Pretty simple question here, which would be better for a college student? The Reserve or the Guard? I will try to be brief is giving you my current predicament and will consider all you guys and gals have to say. As a large number of the members of this forum have in one way or another been in the military I value your opinions quite heavily. Anyways, my situation, I start college next fall (depending on the length of training, I may miss the first semester of college but I am already one year behind so no biggy.) and since I just found out that I can join the Guard or Reserve while attending ROTC I would very much like to do that, plus they both have outstanding financial aid to give out. If I join the Reserve about my only option is 31B (Military Police) because that unit is only 60 miles away and I definetly don't want to be a chemical engineer. If I join the Guard My options are 91W (Medic) and 31B (Military Police, again.). If I go MP there is a very real chance that I will miss my first semester of College because of the length of training, if I go Medic it is a sure thing I will miss the first semester BUT with the amount of college credits I could get for Medic and the number I have from AP classes I might be able to make up for that first semester. Cost is an issue here, in order to get the Montgomery GI Bill I must be MOS qualified which means I have to do Basic and AIT before I start schooling. Both the Reserve and the Guard say they give more money than the other, from what I can see the Guard does actually offer more money because I can get state money in addition to Federal money. I have to make a decision within the next couple of weeks so your wise words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

The main difference between the National Guard and the Reserve is that if you join the Guard you belong the the state in which you join, in your case I presume S. Dakota, and you can be called to active duty by the governor of the State in State emergencies, or be called up by the federal government if they chose to. If you join the Reserve you only have to worry about the latter. Choice of the units to join is altogether another matter, as you have pointed out. One thing to note, MP units are in big demand in Iraq and unlike previous conflicts are now on the "front lines" so to speak.

As the good LTC mentioned, MPs are in great demand right now, and in the Guard there are more ways to be yanked out of the civvie grind.

Right now, I'm a freshman in college, in the Reserve, and in the process of contracting with ROTC. Since I knew I could not contract as a freshman under the Simultaneous Membership Program (SMP), I enlisted under the "split-option" path, where I went to basic last summer, and "will go" to AIT this summer. This does two great things: 1) I cannot be deployed during my first year of college since I'm not MOS qualified, and 2) I can skip AIT altogether since my reserve unit knows I will be a cadet in the fall and they won't waste funds to send me. I really had to dig myself and I had a trustworthy recruiter to show me that I could go this way.

So, my point is that you need to figure out your priorities, which to me looks like non-deployability (due to being in college), and money/cost. To cover the deployability, I highly recommend split-option enlistment, and to cover the cost, spend your freshman year working with ROTC to get a contract ready to start the first day of your sophomore year, and make sure your unit knows NOT to send you to AIT.

Ultimately, if cost outweighs everything else, don't even enlist, just go straight for the ROTC contract/scholarship. However, SMP cadets get invaluable training in a real unit, far away from the BS that in inherent in some ROTC units. Don't make the mistake of thinking you're better than non-SMP cadets because you know a little more about being a Soldier than others while in ROTC. Learn the Army values and you'll see why.

$0.02
Good luck

Originally Posted by tomtom22

The main difference between the National Guard and the Reserve is that if you join the Guard you belong the the state in which you join, in your case I presume S. Dakota, and you can be called to active duty by the governor of the State in State emergencies, or be called up by the federal government if they chose to. If you join the Reserve you only have to worry about the latter. Choice of the units to join is altogether another matter, as you have pointed out. One thing to note, MP units are in big demand in Iraq and unlike previous conflicts are now on the "front lines" so to speak.

The federal government can only call you up with the governors permission. If you join the Guard

Originally Posted by C/2Lt Henderson

The federal government can only call you up with the governors permission. If you join the Guard

Please cite a source for this comment.

Cadet, it helps to know who you are correcting before you go ahead and do it. Hint: look at tomtom's profile.

Originally Posted by Damien435

Pretty simple question here, which would be better for a college student? The Reserve or the Guard? I will try to be brief is giving you my current predicament and will consider all you guys and gals have to say. As a large number of the members of this forum have in one way or another been in the military I value your opinions quite heavily. Anyways, my situation, I start college next fall (depending on the length of training, I may miss the first semester of college but I am already one year behind so no biggy.) and since I just found out that I can join the Guard or Reserve while attending ROTC I would very much like to do that, plus they both have outstanding financial aid to give out. If I join the Reserve about my only option is 31B (Military Police) because that unit is only 60 miles away and I definetly don't want to be a chemical engineer. If I join the Guard My options are 91W (Medic) and 31B (Military Police, again.). If I go MP there is a very real chance that I will miss my first semester of College because of the length of training, if I go Medic it is a sure thing I will miss the first semester BUT with the amount of college credits I could get for Medic and the number I have from AP classes I might be able to make up for that first semester. Cost is an issue here, in order to get the Montgomery GI Bill I must be MOS qualified which means I have to do Basic and AIT before I start schooling. Both the Reserve and the Guard say they give more money than the other, from what I can see the Guard does actually offer more money because I can get state money in addition to Federal money. I have to make a decision within the next couple of weeks so your wise words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

The Guard will give you more money because of the state and fed benefits (but remember that Fed benefits are on a first come, first serve basis. They only have so much money they give).

What is your end goal? Do you want to finish college and get your commission or do you want to finish college and enlist, or just serve your six year term in the Guard/Reserves and be done?

What job do you think you would enjoy more 31B or 91W? Also, back to my first question, what's your end goal, where would you like to see yourself (if you decide to continue with the military) in five years?

Originally Posted by C/2Lt Henderson

The federal government can only call you up with the governors permission. If you join the Guard

Negative. The Federal government can call up the National Guard (under USC Title 10) at any time, without the governors permission. They serve under the command of the National Command Authority, POTUS and SECDEF.

USC Title 32 puts them under the command of the governor, whether they're supporting the state, or they've been called up for the Federal government, under this title they're still under the command of the governor.

My goal in five years is to have a commission in the Army in the infantry. My recruiters have told me that doing that shouldn't be a problem as infantry officers are in high demand right now. Along those lines I am going for a History major in college because an officer needs to be able to handle delicate situations and must have at the very least a basic understanding of the history of the people they are being sent to fight/protect.

And about the split-option path, Maytime, I considered it but I really don't think that would work well for me, I am joining the Guard or Reserve not only to serve my country but also because the GI Bill would help greatly. I can tell you from my personal experience that if I work during college I will drop out, I will try to get more and more hours at work and lose focus on college. If I join the Guard or Reserve I will still have to do the one weekend a month but I will not be working during the week, which is huge because it means I will have fewer distractions from my school work.

Also, does anyone know about how many credits I would get from my college for the medic training? Just ballpark it if you could. 4, 12, 16? If it's enough to make up for missing that first semester than I think I will go Medic with few second thoughts.

A few more things. A.) I feel guilty about accepting money from either the Guard or the Reserves for College, even though the DoD has like $500 billion to play with I still feel guilty about taking a few thousands dollars, but not guilty enough that I wouldn't do it and B.) I have been working with the Army recruiters for two years now and I would feel pretty bad if I bailed on them now and joined the Guard and finally C.) The South Dakota Army National Guard is all over SDSU, where I will be going to school, would it cause any problems with them if I joined the Reserve instead of the Guard?

Originally Posted by Damien435

but also because the GI Bill would help greatly.

True, and since I am not MOSQ'd I cannot get the GI Bill, but there is still TA up to $4500/yr, which is not that bad if the school isn't too expensive like mine (U of Idaho).

As for the credits for training, I beleive you have to CLEP out of them, and they may have to count towards your degree.

For the working during college, I totally agree that one weekend a month is less distracting than work during the week. However, if that weekend falls on a particularly schoolwork heavy time, Rescheduled Training (RST) is a must, but not always guaranteed, and on short notice can be thrown out altogether. I'm a mechanical engineering student, and my schoolwork comes at me faster than I can get an RST approved, so I get the short end of the stick if there's a conflict.

Haha one more thing; don't feel bad about hurting a recruiter's feelings, they understand that people have limits to what they are willing to do or how far they are willing to travel for drill, and as long as you don't totally tell them off, they won't think less of you. Most of them are decorated combat vets so they won't be too offended.

Hope that helps
Good luck

Well, I do know that there is more money in the NG right now...I think it was up to $20,000 for joining with a Top 10 MOS...And $10,000 for enlistment.