"Bum-Rushed" And Stressed

I would not assume that everything your recruiter says is 100% accurate. I am sure the Army needs more nurses (despite the economy) and you will be fine (accepted).

i don't know about the army- i'm trying to get into the air force. but i spoke with my recruiter yesterday and asked if in his experience my application was competitive enough that i should be getting excited or hold back on the excitement until i heard something. his answer was that i had a good gpa, good interview, and good references, and already had my license so it was pretty competitive. i don't know if the army does a new nurse training program like the air force does but he said to get into that program i will be competing against apps that are just graduating or about to graduate and don't even have their license in hand yet, whereas i graduated in may like you did and have been licensed since july. i don't know if that makes you feel any better but i think as long as you have a strong app and you're already licensed then you're in better shoes than those waiting to be licensed, does that make sense...?

in regards to the deadline- i don't know how effective this would be today but when my dad was trying to get into the navy he missed some deadline that he didn't know about and someone told him to write a letter to his congressman, i believe it was, saying that he wanted to serve his country yadda, yadda, yadda and they ended up letting him in. i'm not saying that you need to write to congress but if for some reason your recruiter is wrong about making an exception i'm betting there is a higher up you could get in touch with to try to rectify the situation if your application is good otherwise.

When I came on active duty Army in July I spoke with my recruiter then who stated that the quotas for FY 10 where about 25% of FY 09. If that is true the quota for the year will be filled early with the way nursing jobs are at this point in time.

.... I would note employ the congressmen technique in this scenario... that is MHO. You should be able to confirm with your recruiter when your packet arrives and if it made the board shortly. The bad news is - everything is essentially in the system and out of your hands... it can be tough to sit back and wait. However, that is better then ruffling the feathers of a chain of command due to you not having a bigger lead on time and making this decision late in the game - even though you weren't aware of the time line prior to coming to this conclusion. All in all - best of luck and keep us posted!!

Did you mean "not"?.....agreed that this course of action is a recipe for at worst disaster, at best being labeled a complainer

Cursed- I did mean 'not', thanks!

I met with my Army recruiter this evening to sign more papers. I was told that the Board meets on November 16th to review applications. I also am hopeful, but I also have 13 years of experience in a specialized field. I had my physical at MEPS last month. Hang in there as someone said in an earlier thread , there are a lot of people who don't have their license which should help you to stand out.

by contacting the higher ups i just meant that if things got screwed up that weren't your fault there might be something you could do about it. i didn't mean to just start petitioning congress because you wanted to speed things along. sorry if i made it sound like complaining would get you your way, that's not what i meant. in my dad's case a deadline passed that made his entry into the navy impossible and they found a way to fix it, that's what i was referring to.