PT School ROTC help

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

zfxdelta11

New Member
5+ Year Member
2+ Year Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2016
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Calling all PTs and PT students who have some military PT knowledge. Also, I thought it would be best to put this in the Pre-PT section of this forum since I am still a undergrad student.

I am in the first semester of my third year, within a 6 year doctorate physical therapy program. During the middle of the semester I have decided I want to be a PT in the military, specifically active or reserve Army. I understand the Army's need for PT's are not high right now, mostly due to the Baylor program, honestly wish I thought about that option before committing to this 6 year program, but I decided to look into ROTC anyways. For the past couple of weeks I have been attending morning PT and they are getting me registered to attend courses for next semester. But recently, I have had some conflicting info from different recruiters and after doing some research I decided I need some outside help, thus why I came to this forum looking to get some other opinons and even guidance to what I should do.

After meeting with the gold bar recruiter on my campus, and an AMEDD recruiter, I was told that even though I am a junior it would be possible to finish ROTC since I have 3.5 years left and I have one summer free. The gold bar told me that he's 100% sure I can get an education delay to finish out my graduate years within the program and that I am promised to end up as an PT for the Army, the only thing not promised is I end up active or reserves. I then decided to go and talk to a reserve recruiter, just to gather more info and he told me that neither the education delay or me actually ending up as a PT could be promised. They AMEDD guys really didn't offer me much info and basically told me to do what my gold bar suggested.

So I am just wondering if what my gold bar recruiter said is true? should I continue ROTC or would it just be wasting my time since I don't want to be putting my education at risk or me becoming a PT at all at risk.

Members don't see this ad.
 
The gold bar told me that he's 100% sure I can get an education delay to finish out my graduate years within the program and that I am promised to end up as an PT for the Army.

He can't 100% guarantee anything so don't believe that for a second. As a former recruiter I can tell that is absolutely not the case. Ask him to put it in writing and I can pretty much guarantee he changes his tune. I don't think he's straight up lying to you, but he probably doesn't know any better. Honestly he should slow his role and stop making promises he can't keep. Here are a couple things that you need to know right off the bat. First, gold bar recruiters aren't real recruiters. They're fresh LTs who are pretty much adjuncts while they wait to start their BOLC. Second, even real recruiters can't make guarantees. They are bound by regulations and various MILPER messages that govern accessions.

I'm actually in the Army-Baylor DPT program right now. I can say with confidence that the VAST majority of PTs in the Army come from our program. I've only seen a small handful of PTs that didn't come from our program. There are only around 18 spots in the whole Army for O-2/1LT 65Bs (that's "Army" for new second LTs, there are now O-1 slots because we all have enough time to get that first promotion by the time school ends). There are usually around 18-20 Army slots at the Army-Baylor program every year. Some of those slots go to prior officers who can jump right to O-3/CPT slots directly out of our program. That leaves a couple of slots a year for accession of new PTs that don't go through Army Baylor. Even though there is some room to take new PTs, the Army tends to favor PTs with a few years under their belts (and often times with a SCS or OCS).

I'm not trying to be a spoilsport and tell you that you don't have a shot. Like I said before, he's probably not lying, but not necessarily telling the whole truth either. NOTHING is guaranteed unless it's in writing. Read the small print on any military contract and you'll find something to the effect of "the needs of the Army always comes first." What does that mean? If you graduate and there is a surplus of PT officers, but a severe shortage of Infantry, Signal, Quartermasters, etc. officers, guess where you'll be going? You also need to keep in mind that every recruiter you talk to has a different motive. I think the reserve recruiter is giving you the best advice, but even they have a mission (read: quota) to make. I spent time in the Reserves myself for a bit and it's not a bad gig, but there aren't a lot of Army Reserve PT slots. I actually never met a Reserve PT in my whole career. I just checked the Army career tracker site and it shows around 50 slots nationwide, all of which are for CPTs and MAJs. A lot of times Reserve slots can be filled by someone in a lower rank than authorized, but I have a feeling people in those positions tend to stay put for as long as possible.

Feel free to tell your recruiter exactly what I just told you. I'll even give you my contact info so they can send me a nice email about how they want to piss in my morning Cheerios. I swear that I'm not trying to discourage you, but I just want to give you an honest take from someone who has no skin in the game. I would much rather have a recruiter not make mission for the month and get their tail chewed than to have someone like yourself locked into a contract for the next several years based on false pretenses. I've seen it happen way too many times. Feel free to send me a PM if you have any more specific questions.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
^^Good advice here. As a former ROTC grad, I agree with everything. It's been a few years but I never had luck with education delay coming out of undergrad. I was going for med school....in my case, I needed to do a post-bac year. The military said nope....we need you now and I ended up in a completely unrelated career field. In the end, it was great. I was a wonderful time, learned a lot, matured, saved some money and earned the GI Bill. But the military gets the final say once you are officially in ROTC.

If you were going medical (and accepted to medical school), your chances are great! The military is desperate for doctors right now. But they are flush with PTs and don't need any extras. So yes they "could" give you these things, but they won't when they can get 1000 other PTs right away.

If you really love the military, you could consider going in first and finishing DPT later. In your situation, can you apply to the Baylor Program now? I realize this would be a school transfer and likely you have done some of the classes....but in all reality you are still in undergrad and I know not everyone completes those 6 year programs for various reasons.

At this point, your best bet may be to finish school and then just start applying for military slots. Right now, they are very hard to get but the numbers change yearly. You never know what it looks like 5 years from now (especially if you get an OCS or SCS right after PT school too).
 
Top