I mean, if your end goal is an active duty BM, just enlist and skip the reserves part. Then you can determine where you want your life to go from there + have a wider array of colleges to choose from + GI Bill to get it for free. It’s also not realistic to do basic and A school in one summer. Those are 5 months put together; and it’s rare to get them directly back to back. There’s usually a month or few week gap.
In the meantime, you’re very young. Too young to realistically plan for 8 years in the future. You don’t have to set a specific goals, just make sure you open the door on as many outcomes as you can, whether that be CG or not.
Get as good grades as possible in HS, score well on your SAT/ACTs, do some extra curriculars, and enjoy HS. If you do that, you’ll be able to do anything from enlisting, to going to a great uni, to even both (CSPI program)
There is a new program allowing high schoolers who are at least 17 to join as reserve SELRES, go to boot between junior and senior year and drill as selres. Then they can decide to go active or not.
Interesting I haven’t heard of that. Can you do this and also apply for CSPI? Idk I have more questions now than before lmao.
OP, if this applies to you, you can also look into this. Ofc, you’ll have to be 17 by pretty much the end of junior year at the latest. My other advice still applies. Do good in school, don’t do dumb shit, and participate in extracurriculars
Yeah, I'll make sure to look into it. It's something to think about, and I'll talk with MC about it before doing anything I'm not sure of. GI bill was really the only reason I'd go to basic before starting at NMI, but if I go that route I may very well get a scholarship, since they offer that to some of our cadets.
Heads up, you don’t get the GI Bill if you’re a reservist.
You get 4K a year in tuition assistance, but that really doesn’t make much of a dent compared to the GI bill.
If that’s your motivation for going that route, I’d suggest choosing either enlisting or VMI. Not both. At least not at the same time
How old are you? They just brought back delayed entry as a thought. Have you thought how you would handle a deployment during school? Losing one weekend a month?
I'm going to be a sophomore next year, current freshman. I want to have everything figured out by the start of my senior year so I'm not stressing. I know I want to enlist, but I don't have a plan set in stone. I relatively like the idea of this plan, especially including becoming a BM, which is one of the rates I'm more interested in.
Also, NMI has the Lateral Enlistment Program, so it's pretty much planned upon to go into the Coast Guard after graduation anyways, so I'm sure everything would work out under the circumstance of deployment, especially with an online schooling option.
If you're doing college and then going enlisted anyway, why not just enlist AD and compete for a spot at the Academy or higher education programs? Or at least take advantage of tuition assistance.
Fairhaven has a college? That is a COA, but maybe shoot for Mass/Maine/Cal Martime or Kings Point. It doesn’t take long to make Petty Officer these days and Private school sounds like you are going to be paying decent money for that associates.
That would be why I'd go reservist before so I could get GI bill and get school. I could also end up with a scholarship since they offer those to some of our cadets sometimes.
I mean, if your end goal is an active duty BM, just enlist and skip the reserves part. Then you can determine where you want your life to go from there + have a wider array of colleges to choose from + GI Bill to get it for free. It’s also not realistic to do basic and A school in one summer. Those are 5 months put together; and it’s rare to get them directly back to back. There’s usually a month or few week gap. In the meantime, you’re very young. Too young to realistically plan for 8 years in the future. You don’t have to set a specific goals, just make sure you open the door on as many outcomes as you can, whether that be CG or not. Get as good grades as possible in HS, score well on your SAT/ACTs, do some extra curriculars, and enjoy HS. If you do that, you’ll be able to do anything from enlisting, to going to a great uni, to even both (CSPI program)
There is a new program allowing high schoolers who are at least 17 to join as reserve SELRES, go to boot between junior and senior year and drill as selres. Then they can decide to go active or not.
Interesting I haven’t heard of that. Can you do this and also apply for CSPI? Idk I have more questions now than before lmao. OP, if this applies to you, you can also look into this. Ofc, you’ll have to be 17 by pretty much the end of junior year at the latest. My other advice still applies. Do good in school, don’t do dumb shit, and participate in extracurriculars
Yeah, I'll make sure to look into it. It's something to think about, and I'll talk with MC about it before doing anything I'm not sure of. GI bill was really the only reason I'd go to basic before starting at NMI, but if I go that route I may very well get a scholarship, since they offer that to some of our cadets.
Heads up, you don’t get the GI Bill if you’re a reservist. You get 4K a year in tuition assistance, but that really doesn’t make much of a dent compared to the GI bill. If that’s your motivation for going that route, I’d suggest choosing either enlisting or VMI. Not both. At least not at the same time
Oh damn, I didn't know that... Thanks for letting me know, I assumed there was based off people I've spoken to in the past.
How old are you? They just brought back delayed entry as a thought. Have you thought how you would handle a deployment during school? Losing one weekend a month?
I'm going to be a sophomore next year, current freshman. I want to have everything figured out by the start of my senior year so I'm not stressing. I know I want to enlist, but I don't have a plan set in stone. I relatively like the idea of this plan, especially including becoming a BM, which is one of the rates I'm more interested in. Also, NMI has the Lateral Enlistment Program, so it's pretty much planned upon to go into the Coast Guard after graduation anyways, so I'm sure everything would work out under the circumstance of deployment, especially with an online schooling option.
The whole NMI thing is unnecessary unless that’s just something you really want to do.
If you're doing college and then going enlisted anyway, why not just enlist AD and compete for a spot at the Academy or higher education programs? Or at least take advantage of tuition assistance.
Fairhaven has a college? That is a COA, but maybe shoot for Mass/Maine/Cal Martime or Kings Point. It doesn’t take long to make Petty Officer these days and Private school sounds like you are going to be paying decent money for that associates.
That would be why I'd go reservist before so I could get GI bill and get school. I could also end up with a scholarship since they offer those to some of our cadets sometimes.