Nuke Enlisted to Officer

[Lark]

Hello all and thank you for reading.

I was wondering the path that is available to me to become an officer in my situation.  I have a college degree, but its a non technical degree which isn't a big seller to the Navy right now.  In addition I had a charge for trespassing dropped (but because I did pre-trial diversion its automatically an admission of guilt).  Needless to say, direct path to OCS isn't an option.  I know I've screwed up, I accept my mistakes and I'm moving forward.

So my best option to become an officer is to enlist and show I have grown my mistakes and apply down the line from what I understand..  My recruiter called me and asked me what I thought about going the Nuke option because my ASVAB was a 96. 

My question here is what are the chances of me getting picked up for OCS in this field compared to others? 

Thanks again for reading and serving.

[still_in]

I had a student back in 2004 or so at Prototype who was selected for NUPOC while on Active Duty.  He already had his degree and was spot promoted to E-6 following his interview with the Admiral. It was kinda funny seeing an E-6 student walking around.  That was a while ago though so the program restrictions may have changed but it is something to look into. OCS is also an option if you do well in A-school and Power School. Good Luck!

[Already Gone]

You know....  it occurs to me that the zillions of people who come here for advice about joining the navy are all in different places as far as their intent to join and the reasons why.

So, maybe if you tell us a little more about you,we can give better answers.

Here's what I'm curious about.

What is your degree in, and why (after working for it for at least 4 years) are you abandoning that field at this point?  No opportunities?  Lost interest?  No money there? Or, what?

What about the Navy caught your interest?  Why were you not interested before you went to college?  Why now?

Why officer?  There are lots of enlisted sailors with College degrees.  Why not be one of them?

What if an officer accession program doesn't become available to you?  Will you be content to be enlisted for 6 years?  (If not, don't even bother.  It is immensely more difficult for an enlisted sailor to become an officer during his first enlistment than it is for a civilian.)

Is it just the Navy that interests you?  Or, is it the nuclear field?  Have you considered the Army nuclear programs?  Have you considered the Army at all?

Without those answers, I can still tell you what I always tell people who ask this type of question.
People who set in motion a series of events should be prepared for those events to occur exactly as they normally do.  Thusly, people who enlist in the Navy should do so only if prepared to be an enlisted sailor for a period of six to thirty years.  Programs do exist to commission enlisted personnel, but they are not as broad as the recruiter wants you to believe.  If every enlistee who signed up after being told of the Seaman To Admiral program (STA), were to become an Admiral, one of two things would happen:  Admirals would be cleaning toilets, or the Navy will cease to exist because tens of thousands of Admirals can't make a ship go without someone on the receiving end of the orders.

If a recruiter tells you that enlisting is your best chance of becoming an officer, he may be trying to tell you that you have no chance of becoming one -- only in a way that will get you to enlist and help him fill his quota.

[Lark]

@Still_In: Honestly my mindset is to go in there and blow them away at the schools with the hopes I get picked up for OCS for my performance.

@BeerCourt: All fair questions, let me answer one by one.

My degree is in Political Science.  It is what interested me the most when registering for classes and it was a great curriculum, but politics (senators, representatives) isn't my interest.  I took more political theory classes, why people vote the way they do, how genocide occurs, etc.  My parents strongly encouraged me go to college when they saw I was interested in enlisting into the USMC right from High School.  Military was always in my future in some aspect or another.

The Navy has interested me since NJROTC through high school.  Like I said, the college route I chose to take first then seek a career in the military.

I applaud everyone that serves and view everyone as all a necessary cog in the wheel.  But I feel I can lead people effectively.  I sit as the President of collegiate organizations and ensure I always lead through example.  I would like to be able to further nurture my abilities through the military.

Content for 6 years to travel the world with guaranteed paycheck, immeasurable education, and a great resume booster for the civ world?  Yeah, I'd be content to say the least.

No it's not the nuclear field in particular.  I like a challenge and my recruiter called me to tell me he thought I'd be a good fit.  I actually started off with a job in the Army that fell through at MEPS so I came to the Navy which was always my first choice.  I went to the Army for the guaranteed job and to start out as an E-4. 

The STA program isn't available to people who already possess degrees from my understanding so again, I'll have to do it with exemplary performance. 

[Already Gone]

Okay, now we know you a little better.

First, let's take a look at your options from a more objective point of view. 

You have a degree in a non-technical field.  However PoliSci is not an entirely useless field of study to a country at war.  Seems to me that an intelligence analyst might need some knowledge of things political.

You have a non-felony, non-conviction, non-drug-related arrest on your record.  Not exactly John Dillinger, are you?  Learn this word: WAIVER.  It is going to come in handy.

You need to talk to an officer recruiter.  I can't help it but I am biased against local recruiters.

Let me spin a little yarn for you to make my point.

A young man walked up to a stable and asked the man there what it would take to become the winning jockey in a Kentucky Derby. 
The stable man said, "Son, many a fine jockey started out by just working with the horses to get to know them better."
The boy asked, "Is there any work that I could do around here?"
The stable man handed him a shovel and showed him to a row of stalls that needed cleaning.

What is the moral?  There is no coincidence in the fact that the first man the boy encountered had an answer to his question.  There is less coincidence in the fact that the answer, coming from a man with a pile of shit to shovel, involved shoveling shit.

So, I think there is no coincidence that a Navy recruiter (who gets more points toward his quota for enlisting a nuke) would find problems with your arrest record and degree that somehow make you a better candidate to be enlisted than officer.  BTW, that arrest on your record will impact your enlistment in the nuclear field as much as your chances for OCS.  My uninformed guess is that it isn't going to disqualify you from either.  It is the only arrest you have.  It didn't result in a conviction (conditional discharges may have some element of admission of guilt, but they are not convictions), and it was a youthful transgression which did not involve drugs.  Anyway, if the guy tells you that he can get you a waiver for this to be a nuke, what he's not telling you is that he could also get you one to get into OCS.

www.navy.com/officer

[Lark]

@BeerCourt: I graduate in December with a Political Science degree with a 3.0  I also have that charge which you said is waiverable.  I got a 96 on my ASVAB.  I have passing PRT scores, but nothing stellar.  I have obviously been improving those and will continue to do    I would like to have a job by March.

My question is, is it realistic with these credentials, to be able to get picked up for OCS from the civ world, or would I be better to go enlisted first.  I have the 3.0 because I screwed around my first 2 years in college which is when that charge came up.  I've grown and I'm still continuing to grow.  Will the boards recognize that or will I need to spend time enlisted to demonstrated that I've put my screw around days behind me.

Its my choice, and a hard question to answer I know.  But I have heard that non technical degrees need to be around a 3.4 or 3.5 for OCS. 

[DDMurray]

My son is in a similar situation.  He graduated from college with a degree in history.  After essentially two years of no work, I took him to AF and Navy recruiters.  AF talked about officer program for non-aviator being a 9-12 month process.  Navy recruiter told him to talk to Officer recruiter.  After some deliberation he signed up to be a CTT with a plan to take language test to get into CTI.  While at MEPS, he looked into nuke and decided to switch.  During the process a Chief at the MEPS noticed he had his degree and put him in contact with the officer recruiter.  They changed his fly away date to Nov 17 to give him time to get his officer package together.  He is waiting for some professors from college to write letters of recommendation.

Short story long, I should have taken him to the officer recruiter first.  Just like Chicago voters:  apply early and often.

[Already Gone]

@BeerCourt: I graduate in December with a Political Science degree with a 3.0  I also have that charge which you said is waiverable.  I got a 96 on my ASVAB.  I have passing PRT scores, but nothing stellar.  I have obviously been improving those and will continue to do    I would like to have a job by March.

My question is, is it realistic with these credentials, to be able to get picked up for OCS from the civ world, or would I be better to go enlisted first.  I have the 3.0 because I screwed around my first 2 years in college which is when that charge came up.  I've grown and I'm still continuing to grow.  Will the boards recognize that or will I need to spend time enlisted to demonstrated that I've put my screw around days behind me.

Its my choice, and a hard question to answer I know.  But I have heard that non technical degrees need to be around a 3.4 or 3.5 for OCS. 

Here illustrates a problem with the internet.  It is an enormous rumor mill.
Forget what you heard, or read on a blog, or even what you found here.  Go talk to an officer recruiter and find out for yourself.  You are too easily accepting the idea that you will fail, leading you to not try, which is an automatic failure.  When you are scrubbing a valve with a toothbrush five years from now, you won't regret that you tried to get into OCS and didn't make it, you will regret that you didn't try.

[DDMurray]

" I took him "
" I should have taken him to the officer recruiter first "

Anyone else see a problem here?

Yes.  I don't think I know you and I doubt you know my son; so please do not take a couple of sentences of me trying to share lessons learned with somebody in a similar situation and turn it into a parenting lesson.

DM

[co60slr]

Good job DM.

Indeed.

[stormgoalie]

" He graduated from college with a degree in history.  After essentially two years of no work"

So your son is at least 24 years old and you are still driving the train? Time to get off and let him drive.

Maybe he was helping his son avoid a "train wreck" by providing advice and guideance like a good parent does..........

[Lark]

Speaking of advice and guidance........

If one were to go enlisted nuke, with a degree, will it give me a better chance to get picked up by OCS (assuming good recommendations by my COC and everything else) than going into another field?

[spekkio]

@BeerCourt: I graduate in December with a Political Science degree with a 3.0  I also have that charge which you said is waiverable.  I got a 96 on my ASVAB.  I have passing PRT scores, but nothing stellar.  I have obviously been improving those and will continue to do    I would like to have a job by March.

My question is, is it realistic with these credentials, to be able to get picked up for OCS from the civ world, or would I be better to go enlisted first.  I have the 3.0 because I screwed around my first 2 years in college which is when that charge came up.  I've grown and I'm still continuing to grow.  Will the boards recognize that or will I need to spend time enlisted to demonstrated that I've put my screw around days behind me.

Its my choice, and a hard question to answer I know.  But I have heard that non technical degrees need to be around a 3.4 or 3.5 for OCS.  

Did you "hear" this from an officer recruiter? I only ask because enlisted recruiters generally know jack shit about the requirements or process for becoming an officer. But instead of just telling you that, they exaggerate shit to make you think that your only option is enlisting or bust in order to help meet their quotas.

Look up your local officer recruiter. His sole job is to put officers in the Navy via OCS. He can tell you more accurately what you qualify for. I will say that applying to become an officer is more like applying for any other job. Walk into the recruiter's office looking presentable and be professional. Additionally, you can peruse this site for minimum requirements:

http://www.cnrc.navy.mil/noru/orojt3/generalofficer.htm#28

You'll notice that none of these designators except for a select few require a 3.3+ gpa. However, note that those are MINIMUM requirements; a competitive profile changes depending on a multitude of factors that may be out of your control, like the number of people who applied that month. The bottom line, though, is that if you want to be an officer then persistence is key. Your first step after contacting the recruiter will be to take the ASTB (an aptitude test that is similar in function but different in content than the ASVAB); while not required for nuclear designators, it is required for everything else and doing well can boost significantly boost your chances. Doing well will also make your recruiter pay more attention to you. Good luck.

PS: PRT scores mean jack to the Navy. As long as you can pass with a good low, then you are good to go.

AF talked about officer program for non-aviator being a 9-12 month process.

Took me 8 months from walking in the door to the officer recruiter to getting a paycheck.