Introduction And A Question

[Matt2010]

Hello Marines,


My name's Matt, I'm currently a senior in college, about a semester away from graduation. I've always been interested in joining the armed forces, in fact I had originally planned to join the Marines right out of high school, but ended up not going due to my father. However, I am still entertaining the thought of joining after graduation, and I have a question for any Marine here who joined after graduating college, or perhaps knows the answer. Upon enlistment as a college graduate, is there any emphasis placed upon you by your superiors joining OCS? Thanks,

-Matt

[josephd]

Going to OCS, graduating, and commissioning as a 2nd Lt. in the Marine Corps is a strictly personal decision IMO. You have to want to be a leader and set the the example for the Marines under your command. This is the exact reason I have decided not to go the officer route, my best friends in the Corps are all officers and I see the responsibilities they have and it is not what I want.

Will there be an emphasis to try and get you to go to OCS?...yes because the Marine Corps is actively looking for officer candidates but ultimately it comes down to what you want and what you can handle.

If you just wanna be an officer just to be an officer in the military go with one of the other branches IMO.

[Matt2010]

Thank you for the answer josephd. I was asking the question because I do not want to pursue OCS, at least not right now. During my freshman year of college, I was in the school's Army ROTC program for a year, and this was where I found out that I did not really care to become an officer in the armed forces, much less the Army after finding out I had red/green color deficient vision and would not be able to pursue any combat-related MOS.

[Lisa 23]

If this helps any...my nephew graduated from college on May 28th of this year, and went to boot camp 5 days later on June 1st. Neither his Recruiter or the OSO emphasized to him in any way to go to OCS.
Being that he's a college graduate, he was a contract PFC, he's also a Reservist, and he's currently at 29 Palms at his MOS school....0612 - Field Wireman.

[Matt2010]

Great, thank you for the answer WMarine. I assume that being a contract PFC comes automatically with being a college graduate?

[polizei]

It comes with 15 credits of college. You can go either route, just think long and hard before you make any decision...

[Matt2010]

Will do polizei. Thanks again Marines for the answers!

-Matt

[Lupo22]

I never could understand why people goto college first and then join the Marines as enlisted. It just makes more sense to go the other way around. From the aspect of being a Marine: you're younger, you'll learn who you are more, you'll probably get just as many chicks, you'll get your school paid for and MAKE money when you get out. From the college standpoint: you'll be fresh out of college and ready to tackle whatever career you plan on (assuming its different from your MOS).

I dont know, I guess different strokes for different folks, but if I were you, I'd give some thought to going OCS after a few years of enlisted work when you know what it takes to be a Marine and then go ahead and lead them!

[Matt2010]

If you had read through my post Lupo22, you'd see that I had stated that I intended to join the Marines straight out of high school, but I did not due to disagreements with my father. Personally, I do not see the armed forces merely as a way for myself to "pick up chicks" or pay for school. I was able to make my way through school with only one year of student loans. However, the idea that I'll be fresh out of school and ready to tackle my career... It really depends on if I'm actually able to find a job or not. With a bachelor's degree in history, I plan on teaching high school history, but I may not be able to find a job where I am due to every local school's budget being so short.

"I'd give some thought to going OCS after a few years of enlisted work when you know what it takes to be a Marine and then go ahead and lead them!"

I will definitely take that avenue of thought if I do indeed enlist. I just honestly don't really care to join OCS as of right now. As stated before, doing a semester of Army ROTC here at my university and getting a brief glimpse of the career as an officer, it really didn't suit my tastes.