Interested in pursuing Nuke career

[SerendipitySeib]

I am seeking some much needed information and guidance. First I'll give you a bit of my background, the questions I have are more specifically pertaining to my own situation, that is why I was unable to find any relevant information throughout the forum.

Here goes.. 

I am 17 years old, with a GED. I am very intelligent and in my early years excelled in school. I know you've heard this a million times, so, add me to the list, I just stopped applying myself. I kind of bounced here and there academically through High School. I remained in the intellectually demanding classes I'd always loved so much, I just started receiving much lower grades. Inadvertently leading me to dislike school and eventually lead myself down an irreversible path. By my junior year, I'd realized what a mess I'd potentially made of my future, and decided my best bet was to drop out, (being I didn't have much of a chance getting into a decent college anymore anyway) get my GED, and go ahead and start college a year earlier to make up for some lost time. I've always wanted to pursue a Nuke career, I just never had considered the Navy being a decent companion for my ambition. I've now done some research and decided I'd love to go with this path. Navy Nuke, serve, experience, and move on into the Nuke world after. I'll need to include a couple more things for you to understand my predicament, on top of the academic waiver I'd need, as you can expect from what you've already heard, marijuana had a lot to do with my massive educational decline. Honor roll to drop out. Sad story. I'm done beating myself up for my mistakes and I am ready to take the next step in reclaiming the opportunities I once had. As well as the academic and drug use waiver, I have a few misdemeanors from family related issues and my troubled High School experience. Now there is one thing i might have going for me, but i need an answer on it. I am only 17, so, will my encounters with the law effect me if I wait until i am 18? Or will they at all if I want to start sooner? (My birthday is Sept 30th)

That's basically what there is to say about me.

To sum it all up:


Can I get in with a GED and poor High School transcripts? (with exceptional scores on the ASVAB and NAPT)
 I have yet to take either test because I'm uncertain i even have a chance. Although I have taken some practice ASVAB exams and scored in the 90's each time.

Can being in trouble with the law as a minor effect me getting in?

Can my drug use past the point of experimentation(which has ceased and been rehabilitated) effect me getting in?



Please and Thank you in advance for any advice/assistance you provide!

`Andrew

[Fermi2]

I bet if you were less lazy and more industrious you'd try the search function and find many of your answers!

[SerendipitySeib]

Notice I started off by saying I couldn't find any posts with reasonable information to answer my questions. Given that they aren't very common, that I'm 17. I tried doing what you suggested though. That's why i didn't make this post two hours ago. Thanks though.

`Andrew

[MacGyver]

I promise you that if you typed in "GED NAVY NUKE" you would get a number of good threads on that one subject. (et al the rest of your questions)  I would show you easy it is but alas my phone does not support that user function. You're DINK ("dinq" - that's a look-up too).

[HydroDave63]

Notice I started off by saying I couldn't find any posts with reasonable information to answer my questions. Given that they aren't very common, that I'm 17. I tried doing what you suggested though. That's why i didn't make this post two hours ago. Thanks though.

`Andrew

[Cleaver6]

Inadvertently leading me to dislike school and eventually lead myself down an irreversible path.

If it's irreversible, then why are you here?

[SerendipitySeib]

If it's irreversible, then why are you here?

The path i took in High School was irreversible, I've gotten myself out of that, to a position to move on. Get back on track I guess I'd say. This is something I've always aspired to do and I have the potential to do it. I was just hoping someone here would be kind enough to let me know if I have the opportunity even. I continued to search and my biggest question has gone unmentioned. I would really like to know if my charges as a minor can effect my eligibility. I assure you that I tried my absolute hardest to find the answer on my own. (To those of you hard asses who like to spend your time criticizing and putting down someone like myself; when your time could be equally and effectively spent giving me the answer I need.)

[Cleaver6]

I'm no expert, but I've spent a fair amount of time searching through and reading posts on this forum. You'll have a tough road based on what you've presented here.

[stefanc2011]

Also no expert, but it depends specifically on what classes you did poorly in, in high school.  Did you fail any math or sciences?  One 'f' is waiverable for sure, (mine was), but i'm not sure if there is a set number of classes that you can fail.  My recruiters told me if I had failed 2 that it was a no-go.

The marijuana - you said that you went to rehab?  waiver.

GED -  has been done, but is another waiver.

Misdemeanors - another waiver. or waivers.

Good luck.

[Styrofoam]

http://www.cnrc.navy.mil/publications/Directives/1130_8J%20VOL%20IV_Programs%20&%20Classification-VerJ.pdf

Read this. It has info on stuff you need waivers for and other crap you should know.

[Starkist]

Also no expert, but it depends specifically on what classes you did poorly in, in high school.  Did you fail any math or sciences?  One 'f' is waiverable for sure, (mine was), but i'm not sure if there is a set number of classes that you can fail.  I'd say if you have more than one 'f' you'd be hard pressed to get that waiver passed.  

The marijuana - you said that you went to rehab?  Again, i'd say that would be a hard waiver to get passed.

GED -  has been done, but is another waiver.

Misdemeanors - another waiver. or waivers.

Moving aside from everything I just looked up on these forums in about 15 minutes.....
If they look at all these waivers as a package deal (no idea if they do) then i'd say you have zero chance of getting accepted.  It'd make one hell of a success story, but I can't see the Navy spending all that money on trying to train someone who has drug rehab, no high school diploma, misdemeanors (how many, and what for?) all on their record.  It's just too much of a risk.  You did say that you had dropped out to attempt college?  How's that going?  If you hope to have any chance of getting those waivers passed, I would definitely include that in the paragraph you have to write for each one.  That is the only positive I see in your story.  

You haven't even taken the ASVAB yet? Get on that.  If you can't even qualify in the first place then I just wasted 30 minutes of my life typing this and looking it up.

Good luck.

Are you using your vast experience as a recruiter to make these assumptions?  Your opinions on what the Navy would do is completely speculative, and mostly subjective.


I guess I should input as well. I've had to deal with this sort of stuff, a LOT when I got in. It's not all doom and gloom as stefanc said it is. It's going to be a pain, but as long as you are taking care of things now, and your offenses were minor, you have a very real chance of getting in, pending you qualify.

Send me a pm if you wish to discuss these things.

[stefanc2011]

Star - if you had read what I posted, you would've seen which part of my post was looked up on these forums, and which part was opinion.  I clearly seperated the two.

Also, pm'ing me to tell me my post was 95% wrong is stupid.  The facts I looked up on this forum, so if you want to call the other stories on this forum wrong, go ahead...no point in there being a forum if your going to contradict whats on it.  Weren't you the one who made an entire thread telling people about bonuses they should be getting, when they really didn't even exist anymore?  

edit-  I just took out the opinion part of my other post.  I'm not the Navy, my opinion doesn't matter.  Left the facts.

[GNowakowski]

I don't mean to sell this forum short -- it certainly contains answers to each question you asked if you spend the time reading.
Two hours isn't "the time reading".

You could spend days on this forum, and not scrape anything but the surface.   However...  many of the questions that you have would be best supplied to a recruiter.  You can certainly learn here, and I won't deter your use of the search function  

I had a lot of questions, many of which were silly questions -  I saved myself a lot of grief by talking to my recruiter, and searching both this site and google for all of my questions multiple times before asking.   I highly recommend spending some time in the "sticky" threads at the top of the forum.  One in particular links to ~100 or so threads....of which you WILL find MANY if not ALL of the answers you asked here.

...You will also find new questions based on your reading.   So if you want this then talk to the recruiter and get a foundation set in your mind as to the reality of the decision.  Then move onto study.

That's just my 2 cents.

[Starkist]

Star - if you had read what I posted, you would've seen which part of my post was looked up on these forums, and which part was opinion.  I clearly seperated the two.

Also, pm'ing me to tell me my post was 95% wrong is stupid.  The facts I looked up on this forum, so if you want to call the other stories on this forum wrong, go ahead...no point in there being a forum if your going to contradict whats on it.  Weren't you the one who made an entire thread telling people about bonuses they should be getting, when they really didn't even exist anymore?  

edit-  I just took out the opinion part of my other post.  I'm not the Navy, my opinion doesn't matter.  Left the facts.

You know what, it doesnt even matter. You should be enjoying your time while you can instead of arguing on the internet. Good luck in powerschool....



OP, send me a pm when you get on.

[SerendipitySeib]

I've heard from a few people on here while perusing the forums, that many have been in my situation and still made it. So, that's very encouraging and thank you to those of you who did give opinions/facts/any useful information. I actually stumbled upon this site before I even went to a recruiter. That's why I'm very uninformed, I was trying to make a pre-decision decision if you will. I didn't want a recruiter to have the opportunity to try to, well, recruit me into something other than Nuke. That's just not what I'm looking for.

Thanks so much! I'm confident I'll be back with positive news one day in the future. Looking forward to hopefully being a part of the community and Navy Nuke team.

`Andrew

[Styrofoam]

I've heard from a few people on here while perusing the forums, that many have been in my situation and still made it. So, that's very encouraging and thank you to those of you who did give opinions/facts/any useful information. I actually stumbled upon this site before I even went to a recruiter. That's why I'm very uninformed, I was trying to make a pre-decision decision if you will. I didn't want a recruiter to have the opportunity to try to, well, recruit me into something other than Nuke. That's just not what I'm looking for.

Thanks so much! I'm confident I'll be back with positive news one day in the future. Looking forward to hopefully being a part of the community and Navy Nuke team.

`Andrew

Just do yourself a favor and don't say "Nuke or Nothing." They'll probably kick you out on your bum if you do cause they don't want to put in the time/money and then you don't qualify and you walk away.

[Starkist]

I've heard from a few people on here while perusing the forums, that many have been in my situation and still made it. So, that's very encouraging and thank you to those of you who did give opinions/facts/any useful information. I actually stumbled upon this site before I even went to a recruiter. That's why I'm very uninformed, I was trying to make a pre-decision decision if you will. I didn't want a recruiter to have the opportunity to try to, well, recruit me into something other than Nuke. That's just not what I'm looking for.

Thanks so much! I'm confident I'll be back with positive news one day in the future. Looking forward to hopefully being a part of the community and Navy Nuke team.

`Andrew

Good of you to plan ahead. A couple things, pending you meet the ASVAB and subsequent NAPT testing (if required), be prepared for some headaches. For starters it will take you several trips to meps and dealing with lots and lots of paperwork and handwriting. Get all your academic and misdemeanor records, as well as any treatment stuff you had to do together right now.  Its going to be annoying enough to go through this process, so any forethought now will save you some time in the long run.

Another thing, you need to be honest. It will be easy to lie about some of your stuff, but its far worse to not get accepted and move on with your life, then having THEM find out at a later date. I had some stuff follow me that I disclosed, but my recruiting station messed up and it involved lots and lots of pain for me later. 

Its not hopeless, but its definitely going to be a challenge for you.  For starters, I had 9 or 10 failed classes, algebra I, II, calc, physics, and biology being a few of them. I had to do one waiver for all of them together. Had around a 2.0 GPA after high school. The navy is certainly changing, but hopefully you can get in.

[Bigchris]

Hello SerendipitySeib,

Whatever you end up doing, I suggest you stay away from the weed. One thing can lead to another… I knew people who started with weed and ended up messed up or dead. If you don’t smoke weed you probably won’t end up on meth or heroin.


“Listen everybody; cause there’s a moral to this story,
Clean up your act, Get the monkey off your back, or you’ll be sorry,
Keep yourself clean; Cause the monkey plays mean,
He’ll put a knife in your back, then the man in the black will show you
A dragon that bites…”
Aldo Nova Monkey on Your Back from elyrics


Watch the silly 1983 video here. Don’t mind the catheter advertisement.

 


Bigchris

[Jechtm]

If you are interested, pursue. If it doesn't work out, you're young... You have time to find something else. I didn't start looking til I was 23...