neyalynn

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.

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.

thanks for the advice...but basically everything my recruiter has been telling me is true. i know for a fact because my dad is colonel in the army and he knows about that stuff. im probably going to do the ecs program instead because the smp requires u to have 60 credit hours already and ill only have 54. i dont have a problem with the commitment. it seems i would be better off serving the army than civilian for pay and benefits...i think i would like being an army nurse better. i plan on doing the ob/gyn classes in the reserves later on.

my recruiter told me that i would be able to do the smp program so that i would be able to go to school, get in rotc, and do reserve one weekend a month while pursuing my nursing degree. the purpose of me getting in now is so i wont have to keep taking out loans for school and i will have money every month. i looked into some MOS's and im still looking. im considering patient admin specialist or medical logistic specialist since they are the shortest and i will probably be done with ait by the time school starts in the fall. is there a chance that i cant get the smp program? and i looked up information on the smp program and you cant be deployed while in this program.

ok...im a nursing major and plan on going to basics in the summer. i have not taken any actual nursing courses yet. since i plan on being a nurse would i be required to do health care specialist training in ait? and if so how long is training for that field? i still plan on going to school and getting my bachelors though.

thanks for the help everybody. i talked with the army recruiters again yesterday. they told me to go to basic training in the summer and AIT then when the school year starts i can get in the SMP program where you do ROTC and are a member of the Army Reserve at the same time, and you go to work or whatever it is one weekend a month. They said that I will do that until graduation and when i graduate i will do an internship at one of the army hospitals and basically shadow a nurse for a year and then will become an actual nurse in the army. i know now that the grad school thing might not work out in my favor but i can still try. my dad is a colonel and i was told maybe he can pull some strings so i dont know how that will turn out. but i think i will be ok with waiting.

What exactly is the strap program and who qualifies?

hi. i am a pre nursing student and will be starting the nursing program in spring 2010. i am trying to get help with paying for my education. i was considering joining army rotc or air force and becoming a nurse...then going to grad school to become a neonatal nurse practitioner or neonatal clinical nurse specialist but i still want to stay in school but the school i am at does not have an air force rotc program. i went to a recruiting office but they started talking about enlisting now which i am not trying to do since i want to complete school first. they also said that i would basically be getting over $1000 a month..???... does anyone know what would be the best route for me to take or best thing to do? how long would i have to serve if i tried to get the scholarship? if i did sign up to join would i have to leave school or could i wait to go active or reserve after graduation? basically i dont know how anything works out in the military and any advice or help would be appreciated because i am seriously confused about everything.