Anonymous
05/20/2026 14:44
Subject: ROTC experiences
OP here and I just want to thank everyone for their replies. I am really grateful to all of you who shared your experience, it's truly helpful.
Anonymous
05/20/2026 13:12
Subject: ROTC experiences
I did Army ROTC and was in nursing. ROTC was flexible when I needed to miss things for nursing clinicals and they were super supportive of academic goals. I’m still friends with many of the people I was in ROTC with- we were a close group. I went to serve as a nurse on active duty and it was a phenomenal experience. I would highly recommend it.
Anonymous
05/20/2026 13:05
Subject: ROTC experiences
Anonymous wrote:Military retiree family. I'd prefer to pay for college and not have my kids owe anything and go in as officers. Its a lot during college.
Everyone owes something. If you do OCS after college you still have to contract for at least 3+ yrs of service. How can you not know this as a military family?
Anonymous
05/20/2026 12:54
Subject: ROTC experiences
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Military retiree family. I'd prefer to pay for college and not have my kids owe anything and go in as officers. Its a lot during college.
Yeah, if you are against ROTC and military commitments during college (service academies, VMI, Citadel, A&M, etc) then your kid is highly unlikely to become a military officer
Unless your kid does law school or med school, there is only one other path to becoming an officer, OTS, and the selection odds for that is highly competitive.
You can't just walk in to a recruiter and sign up as an officer
Um yes you can. It’s exactly what I did. Paid my own way through college, decided I didn’t want to be an accountanf, walked into a recruiting office next to an Applebees, told them to give the officer recruiter, and I was starting the process 2 weeks later. Finished ocs about 9 months later. I don’t know what ots is.
OTS is Officer Training School.
So you were just not explaining yourself well.
Most officers do not go through OTS (or OCS as some branches use)
Most officers are ROTC and Service Academies. OTS commisions are the minority of officers, not "most" officers. Most career officers are ROTC/academies and most of the highest ranking flag officers are from service academies.
You still have the exact same service commitment going through ROTC or the Academies, by going through OTS/OCS and doing it the way you did it.
And you still have to complete the training to get commissioned. You don't just walk in and poof, become an officer. There is still a competitive selection process and training that takes time to complete. Most of the OTS/OCS candidates are prior enlisted, not just someome who walked into a recruiting station with a college degree. The selection to OTS/OCS is very competitive, again, not just anyone will get a slot even with a college degree.
All of this data is available online.
It is a path, but a much less common path. Most officers are from the academies and ROTC.
Thanks for mansplaining dude. Where are you getting the idea that ocs selection is competitive? As long as you know enough to not let the enlisted recruiters trick you into enlisting first, ocs selection I had a 2.2 gpa and had no issues becoming an officer in the navy.
What branch uses ots? Air Force?
Anonymous
05/20/2026 12:54
Subject: ROTC experiences
PP I think OTS is office training while OCS is officer candidate -- different names for the same thing but unique to the service I guess
Anonymous
05/20/2026 12:31
Subject: ROTC experiences
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Military retiree family. I'd prefer to pay for college and not have my kids owe anything and go in as officers. Its a lot during college.
Yeah, if you are against ROTC and military commitments during college (service academies, VMI, Citadel, A&M, etc) then your kid is highly unlikely to become a military officer
Unless your kid does law school or med school, there is only one other path to becoming an officer, OTS, and the selection odds for that is highly competitive.
You can't just walk in to a recruiter and sign up as an officer
Um yes you can. It’s exactly what I did. Paid my own way through college, decided I didn’t want to be an accountanf, walked into a recruiting office next to an Applebees, told them to give the officer recruiter, and I was starting the process 2 weeks later. Finished ocs about 9 months later. I don’t know what ots is.
OTS is Officer Training School.
So you were just not explaining yourself well.
Most officers do not go through OTS (or OCS as some branches use)
Most officers are ROTC and Service Academies. OTS commisions are the minority of officers, not "most" officers. Most career officers are ROTC/academies and most of the highest ranking flag officers are from service academies.
You still have the exact same service commitment going through ROTC or the Academies, by going through OTS/OCS and doing it the way you did it.
And you still have to complete the training to get commissioned. You don't just walk in and poof, become an officer. There is still a competitive selection process and training that takes time to complete. Most of the OTS/OCS candidates are prior enlisted, not just someome who walked into a recruiting station with a college degree. The selection to OTS/OCS is very competitive, again, not just anyone will get a slot even with a college degree.
All of this data is available online.
It is a path, but a much less common path. Most officers are from the academies and ROTC.
Anonymous
05/20/2026 12:07
Subject: ROTC experiences
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Military retiree family. I'd prefer to pay for college and not have my kids owe anything and go in as officers. Its a lot during college.
Yeah, if you are against ROTC and military commitments during college (service academies, VMI, Citadel, A&M, etc) then your kid is highly unlikely to become a military officer
Unless your kid does law school or med school, there is only one other path to becoming an officer, OTS, and the selection odds for that is highly competitive.
You can't just walk in to a recruiter and sign up as an officer
Um yes you can. It’s exactly what I did. Paid my own way through college, decided I didn’t want to be an accountanf, walked into a recruiting office next to an Applebees, told them to give the officer recruiter, and I was starting the process 2 weeks later. Finished ocs about 9 months later. I don’t know what ots is.
Anonymous
05/20/2026 12:04
Subject: ROTC experiences
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Military retiree family. I'd prefer to pay for college and not have my kids owe anything and go in as officers. Its a lot during college.
Yeah, if you are against ROTC and military commitments during college (service academies, VMI, Citadel, A&M, etc) then your kid is highly unlikely to become a military officer
Unless your kid does law school or med school, there is only one other path to becoming an officer, OTS, and the selection odds for that is highly competitive.
You can't just walk in to a recruiter and sign up as an officer
Yes, you can with a college degree. Most don’t do rotc or a service academy. I don’t want my kid to owe time. That’s what we save and live under our means. Military life is hard enough. Let me guess you never lived it.
No, nearly all officers do ROTC or the service academies.
Anonymous
05/20/2026 12:02
Subject: ROTC experiences
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Military retiree family. I'd prefer to pay for college and not have my kids owe anything and go in as officers. Its a lot during college.
Yeah, if you are against ROTC and military commitments during college (service academies, VMI, Citadel, A&M, etc) then your kid is highly unlikely to become a military officer
Unless your kid does law school or med school, there is only one other path to becoming an officer, OTS, and the selection odds for that is highly competitive.
You can't just walk in to a recruiter and sign up as an officer
Yes, you can with a college degree. Most don’t do rotc or a service academy. I don’t want my kid to owe time. That’s what we save and live under our means. Military life is hard enough. Let me guess you never lived it.
That is just untrue. Ask any person who has become an officer or lived a military officer's life.
Most officers go through the sevice academies and ROTC.
You cannot just sign up and go straight to being an officer, without ROTC, service academies, or OTS, unless your degree is in very specific programs based on the needs of the service.
You can sign up with a 4 year degree and become an enlisted person.
But you cannot just walk in and sign up as an officer.
You have to qualify for an OTS spot and that carries an active duty service commitment, just like ROTC and and academies. And if you don't make it through OTS, then you spend your military commitment as an enlisted person.
Even if you are enlisted with a 4 year degree, you absolutely cannot just become an officer without applying for, being selected for, and completing OTS.
Either you are woefully misinformed, or you are not writing clearly.
Anonymous
05/20/2026 11:54
Subject: ROTC experiences
Anonymous wrote:But they’re applying now.Anonymous wrote:Nah. Anyone starting ROTC even this fall will not be commissioned until after Trump is out of office.Anonymous wrote:As the military transitions from professional and non-political to Trumpified, expect any ROTC bump to shrink.
Yeah, your posts are just silly and not based on reality.
Anonymous
05/20/2026 11:53
Subject: ROTC experiences
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Military retiree family. I'd prefer to pay for college and not have my kids owe anything and go in as officers. Its a lot during college.
Yeah, if you are against ROTC and military commitments during college (service academies, VMI, Citadel, A&M, etc) then your kid is highly unlikely to become a military officer
Unless your kid does law school or med school, there is only one other path to becoming an officer, OTS, and the selection odds for that is highly competitive.
You can't just walk in to a recruiter and sign up as an officer
Yes, you can with a college degree. Most don’t do rotc or a service academy. I don’t want my kid to owe time. That’s what we save and live under our means. Military life is hard enough. Let me guess you never lived it.
Anonymous
05/20/2026 11:53
Subject: ROTC experiences
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:As the military transitions from professional and non-political to Trumpified, expect any ROTC bump to shrink.
Nah. Anyone starting ROTC even this fall will not be commissioned until after Trump is out of office.
That person you quoted is ridiculous.