ROTC or Military after school

[drewDub6]

Hello, I need some advice on my future and any help would be appreciated, thanks.

So I am in ROTC right now as a Junior with no military obligation yet, but I will have to go through an extra year of school to get my undergrad because of so many credit hours if I want to do ROTC or I could drop out of ROTC and graduate in 2 years then go to Physical Therapy school. My heart is with Physical Therapy, that is the most important to me, but I also want to be in the military. My plan with ROTC was to go reserves and try to go to Physical Therapy school while in the reserves, but I am afraid of missing classes from annual training. I could always enlist or try to direct commission into the reserves after Physical Therapy school, but I like the thought of no debt and making my parents proud.

So should I follow through with ROTC with the risk of missing classes from annual training or should I wait to join the military after Physical Therapy school?

Thanks,
Andrew

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[starrsgirl]

So....a few thoughts for you. Given the current setup, you can't count on being a PT in the military unless you go through the Army Baylor program (have you looked at that? May be a good compromise for you.) Besides that program, the military's needs vary greatly from year to year. For example, the Air Force isn't taking any PTs in right now (aside from their Baylor grads).

I think potentially it could be hard balancing the Reserves while in a traditional PT program (there are some non traditional options out there that might work better). I looked into it, but my school did not have the flexibility to really allow it. They can't hold it against me for doing Reserve duty, but if I have to serve for 2 weeks during a clinical rotation, I obviously can't pass the clinical rotation and would roll back. Or, if I didn't meet the minimum attendance in a class, I wouldn't be able to pass and would have to roll back. You can try to do IMA reserve work where you don't necessarily have the same hard set service requirements. But to my knowledge, this would be very difficult of you to manage as a newbie (it's a completely self managed career that generally fits people who have served for a while and then move into IMA).

I encourage you to research the "no debt" idea a bit more. What is your thought here? The GI Bill is a wonderful option and can pay entirely for PT school (I'm using mine now). However, you have you serve a minimum amount of time to earn it (and I think it takes a lot longer to earn the benefits through the Reserves, since you aren't full time). I would hate to see you choose the Reserves for the tuition benefit and then not earn them fast enough to go to PT school.

Have you considered PA, nursing or med school (among others). There are no options for students to go from undergrad to PT school and get the military to cover it, but there are a ton of options in other fields. When I was an undergrad, I picked up an ROTC med school scholarship that granted me tuition plus pay to attend a civilian med school OR I could choose to go to the military med school. The military is desperate for primary care practitioners right now. (I ended up not going this route and instead pursued a different military career out of ROTC....but looking back, that was a missed opportunity).

I personally had a wonderful experience in ROTC. I enjoyed serving on active duty in a completely unrelated career field and I use those skills everyday. I think the perspective I gained from my years of service will positively impact the work I do in PT. Your commitment would likely be 3-4 years of service if you committed to the military after undergrad. You would earn your full GI Benefits with those years. If you applied to PT school after 4 years of service, most schools would still accept your classes too (might have to freshen up A&P with some).

Think of it this way too...if you are called to serve, the pay and benefits are pretty good. You could work for 4 years, save a decent amount (buy a car and furniture or whatever else to live), earn that GI Bill and then head back to school and do it debt free. Physical therapy school doesn't have a timeline on it....I'm an older student now and it's working out fine. But the military does have a timeline on it, you have many more opportunities there now versus later.

Feel free to PM me if you want to chat more. Good luck with your decision!

 

[scrawnyguy]

So....a few thoughts for you. Given the current setup, you can't count on being a PT in the military unless you go through the Army Baylor program (have you looked at that? May be a good compromise for you.) Besides that program, the military's needs vary greatly from year to year. For example, the Air Force isn't taking any PTs in right now (aside from their Baylor grads).

starrsgirl is right. Army-Baylor actually has 4 AF students this year. From what I've heard they generally only have 2 per year so they may be taking even fewer PTs "off the street" this year. I believe the Army generally only commissions a couple of civilian PTs per year. I have two in my BOLC class right now. One is a PT with more than 5 years of experience under his belt (most PTs that they commission have at least this much experience). However, we also have a PT who just graduated in the spring. I believe he did ROTC during his undergrad then had an educational delay to complete PT school. If that's the case he probably paid for PT school out of pocket. Like I said before, they generally take more experienced PTs, so he's probably the exception to the rule.

 

[800001]

I would say it depends on your path for military service. I commissioned into the Marine Corps after undergrad, and it's been a tough road getting to PT school. Forget it on active duty unless, as indicated above, you can land a specific contract and get orders to Baylor. I dropped to the reserves in 2014 and will be finishing my obligation next August, after (with any luck) starting PT school in June. Especially as an officer, I certainly wouldn't want to juggle PT school and reserve obligations. As starrsgirl alluded to, IMA is an option, but I would be astounded if your command would be willing to let you move to an IMA billet for your first year or two unless they're above T/O, or you suck and they want to get rid of you. I don't know a lot about IMA in other branches, but that's the general climate for IMA in the Marines.

If you do a direct commission into the reserves, you will not be eligible to use GI Bill benefits until you have 6 years of reserve time under your belt. Again, I can't speak to how the pipeline works for the other branches, but for us, even a direct reserve commission is looking at around a year of straight active duty time before you are an operational officer. This is time lost on applications and interviews, because if you get orders, you execute the orders. On the bright side, there is a plethora of laws protecting reservists for schools; I know several other officers in law school and different graduate programs that are endlessly granted extensions. It's still a hassle, but it cannot be held against you.

I would tell you that if your heart is with physical therapy, then go physical therapy. Hindsight is 20/20 and all that, blah blah blah, but I would probably handle my path differently if I could go back.

Or would I....

Do what you feel is right, Semper Fi, hooah or whatever silly thing ROTC kids say. Good luck buddy.