rotc like the army?

[birdboybird]

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I am in ROTC and considering HPSP

I love the mission of the military. However, what holds me back from HPSP is the people in ROTC. By and large I think the majority are arrogant pricks. Is the real army like the ROTC zoo I am in?

If that is the case then I don't want HPSP and to owe 8 years of my life to that organization.


Any input is great! thank you

 

[colbgw02]

Can't say my years in ROTC were much like my active duty experience, which is both a good and bad thing. On one hand, my ROTC battalion was levels of magnitude more strict about things like military bearing and physical fitness. You know, the hooah stuff. But my fellow students, cadre, and even the support staff were generally pretty smart, competent, well-meaning, and hard-working. On the other hand, I feel like I am surrounded by a lot of laziness and incompetence while on active duty, which - to be fair - is probably more of a DoD civilian issue than an active duty Army one. But hey, I get to call my boss by his first name, so there's that.

From what little you've written, it sounds like your issues are mostly with your program. Whether or not you should sign up for HPSP is a whole different question, that should largely be divorced from whatever you think of your fellow cadets. Assuming 4-year ROTC and 4-year HPSP obligations, you will in all likelihood spend at least 11 years on active duty, which I would not do unless you intend to retire from the military.

 

[HighPriest]

Also: listen, brother, this is a milmed thread. So you're comparing the level of arrogance and prickiness to civilian medicine and university medicine - which is built on the shoulers of pricks using arrogance for mortar.

 

[Homunculus]

Can't say my years in ROTC were much like my active duty experience, which is both a good and bad thing. On one hand, my ROTC battalion was levels of magnitude more strict about things like military bearing and physical fitness. You know, the hooah stuff. But my fellow students, cadre, and even the support staff were generally pretty smart, competent, well-meaning, and hard-working. On the other hand, I feel like I am surrounded by a lot of laziness and incompetence while on active duty, which - to be fair - is probably more of a DoD civilian issue than an active duty Army one. But hey, I get to call my boss by his first name, so there's that.

From what little you've written, it sounds like your issues are mostly with your program. Whether or not you should sign up for HPSP is a whole different question, that should largely be divorced from whatever you think of your fellow cadets. Assuming 4-year ROTC and 4-year HPSP obligations, you will in all likelihood spend at least 11 years on active duty, which I would not do unless you intend to retire from the military.

this.

i did the ROTC + HPSP route. ROTC will prepare you pretty well-- the "real armyness" for lack of a better term in the medical corps is small compared to what you deal with in ROTC. the crapshoot is with the ed delay and getting essentially one chance to get in to medschool.

arrogant pricks, lazy people, personality disorders, scammers, shammers, and d-bags are not unique to ROTC, the army, the military, or the DoD. what *is* unique is the soul crushing inability to fire/remove/replace those people- whether protected by rank, position, or unions.

i can't agree more with colbgw02-- the bigger question for you is not the personality of your environment, it needs to be the big picture HPSP obligation and the impact that will have on your life and long term plans.

good luck

--your friendly neighborhood advanced camp '99 graduate caveman

 

[TheTruckGuy]

What school do you go to? I was in Army ROTC at one of the senior military colleges and it was pretty great. The cadre was awesome, very few bad apples actually had contracts. If you're a very type A personality, and try to control everything around, have everything in order, then the military in general will be tough, because someone is always in control of you and you've got limited control of your surroundings. I'm still in med school, and I'm Navy now, so I can't say what Army medical corps is like, but if you're that concerned then you can probably just do your 4 years, come out, and then go to med school on the GI bill. Or pick up an HPSP after your active duty. Or both.

 

[colbgw02]

but if you're that concerned then you can probably just do your 4 years, come out, and then go to med school on the GI bill. Or pick up an HPSP after your active duty. Or both.

Time spent fulfilling an ROTC scholarship obligation does not count for purposes of meeting the post-9/11 GI Bill requirements. The OP would have to complete his ROTC commitment and then spend another 3 years on active duty in order to get the full benefits from the GI Bill.

Also, why would anyone go to medical school on the GI Bill and HPSP?

 

[jabreal00]

Medical corp is culturally very different than line corp. I had a little bit of taste of the real Army when I was at Fort Campbell. I was assigned to the hospital (MEDDAC) but had frequent interactions with medical company and other regimens. They take military bearing more seriously but I didn't sense any arrogance. Medical corp officers (doctors/nurses/health care providers) also aren't the arrogant lot as a whole in the military. The military tends to recruit people from the mid-west, south and those who went to private schools (high tuition). Most military docs I know were married in their mid to late 20s with multiple kids. They're more low-key and easy going. The only problem with the military is the rank. As some progress in rank, they can get more complacent the more they veer off from clinical medicine. Some of the biggest douchebags I've encountered is that 05/06 nurse/allied health or out of touch 05/06 physician with a chip on their shoulder. They can make things difficult for those in subordinate rank.

 

[TheTruckGuy]

Time spent fulfilling an ROTC scholarship obligation does not count for purposes of meeting the post-9/11 GI Bill requirements. The OP would have to complete his ROTC commitment and then spend another 3 years on active duty in order to get the full benefits from the GI Bill.

Also, why would anyone go to medical school on the GI Bill and HPSP?

Did not know that. But I know someone who'd doing GI Bill + Navy HSCP (which is quite different from HPSP). Also, I supposed if you wanted to serve and live in an area with a very high cost of living, the stipend from both the GI bill and HPSP could help with that? I don't know, was just throwing it out there.