College before the military?

Tuition Assistance has been suspended as of 8 March 2013 (restored 26 March). For those that aren't aware, this was up to $4,500 a year on top of any GI Bill, scholarships, grants, or what have you, for civilian education.

I was able to get airborne as a cadet, and I know some others that got both airborne and air assault, while the top of the class usually got something exciting like Arctic Warfare. This is obviously depends on the size of the school's program.

Edit: Updated TA info. Hell yeah Mac!
 
If I were to enlist straight out of high-school, it seems like you'd still be in your own little world and haven't matured enough. If I join at 21 or 22 but not go to college in that time period from when I graduated highschool, what would I be doing? Staying in shape and working at McDonalds, that sounds like being a bum to me. Might as well have joined when I was 18 because my maturity would probably not increase. I might as well continue my education out of highschool, and go to college. That way I'd probably know what's it like to live on my own, gain some life experience and maturity, which would help me to be a better candidate for a special operation force.
You're a freshman in HS, right?
 
So how can you profess this supposed knowledge about your maturity not increasing between 18 and 22? I was a fucking stupid kid when I enlisted at 18. Four years and three Iraq deployments later, I was 22 and far, far wiser and more mature. You do a ton of maturing when you leave high school and, consequently, the safety of your parents. Whether that is in the military or college or in the workforce is immaterial; it WILL happen. The only way it won't is if you stay inside the protective bubble of your helicopter parents and do nothing for those four years.

But I'm digressing here. College, or enlist first? Enlisting will force you out of "your own little world" in a very direct way and into a wholly different one in a short period of time. College will do that too, but to a lesser extent, and you'll likely have more control over whatever box it puts you in. I'd err on the side of "College", honestly, now that I've actually experienced a little bit of it. But beware: If you DO decide to enlist after getting your degree, you need to understand that you're still a junior enlisted guy with NCOs over you who may not have the same education level. They're far more experienced and probably more world-savvy, but they probably don't have a degree. DONT LET THAT GET TO YOUR HEAD. I had this one junior Marine who was a South Korean expat. Very smart guy, had worked at a video game company prior to enlisting. His highest aspiration was to get into one of the enlisted commissioning programs in the Corps. Unfortunately, he was never successful at this, as the selected candidates were typically higher ranking enlisted (He was a PFC or LCpl when he tried). He did not take this well and constantly complained about the menial bullshit work he had to do. I, being the good Sergeant that I was, tried to mentor him and give him a bit of responsibility along with a bit of perspective, but he just wasn't having any of it. He always said he wanted a deployment, as well, but when one finally came down the pipe he weaseled out of it. That was the last straw. After I left I heard they put him on every bullshit duty imaginable until he PCSed. I assume he's now counting down the days until his contract is up.
 
So how can you profess this supposed knowledge about your maturity not increasing between 18 and 22? I was a fucking stupid kid when I enlisted at 18. Four years and three Iraq deployments later, I was 22 and far, far wiser and more mature. You do a ton of maturing when you leave high school and, consequently, the safety of your parents. Whether that is in the military or college or in the workforce is immaterial; it WILL happen. The only way it won't is if you stay inside the protective bubble of your helicopter parents and do nothing for those four years..
I never said your maturity wouldn't increase between 18 and 22. What I meant was that to gain maturity you have to gain experience
in life.

If I were to enlist straight out of high-school, it seems like you'd still be in your own little world and haven't matured enough(it would be a shock to your system, I didn't mean you wouldn't mature between 18 and 22.). If I join at 21 or 22 but not go to college in that time period from when I graduated highschool, what would I be doing? Staying in shape and working at McDonalds, that sounds like being a bum to me. Might as well have joined when I was 18 because my maturity would probably not increase. I might as well continue my education out of highschool, and go to college. That way I'd probably know what's it like to live on my own, gain some life experience and maturity, which would help me to be a better candidate for a special operation force.

 
Chris16 said:
I never said your maturity wouldn't increase between 18 and 22.
Staying in shape and working at McDonalds, that sounds like being a bum to me. Might as well have joined when I was 18 because my maturity would probably not increase.

Your maturity definitely would increase from four years of working at McDonalds.
 
Chris16 , you need to look up "the first rule of holes" and apply it here.

I don't think you fully understand all the options you have available (because you're a freshman in HS) and that shows up very clearly in your responses.
 
Also, the whole maturity thing holds very little weight. Don't you think the (insert Military branch here) expects/understands that most of their new recruits are going to fall into that 18-22 y/o demographic? Basic training is the fire hose method applied to maturity. It's also crawl/walk/run.
Back to the age/maturity thing, that's the reason you have different briefs/presentations during Basic. We had briefs about the GI Bill, 9/11 Bill, TSP, Navy Fed and AFB came and talked to us, we had a week long class on personal financial management. While all of this was old news to me (I was 29 y/o at the time) I wish I had some of this knowledge imparted on me 10 years prior. It's understood that this might very well be many recruits first real "job/paycheck" and while you may not think so while you're getting your dick kicked off for not folding your skivvies correctly, your instructors want to see you succeed.
There will always be those who fail to adapt or just don't get it or don't belong, but they tend to be the exceptions, not the rule.
 
While this thread has probably run it's course, my take for those in Chris' position of college vs enlisting:

You are a FRESHMAN in high school. Even at the sophmore level I'd tell you to work your ass off as if you were applying to a service academy. Why? Did you waste time? No. You see, it is better to have options than to have hopes and dreams or "plans." Work to be accepted into a service academy. If you fail you've set yourself up to attend a college or university with ROTC. You've also set yourself up for a potential ROTC scholarship. Don't want to do that and enlist instead? Great, you still had options you could reject. That's much better than waking up your junior or senior year and realizing your options are very limited.

Unless you know what path you're going to take, work to climb a mountain.
 
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