army...

i planned on doing reserves full time. my father is in reserves fulltime so i dont see why i wouldnt be able to. i rather not make as much knowing that my loans and education stuff is paid for and i wont have to pay all this money every month trying to pay off a loan along with other bills. i already owe over 25,000 in loans. and civilian pay isnt really much if u ask me. starting pay in chicago area and texas is about $25 and hour. i rather not take the rotc scholarship since it requires the active duty commitment which i do not want to do. and working as a civilian doesnt neccessarily have the best benefits either.

as long as their MOS is in line with their training, however if they were signal or if say a male had a combat arms MOS they very well could be deployed, however there may be legal provisions for them to pick up their training and schooling upon return much like there are for reservists & gaurdsmen who go active to preserve their civilian jobs for when they come home. There's that nice litle line in fine print of the contract "and/or the needs of the Army"

ZoomommyRn,

I apologize - I misread the previous statement. I thought poster was interested in joining as an RN and going back to school....

Original Poster:

I would highly recommend ONLY joining when you have your RN in hand as a commissioned officer in the nurse corp. Your life is busy enough getting to the point of being an RN... you don't want to mess around with chance of being deployed.. weekened drills.. summer drills.. when you could just join as an RN with an ADN or BSN and get your money back via bonus or loan repayment and then contribute to the service as an RN.

v/r

i might as well do it now...so ill have some years in already when i do finish school. it wont be hard going to school and doing the one weekend a month...2 weeks a year.im going to need money to have in pocket while im in school anyway. the thing i wanna do when i finish school is active guard reserve. and u cannot get deployed while in the ecs program....i just double checked it.

The only other thing I have to ad is that the ecs program is NOT a blanket protection from deployment. It only applies to the Iraq/Afgan campaigns. If another war is started or the president decides to deploy forces to another part of the world you CAN be called up. Remember the -accidental- ommitions I spoke of in an earlier reply? Also the ecs protection lasts up to 48 months. It sounds like you already have a year or two of college under your belt so I would check to make sure that doesn't effect the length of protection under the program. It may shorten it to 24 months or so.

I applaud your willingness to serve . I joined the army at 17 and it was one of the best expriences of my life. Not always easy tho. Anyway good luck and God bless.

One more thing. I still recommend finishing the BSN program before committing to the military.

I concur with previous poster... I would highly recommend getting BSN prior to joining - or specifically join in junior year as a Nurse candidate.... or your senior year join 1 year early with a contract to enter as a nurse - but not in any other capacity You can get loans paid back.. you can't easily get back on track if you are taken out of your program for things outside your control.

v/r