USAF Academy or ROTC

[stupidpilot]

Are you guys kidding? To me it's a no brainer. Go USAFA. It has alot of cache. Any prospective employer who sees that academy on your education background is going to add alot of points to your chances of getting hired.

 

[stonewall]

If you want to live in a "nanny" state with someone to tell you when to go to bed, wakeup eat, take a dump, go to class, march, iron your uniform, shine your shoes, then go AFA. If you want to learn to live on you own, develop self disipline, become self reliant then go to the ROTC detachment of your choice. Good Luck...

Yeah, that's exactly what it was like. And all Academy grads are socially inept when they graduate, can't balance a checkbook, can't do their own laundry, can't cook, and only hit on fat chicks.

Go to the Academy if you can. Sure, it sucks, but you won't regret it 10 years after the fact. I've been gone since '95, still keep in touch with several friends, and only have hazy memories of the triple threat saturdays. I do, however, clearly remember the massive amounts of alcohol me and my buds used to quaff. Not that that's the important thing about college, but you will still be able to do some "normal college" stuff.

We had limited UPT slots in '95. USAFA got 225 for about 700 dudes and ROTC got 100 slots....nationwide. The only ROTC guys in my UPT class +/- a few classes were TOP-NOTCH guys. All had 4.0's in quadruple physicnukemechelecspace engineering or something retarded like that and were unit commanders from MIT and Stanford. Well, we did have one Auburn guy, but he struggled. Language barrier. Anyway, if you think you can be that guy, go ahead and go to ROTC.

Also fast foward 20 years. Anyone who believes connections don't matter, just look at our Purple Airline. We alread have 10+ '95 grads on property, and I think I've written a rec for each one of them. Another non-pilot bud just got hired as a lawyer with a very chachi law office headed by a '73 grad. The same can be said for USNA or USMC.

Don't buy into the whole "if you go the Academy you'll be a social hermit for four years." It's just not true. Good luck with whatever you decide.

PS. Once you walk in the door at UPT, it doesn't matter how where you went, where you got your commission, what you majored in, or how many flight hours you have in Skyhawk. The only guy we washed out was a 2000 hr CFII....in instruments.

 

[BeeVee]

Fully agree with Magnum...
I'm a '90 Grad and have never regretted going (except maybe for the first 10 months)....

As said earlier, if you can get into an Academy, go!

 

[Occam's Razor]

The only ROTC guys in my UPT class +/- a few classes were TOP-NOTCH guys. All had 4.0's in quadruple physicnukemechelecspace engineering or something retarded like that and were unit commanders from MIT and Stanford. Well, we did have one Auburn guy, but he struggled. Language barrier. Anyway, if you think you can be that guy, go ahead and go to ROTC.

Not to act too gay...but now I'm crushin' on MAGNUM!.

Well written, bro!

Tooooo funny!

 

[JimNtexas]

"If you want to live in a "nanny" state with someone to tell you when to go to bed, wakeup eat, take a dump, go to class, march, iron your uniform, shine your shoes, then go AFA."

I had a good friend in my AFROTC class at the University of Texas when we were freshman. He joined a fraternity, stayed drunk all the time, and flunked out. Fortunately his Dad was a senior officer and his Mom was well connected politically. He obtained a slot at the AFA, did very well there, and retired recently as an O-6 after a great carrer in fighters. I think he'd be the first to say that at 19 he wasn't up to the responsibility the University of Texas demanded of its students and needed to be nannied for a while until he grew up.

Magnum is also correct, AFA grads have a far tighter bond than graduates of a big state school.

One interesting thing I saw twice in my career happened twice. In both cases there was an AFA grad pilot who had problems of one kind or another. In both cases senior AFA grads drove these weaker guys out of the service.

 

[AlbieF15]

The road taken is up to you...the destination is worth the trouble.

You can, however, make it from ROTC or OTS side. The Academy bros I know, including Magnum, are world class. I always thought they were that way IN SPITE the AFA (just kidding).

As for the Auburn language barrier...well...there were a LOT of times..especially summer quarter...when after a walk around Haley Center I was SPEECHLESS. Anyone who's been to the campus and seen so many beautiful girls in one place understands the phenonmen....

 

[Scrapdog]

As for the Auburn language barrier...well...there were a LOT of times..especially summer quarter...when after a walk around Haley Center I was SPEECHLESS. Anyone who's been to the campus and seen so many beautiful girls in one place understands the phenonmen....

Albie, now you're just bragging. But what you say is 100% true (unlike the standard 10% true).

And BTW - Roll tide roll!! (Magnum's dad was a '65 Alabama grad, and mine was a '69 grad). The Auburn Tiger (or War Eagle), or whatever you decide this week to call yourselves are not welcome in our territory!

 

[414Flyer]

2. Conversely, if I were to attend ERAU, I would be an Aero. Science major which I feel would make me more competent (and competitive) as a pilot candidate entering into UPT.

Not speaking not as a mil pilot, but as a civilian pilot, but going through some college aviation program does not makes you a better pilot than one that does it outside of that. I know those places tell you that, and the part 141 pilot mills do too for that matter.

These college programs often charge you a lot more than if you flew at a local airport. Sure, it gets rolled up into your student loans, and you make a degree of learning to fly. But dont think that some flight degree makes you a better pilot. Most people I know that did that, regret doing it and wish they had not done it as a college degree program.

 

[stonewall]

As for the Auburn language barrier...well...there were a LOT of times..especially summer quarter...when after a walk around Haley Center I was SPEECHLESS. Anyone who's been to the campus and seen so many beautiful girls in one place understands the phenonmen....

I knew you wouldn't let that one slide! :laugh:

 

[Mud Eagle]

We had limited UPT slots in '95. USAFA got 225 for about 700 dudes and ROTC got 100 slots....nationwide.

97 slots, actually.