ROTC and Nursing School (Very Important!)

[ChiChi94]

Hey everyone! I'm new to AllNurses, so here's a little background about my dilemma. I was recently accepted in to the nursing program at my new school (transfer student) and I start next week Wednesday. I recently decided to do AROTC at the school in the hopes that they would offset the cost of school and in becoming an Army nurse. I passed medical and the PT test, but last Saturday I was told by the ROTC recruiter that the nurses at brigade would not give me scholarship based on my stats (3.12 gpa, 200 PT score: they're looking for 3.5 gpa and 260 pt score). I understand why I wasn't accepted (though I was a bit disappointed) but what I'm asking now is should I continue with the ROTC program? My recruiter told me that I could still have school paid for if i contracted but it would have to be in a different branch (human resources, military intelligence, infranry...). But none of those have anything to do with my future career. I'm thinking of just backing out the program and trying different avenues of commissioning as a nurse in the military (whether army, navy, or air force). I visited other healthcare recruiters of the military, including the army, and they've given different options (like the AECP for army or finishing school altogether, doing a couple of months of civilian work and then come in through direct commission). I'm also in the Army Reserves currently and my enlistment ends the year after I graduate nursing school so IDK if I should just wait until my contract ends or what. I just don't want to have to juggle ROTC on top of my nursing classes especially when I've already been denied the nursing scholarship. Your input would be greatly appreciated and thank you for your time! Remain Blessed!

P.S. Thank you for all those who have served and are currently serving!

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

Just FYI, direct commission to active duty Army requires two years of civilian RN experience; more than "just a couple of months." Specialty experience would also be helpful.

Unfortunately your current GPA is not competitive; hopefully you can bring your GPA up throughout the remainder of your degree program. You really need to get that PT score up too — I did better than that as a 2LT when I was nearly 40 years old.

Good luck, whatever you decide to do about ROTC. At the very least, ROTC would give you a taste of the military if you truly desire to serve.

[Shark24, BSN]

Get in contact with the local officer recruiter for the branch you want to apply and talk to them. Officer recruiter are different from enlisted recruiter

[tshigeru, CNA]

hey! I am also in ROTC as well and let me tell you is to SO worth it. You have to decide what you want to do in your future. Please do yourself a favr and stay in ROTC. Direct comissoning now in the army for nurses are getting limited by space availability (they require you have a MSN now from what I'm hearing. Either apply for another nursing program that has an ROTC there. You can always branch HR, Armor, Military intelligence and etc and then request to switch branches. It's not that hard I heard other officers who were engineers first, then switched to become nurse corp officers so it is possible. I am the in the ECP ROTC (Early Commissioning Program) so we basically are doing the upper ROTC classes but while getting only our associates degree, upon completion and commissioning, we have 3 years max to finish and get our bachelors (in my case I have to start looking for nursing bsn programs). really hope this helps! Keep in contact with your army rotc recruiter and keep studying hard. Taking summer classes also help to boost your GPA, since you can focus on only one class at a time.