Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post

Pragma · 04-26-2004, 08:53 PM

Hey everyone - I figured that with the diverse group of people here, someone would be able to help me figure this out.

I'm currently an undergrad at a 4-year college. However, I just learned I'm going to have to be here for 5 years and I don't have the money to pay for it and nor do my parents. As a result, I'm looking into a variety of ways to pay for the fifth year. I don't want to take out a loan for 15,000$ or so and be stuck paying it off. As a result, I started researching enlisting in the USMC and getting tuition assistance from them.

The main thing I saw that would work the best for me was the PLC (Platoon Leaders Class). That would enable me to go to training over the summer and not miss class. The most important thing to me is to not drop out of college - I want to get my college degree. So with that in mind, I went to talk to my local recruiter today.

He brought up an interesting idea - if I enlisted in the Reserves (doing the 6x2 plan (6 years active reserve, 2 years inactive reserve)), I'd be eligible for the GI Bill and get about 22,000$ for tuition aid. This would solve all of my money issues. Then, during next summer, they would send me to PLC and I would get my commission. However, there was a catch. In order to enlist in the Reserves, I had to go to Basic (not a problem) and go to job school. Basic + combat training + job school would end up being about 24 continuous weeks. This, obviously, would seriously fuck up me going to school.

The job I was interested in out of the four that were available where I live was 0621 - Field Radio Operator (more information on it here). However, if I did some other job (I don't remember the number, just some construction job if I remember right), I could do the "split plan", as my recruiter called it. I'd go to Basic this summer, then I'd go to combat training and job school next summer. That way, I wouldn't miss any school and I'd enlist in the Reserves. However, my recruiter explained to me that it was nigh impossible to change jobs within the USMC once you went to job school.

My question is: what should I do? I'm not too keen on the construction job, but I'm also not keen on taking off a semester of college. To anyone who has gone through the recruiting process, what are my options?

Thanks.

04-26-2004, 08:53 PM	#1 (permalink)
Pragma I am Winter Born Location: Alexandria, VA	USMC Recruiting Question Hey everyone - I figured that with the diverse group of people here, someone would be able to help me figure this out. I'm currently an undergrad at a 4-year college. However, I just learned I'm going to have to be here for 5 years and I don't have the money to pay for it and nor do my parents. As a result, I'm looking into a variety of ways to pay for the fifth year. I don't want to take out a loan for 15,000$ or so and be stuck paying it off. As a result, I started researching enlisting in the USMC and getting tuition assistance from them. The main thing I saw that would work the best for me was the PLC (Platoon Leaders Class). That would enable me to go to training over the summer and not miss class. The most important thing to me is to not drop out of college - I want to get my college degree. So with that in mind, I went to talk to my local recruiter today. He brought up an interesting idea - if I enlisted in the Reserves (doing the 6x2 plan (6 years active reserve, 2 years inactive reserve)), I'd be eligible for the GI Bill and get about 22,000$ for tuition aid. This would solve all of my money issues. Then, during next summer, they would send me to PLC and I would get my commission. However, there was a catch. In order to enlist in the Reserves, I had to go to Basic (not a problem) and go to job school. Basic + combat training + job school would end up being about 24 continuous weeks. This, obviously, would seriously fuck up me going to school. The job I was interested in out of the four that were available where I live was 0621 - Field Radio Operator (more information on it here). However, if I did some other job (I don't remember the number, just some construction job if I remember right), I could do the "split plan", as my recruiter called it. I'd go to Basic this summer, then I'd go to combat training and job school next summer. That way, I wouldn't miss any school and I'd enlist in the Reserves. However, my recruiter explained to me that it was nigh impossible to change jobs within the USMC once you went to job school. My question is: what should I do? I'm not too keen on the construction job, but I'm also not keen on taking off a semester of college. To anyone who has gone through the recruiting process, what are my options? Thanks. __________________ Eat antimatter, Posleen-boy!