Posted on Apr 23, 2014

Routes for Becoming an Officer

11K

Currently I am a 68K (Medical Laboratory Specialist) and am looking for routes to get a commission. I have 2 years in service and have been exploring different options. Any feedback is greatly appreciated seeing as I do not have much military experience or knowledge. I am just looking for any type of advice.

Posted in these groups: Officers logo

Officers

Advice

Career Advice

Posted >1 y ago

Follow this discussion

Responses: 5

Suspended Profile

Posted >1 y ago

Green to Gold can be applied for and earned while you are on active duty. If you are selected you will join an ROTC program and when you complete the program, pending your performance and completion of all requirements, you will be back on active duty as a 2LT.

Going straight ROTC can be done once you ETS and start going to school full time. It is a great program. However, you need to make sure you compete and go hard for active duty by keeping your GPA, PT Score, and leadership performance/participation up. It is also important to keep those up if you want to get your choice of branch and possibly post.

IPAP is the Interservice Physician Assistant Program. If you want to become a PA, this is a great but challenging program to be a part of. If you complete all the prerequisites and get selected, you will PCS to Fort Sam Houston, TX. You will take extremely accelerated courses. You will be studying around the clock. After about 16 months, pending your successful completion of all courses, you will begin your phase II at a military hospital. There is a list on the ipap website.

The Army-Baylor PT program is a similar program for physical therapy. It is accelerated and hard to get in to.

AECP is the Army Enlisted Commissioning Program. If you want to become a nurse, this is a great program. You have to have about two years of courses complete, like general education classes, ect...that you can take online along with the prerequisites. The Army gives you two years to complete your nursing degree at a school of your choice. So for two years, you are basically acting like a normal college student attending classes at a regular university. If you want you can even grow your hair and beard out. During the time while you are in school, you will get active duty pay (of the pay grade you had when you applied) to just go to school. You also get stipends and special pays to help you with books, ect..

MSW is through Baylor. A lot like the Army Baylor PT program but for social work. It requires a bachelors beforehand.

show previous comments

Suspended Profile

>1 y

Nursing can be done through ROTC as well if you want to do four years at a university. However, AECP is an awesome program. Just make sure you do well and keep your grades up.

Suspended Profile

>1 y

These days in the civilian world a 4 year BSN is highly desirable.

MAJ(P) (Join to see)

>1 y

For those Junior Enlisted Soldiers, I recommend knocking out as much college courses as possible in the first 24 mos of your career and then apply for the Green to Gold Active Duty Option....With this program, you must complete your Bachelor's degree in 21 mos, but the advantage to this is whatever your rank is you maintain your active duty pay and benefits, accrue leave, etc.....You are responsible for paying for your own tuition and cannot utilize loan repayment, but you can use your Post 911 GI Bill, Fed student loans, etc.... This option also ensures you will be back on active duty after completion of LDAC and your degree program regardless of how well or not you perform on pt, LDAC, GPA etc... With the scholarship programs, you must ensure you maintain high level of pt, GPA, and LDAC scores to compete for active duty and get a good place on the OML. The othr nice part is you still recieve a paycheck every two weeks, and you do not have to use any leave whatsoever during those 21 mos, it all just adds up.

(0)

MAJ(P) (Join to see)

>1 y

I forgot to mention that if you are a SGT (P) when you leave for the Active Duty Green to GOld Option and while you are in school you make points for promotion, you will be promoted during school. Might not mean a lot since you will be commissioned, but will give you a nice pay raise during your school. Who doesn't like more money in their pockets?

(0)

CPT (Join to see)

Posted >1 y ago

Before applying, make sure you look at all the requirements and what requires waivers so you can apply for those as soon as possible because waivers usually take a while since they must be approved by the Cadet Command General. What is getting a lot of new applicants nowadays is the new tattoo policy. Good luck.

(0)

Comment

(0)

MSG (Join to see)

Posted >1 y ago

I'm pretty sure step 1 is a bachelors degree or be at 90 credit hours, programs differ.

If you want to be a medical officer contact AMEDD...they have a great number of programs that can help you get your degree if needed as so you can be an officer.

You can also apply for OCS in addition to the programs listed below. I'd recommend talking to your neighborhood friendly retention NCO, they are pretty skilled at knowing what requires what and how to do it start to finish.

(0)

Comment

(0)

MAJ(P) (Join to see)

>1 y

I am an AMEDD recruiter. can answer questions. but the 90 SH is no longer accepted. must have a Bachelor's degree to become an officer.

(0)

Show More Comments

Routes for Becoming an Officer

Join nearly 2 million former and current members of the US military, just like you.