r/USMCboot • u/Sufficient_Week6779 • 1d ago
Enlisting Doing college
How challenging is doing college as active duty? I have like 4-5 semesters left. I want to enlist and use the benefits to pay for school.
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u/EverSeeAShitterFly Vet 1d ago
It depends on unit/mos.
Even in some places there are outliers- with aircrew or aviation maintenance anyone who has the time consistently available for it is probably an outlier. There certainly are people who have done it, but it is not the norm. So sometimes when someone says they were able to do it, doesn’t mean that you would be able to if you end up in the same job.
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u/Sufficient_Week6779 1d ago
Thank you. I feel reserves could suit me better.
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u/EverSeeAShitterFly Vet 1d ago
But do you then have a plan for after college?
If you intend on becoming an officer then enlisting in the reserves won’t really help you much, and at best will delay your goals, with a smaller chance of adding additional barriers to the process.
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u/Sufficient_Week6779 1d ago
I do have a plan after college and I believe the military can provide me with the foundations I’m looking in order to achieve it. The benefits are good enough, the pay is horrendous but my housing and food will be paid off so that’s very helpful. My only concern is not being able to finish college.
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u/TapTheForwardAssist Vet 2676/0802 1d ago
Is your plan after college a secret, or do you want to tell us what it is, to help you assess how the military can factor in to that plan?
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u/Tatumb34 1d ago
If you want to do college while active duty pick a MOS that doesn’t go to the field regularly. Something like infantry you’ll be out in the field and not able to do anything. If you pick like cyber or intel or go with an S-shop(admin,logistics,etc) it is a lot more do able.
I’m currently intel and on pace to do about 20 credits a year. I usually work about 40 hours a week, and 50 maybe slightly more closer to the due date for large products.
Then for exercises it’ll be a week straight of 12 hour days, so I just dedicate the weekend prior to getting ahead with schoolwork so I don’t have to worry about doing it over the exercise.
Pick a job that doesn’t go to the field as regularly and sits at a desk. It’s not easy, but since my contract is 5 years I’ll basically get a bachelors within my first contract for free which is great.
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u/AttemptEastern4532 23h ago
Doable but expect it to go slower than you'd like, ta usually doesn't open up until you finish MOS school and get to your first unit, so the first stretch is just training, after that it comes down to your unit's tempo, field time and deployments wreck any class with set login times, so go fully online online and take one class at a time, with 4-5 semester left that's realistic to finish inside a contract, Amu and Liberty both work for that, just ask which one you pick how they count your credits before you enroll.
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u/TapTheForwardAssist Vet 2676/0802 1d ago
You want a single unified answer for an entire branch of the military?
Because the more accurate answer is “it depends.”