How to enter the military as an officer?

Question

Do you have to have a bachelors or will an associates do?

Answer 1

Bachelors degree, reserve officer training

Answer 2

I cant speak for other branches besides the Army but you do not need to have a bachelor's degree to become an officer.

West Point, you graduate and become an officer with a degree. Most ROTC programs will require you get a bachelor's degree before commissioning you.

OCS as of right now does not require you to have a bachelor's degree, at least federal OCS does not. 90 semester units is all that is required of you to go through OCS, to qualify you must have served some years active duty as an enlisted have gotten recommendations and such. I have had a number of colleagues who got their gold bars this route.

You can go through basic training and AIT and than apply to a Junior Military College, examples are New Mexico Military Institute, Valley Forge Military Academy, and Georgia Military Academy. You go through a two year program plus your regular 2 year junior college and after your first year you go to the ROTC summer training thing they have got for everyone and you do that. Come back and do another year of school, you get commissioned and you have up to 3 years to get a bachelor's degree from an accredited school. At the same time you have to serve in either the National Guard or Army Reserve as part of your obligation. I know several people have gone this route.

You can also get a direct commission if you are in the reserves/national guard if you think you are too old to play the OCS game and have enough education and experience.

I know a guy who was in the national guard, a E-7 was deployed in a combat zone, and he did such a great job the general of that state gave him a commission right there. Audie Murphy style

The bottom line is that you dont have to but by the time you are an O-2, you should have a bachelors because it is required for you to be considered for promotion for O-3.

Answer 3

I was an officer in the Navy (submarines). You generally need a four year degree, but there are ways to get a commission without a degree. Another respondent mentioned the warrant officer program (which is a commission). The Navy has a Limited Duty Officer (LDO) path the does not require a degree, but there are other requirements. For one, you must already be a senior enlisted person. I don't know if the other branches have equivalent paths. I'm sure you can find the requirements with a Google search.

Contrary to what others have written, no branch requires a masters degree for anything other than a very specialized program, and ROTC is not the only way to get a commission. I attended the Navy's Officer Candidate School (OCS) after finishing college, and I did not affiliate with ROTC while in school. Navy OCS is 13 weeks. You could also go to a service acedemy as others wrote (but why make things hard on yourself?).

Answer 4

there are three main routes, all of them eventually requiring a bachelor's degree:
1. military academy (west point, naval academy, air force academy)
2. rotc (two to four years during college)

what you're probably thinking of:
3. officer candidate school (if you already have a bachelor's) -- you can either join with this in your contract or enlist and work on that higher degree once you're in (and have the military pay for it!), then apply for officer candidate school. the drawback with that last method is it's a little harder to get into the program if you're already in the military (as opposed to enlisting straight to ocs). that and it'll take a little longer. but the enlisted people under you will respect you a lot more if you have some enlisted time under your belt!

Answer 5

In the Army, you must have a bachelors to be an Officer. You still have to be accepted in Officers School & graduate from it. Not all do graduate. My son is well respected as a Commissioned Officer after a Bachelor Degree & 2 yrs of training. He is an Army Ranger too, I love to hear his men call him Captain & Sir - a Mother's pride, sorry.

Answer 6

Allow me to eliminate some myths.....just because you have a 4 year degree does NOT mean you can be an officer. I've run recruiting for 5 years now. This is a MYTH. There is much more that is considered than your sheep skin. If you don't have at least a 3.4 GPA, you probably will not be considered. I have enlisted dozens of people with degrees starting out an an E-3.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

to be a commision officer im pretty sure every branch requires a bachelors. but i think you can make warrant officer with an associate, but that requires you to be prior enlisted...

Answer 9

You have to have a bachelors degree and 4 years of ROTC. If you are pursuing and advanced degree in the medical field you might be able to get around the ROTC requirement. A bachelors alone will only get you specialist or corporal rank.

Answer 10

You need a bachelors degree.