ROTC to Infantry

W

WannabeRanger

Active member
If you do ROTC in college, is it difficult to get into infantry when you are on active duty? Any replies would be appreciated.
 
It depends on the number of IN slots allocated to ROTC for the year you graduate, and after that it all depends on your OML ranking and the Assessment Committees decision, so it can be very difficult sometimes. I'm not sure why, but it seems like the past few years there haven't been many slots available, on the order of a hundred or so per around 4-5,000 Cadets.
A high OML does not necessarily mean that you will get your first choice of branch (especially now, we have a butter bar surplus, so CDTs on Active Duty contracts are being sent into the NG or AR). So you have to first get an Active Duty contract, second actually get your Active Duty slot, and third, get a good result from the Assessions Committee.


Hope that helps.
 
I was just talking to a couple of ROTC friends at George Washington U. and they were telling me that as far as they know only two people (who are at the top of their class) are getting their picks. One of them is choosing infantry.
 
Reserve Officer Traing Corp. The military will pay for most of the college tuition and in return you serve for the military.
 
egoz said:
Reserve Officer Traing Corp. The military will pay for most of the college tuition and in return you serve for the military.
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So, it is possible to just go and straight become an officer without any basic trainings, NCO courses or other military training without proved leadership in practic (intelligence and mental tests are not count)? Like, "hey i'm in college, i want to be an officer, mm'kay!"? :shock:

Why doesn't everyone start from the bottom with other grunts?
 
EuroSpike said:
So, it is possible to just go and straight become an officer without any basic trainings, NCO courses or other military training without proved leadership in practic (intelligence and mental tests are not count)? Like, "hey i'm in college, i want to be an officer, mm'kay!"? :shock:
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No.
 
Well I didn't realize you wanted the details. But ROTC is a difficult program to get into. You need to score well on your college entrance exams and be a well rounded character. That means good grades (>3.3 on a 4.0 scale, to be competative) and participation in other high school events like sports, newspapers, student council etc. During college you will have ROTC courses which cover all types of military related material, as if you were going to a war college. You will also have weekly PT and will still need to go to BCT and OTS/OCS upon graduation. There is also a minimum GPA that you need to maintain to keep your ROTC scholarship. They try to pick the best and brightest for the program.

I think I covered all the basics...
 
egoz said:
Well I didn't realize you wanted the details. But ROTC is a difficult program to get into. You need to score well on your college entrance exams and be a well rounded character. That means good grades (>3.3 on a 4.0 scale, to be competative) and participation in other high school events like sports, newspapers, student council etc. During college you will have ROTC courses which cover all types of military related material, as if you were going to a war college. You will also have weekly PT and will still need to go to BCT and OTS/OCS upon graduation. There is also a minimum GPA that you need to maintain to keep your ROTC scholarship. They try to pick the best and brightest for the program.

I think I covered all the basics...
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But it is also possible to become straight an reserve officer without any military basic trainings or NCO courses or proved leadership and military abilities in practic? Why shouldn't all basic military skills be learned and trained before even talking about officer or any leadership training? Are those ROTC officers able to train their own platoon properly?

How long is that ROTC and would students get after that their commission to reserve officer? Do they ever lead a platoon during ROTC? Who does give the training, military or college?

And yes, i love exact details 8)
 
To get the commission after graduation you need to complete all training first. In reality it's more like you are in a delayed entry program than actually being a commissioned officer in the military. To be eligible for the position of 2nd Lt you need to be awarded the 4-year scholarship and pass the neccessary school courses to get your degree. During school you will do all types of PT and training will be done during the summer months. They will also be given platoons to teach leadership skills. It is more of a preperation course before going to BCT or OCS/OTS. The training is given to them by military personel so everything is up to regulation.
I've listed a link to the curriculum that is taught during ROTC training over the 4 years that you attend school. Keep in mind that you need to get the 4 year scholarship before you can get the commission of 2nd Lt. But you can still participate in ROTC in your school and recieve a 2 year scholarship. The difference being upon graduation you will get the rank of E4 instead of O1.

More info...
http://www.goarmy.com/rotc/index.jsp
 
Ok, that goarmy.com was a good link and gave lot of information. By the way, an effective way to market army for so called playstation generation wich is bestly reached via internet and network games 8)

May be a bit offtopic bu i have wondered why everyone don't start at the same line in US Army and then always bests proceed one grade higher level since basic combat training. I mean that everyone passes through the same basic training at the same time and then n% of bests proceed to NCO course while others proceed in invidual's training, and then n% of the bests of the NCO course would proceed to reserve officer course and so on -> Everyone goes throught the same **** and starts from the bottom of the bottom. Surely gives at least the same military skills of the branch that all enlisted men in command have and shows what kind of people are in army and will be under command.
 
buddy said:
so what parts of this were supposed to be accurate?
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:lol:
Check out the goarmy.com link egoz provided, you can get some solid information there, if you have any specific questions after you go there, feel free to make a new thread, and we will do our best to get you straight on it.
 
You DO NOT need an ROTC scholarship to participate in the program. Any student at a university can join their respective ROTC programs for the first and second year without incurring any service/payment obligation. If you contract into the program under a 2/3/4 year scholarship, they will pay for your tuition OR your housing/ food. You DO NOT need to be under contract to be commissioned through ROTC, if a cadet pays their own way through school and commissions, their service obligation (granted they are admitted to the active Army) is only three years instead of four.(4 years is the minimum time a CONTRACTED cadet must serve)

The ROTC curriculum covers a vast area of military topics (amry rotc at least) ranging from leadership, Basic rifle marksmanship, planning operations using the OPORD format, rappeling, combat water survival, situational training exercises where a cadet performs one of several different mission types in a number of leadership positions and so on. Cadets who demonstrate potential may also have the oppurtunity to attend service schools like Airborne, Air Assault, Mountain Warfare school, or do exchange programs with other countries militaries. After a cadets MS 3 year(junior year usually) all cadets in the US attend the month long Leadership Developement and Assessment Course, LDAC for short, and are assessed in six different leadership positions ranging from squad leader all the way to company commander in both the garrision and field environment. They also do a number of obstacle courses, rappeling, water confidence course, air assault mission, Land Navigation, etc while they are there. This course is used to assess the cadets leadership strengths and weaknessess and acts as the culmination of the previous training they have recieved in ROTC. About 25% of the cadets assessions packet is derived from the evaluations they recieve at LDAC.

Upon successfull completion of their MS4 year and their BA/BS degree, they are commissioned into the US Army as a 2nd Lieutenant.

To answer the original question about ranger school, it is my understanding that if you branch Infantry (one of the most competitive and requested branches) that you should have the oppurtunity to attend Ranger school. About ten cadets have branched infantry at my university since I have been here and all of them have had the oppurtunity to attend Ranger school. Understand though, that a soldiers ability to go to a service school is based off his/her unit. Basically, if the Army says they need you elsewhere, then that's what you're going to do.
 
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