance in WWII (Stephane Hessel)
  • Co-author of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights (P.C. Chang AND Charles Malik)
  • Martyr to German Opposition to Nazism in WWII (Sophie Scholl)
  • Pope (John Paul II AND Benedict XVI)
  • Seminal Anthropologist (Claude Levi-Strauss)
 
People that you personally know, that got active duty through AROTC, what did they major in?
 
Political Science, Nursing, Criminal Justice, Engineering (seeking Army Corps of Engineers), Business Administration, History, and Biology. (Mostly fellow cadets with my DS).
 
Is your goal to go on active duty as career military or are you looking toward what you are going to be doing down the road after active duty however long that is? Taking "sleeper courses" may get you a higher GPA but that's only going to benifit you at the front end. After your first JOB, experience and performance is what's going to matter after that. From reading the original post, I would wonder if the military is a good fit in any event.
 
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Business admin looks appealing. Marketing is something I always wanted to go into.

Going to either Millersville, Shippensburg, or IUP. All three of these universities have ROTC programs.
 
A business/marketing degree is both practical for post-military life and something you are interested in. You will always do better studying something that interests you.

I say do it.
 
My son majored in Conflict Analysis and Resolution which I had never even heard of. His focus was ME terrorism with a minor in criminal justice. It turns out there is a Center for Conflict Analysis where he presented on the topic of human trafficking. Among other trips he's taken is two deployments to Central America when General Kelly and his current general were in charge of the US Southern Command. He is interested in international affairs but seems happy in his current job of breaking stuff in the name of freedom. As mentioned above, the Marines don't care what you major in but the AF and my Navy want STEM. I agree with the previous advice which is to major in something in which you are interested. And, enjoy your last year of high school. It goes by fast.
 
Wow, thank you Devil Doc :usa:


That major seems very specific, I'm very impressed with what your son did though.

Guess I'll be on my search to find a suitable major, I'll have to dig in.
 
The major is a combo of social science, political science, and international affairs I guess. It wasn't exactly easy but surely not a hard science. It also had nothing to do with his job assignment in the Corps. The Marines have Harvard finance majors in the infantry and engineers in finance. They work in mysterious ways.
 
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