Can anyone give me some personal thoughts on army rotc?

Question

im thinking of doing rotc so i get some experience to do the cia. that is the master plan. however, i want to know what rotc "people" think about it. give your thoughts and personal accounts.

Answer 1

I am a Army ROTC graduate and current Captain in the Army.  ROTC is one of the best choices I made.  The life skills I learned are not taught in any other college course.  You learn about leadership, planning, and management aside from the obvious tactical and military skills.  Your skills to lead people will be much higher than your peers.  No where else will they give you 40 people and millions of dollars of equipment to manage straight out of college, and you will be successful in doing so as a result of your ROTC experience.  Most say officers can be made, however I contest that you come to ROTC the Army or any life choice with the values and ethics you were raised with and developed yourself.  If you are in line with being able to be a military officer then ROTC will polish you into becoming this.  There are many different branches that you can go into.  You have some choice over this, there is a competitive end of it where you will be given priority if you excel over your classmates.  There is much much real world experience nowadays with the current conflicts.  There are many officers who have worked with CIA directly in the pentagon and other joint assigments.  Bottom line you will become a competant and proffessional person.  ROTC is a great choice and I encourage you to take at least a few semesters, there is no commitment if you arent on a scholarship program.  Good news now is that with the new GI Bill you will be eligible for it even you if you had a ROTC scholarship, so you will be able to pursue a Master's at some point later on.  This was not available on the previous GI bill which was for enlisted only.  If you are looking for CIA, go for military intelligence, you will be screen for a Top Secret clearance.  All officers are screened for Secret.  Good luck to you in your choice.

Answer 2

ROTC is a good thing to get into if you want to be an officer in the US Army or if you are interested in doing college. However, if your are looking for a future in the the Central Intelligence Agency, I suggest you go Ranger or SF during your military career. Or you could join MI (Military Intelligence). ROTC will not necessarily make you a better CIA agent.

Another option for you would be OCS (Officer Candidate School). It achieves the same thing. Either way, you need field experience to go with that "butter bar".

Answer 3

Lot's of fun

easy "A"

and gets you a promotion when you join the military

I'd do it again

Answer 4

ROTC was great, I highly recommend it.  In my opinion, it's the best way to become an officer.  It did a lot for me.  Helped me learn self-discipline and made me a better student and kept me away from the temptation of the college party scene (not saying I never partied, just knew where to draw the line).  It does require some time outside of class, but the programs are run differently at every school, so your experience may be slightly different than mine was.  I thought it was fun, I liked the guys that were there, the cadre were awesome and the Sergeant-Major taught me that NCOs run the Army, which is the God's Truth.  I thought it was nice that we were sort of eased into Army discipline over the course of our first year.  There never was the shock of boot camp or anything like that.  Just a nice, smooth transition from civilian to soldier. I highly recommend it, best decision I ever made.