Bachelors Degree Is Within Reach While In ROTC With The Help Of Military Education Online!
The state of the economy is making many high school students start to accept choices their parents would have rejected flat out. One of these choices is enrolling into the Reserve Officers Training Corp (ROTC). The ROTC was created during the Civil War as a way to produced qualified military officers outside of West Point. The basic principle was simple. A student’s military education would be paid for if, in turn, after graduation the student served in the military for the next four years.? The Vietnam War era put military service in such bad light that ROTC was actually banned by schools such as Harvard. Forty years later and that is hardly the situation.
With the cost of tuition rising faster than the rate of inflation, college applicants are exploring more options than ever before. One such option is hitching up with an ROTC program in one of the five key ROTC programs – the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard.
Many schools offer the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program. Harvard has even reinstated its program. This is due to the increased popularity of the military since Desert Storm and especially after the World Trade Center. It also doesn’t hurt that students in the ROTC can receive a full-tuition scholarship, as well as stipends for books and living expenses that may increase on an annual basis. True, after graduation the students become full officers in the army for a number of years, but in these economic times, that is also being seen as a bonus.
After all, these students will have guaranteed job security after they graduate, even if it means getting up at reveille. Further, while in the military they will learn invaluable management techniques they can apply in the civilian working world. Because they are required to serve a minimum four years after graduation, recruiters look at that as an added listing in the resume, particularly if they end up working in a STEM (science, tech, engineering, math) occupation.
There are also skills an ROTC grad has over his West Point and Annapolis counterparts. One is that they don’t live the cloistered live of a midshipmen or cadet. ROTC students are more, for lack of a better term, worldly. Also, they develop acute time management skills from balancing school, work and military obligations. If that isn’t enough, the ROTC grad is considered more rounded as they usually manage to make time for personal hobbies.
The antagonism ROTC students endured in the past is just that, the past. These days they are treated with more respect for serving the country. As a final bonus, as the military has tough physical programs, many enter the civilian world in excellent physical shape.
There are also those who believe ROTC grads value their education more than the average student, as they have learned firsthand about how hard work can pay off. Additionally, they will know that they are carrying out their civic duty while they work to increase their value in the workforce.
As said before, the current recession has made entering the ROTC a viable option for veteran education. The benefits it gives both this country and individual citizens are looking more and more like solid compensation in military distance learning. Education is valued in the military and after the ROTC grad has put in their four years of service, new GI bill is there for continuation of learning.
