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Careers: Military--Army, Navy, Airforce, Marines, Coast Guard/After high school, air force?
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Question
Hello. I'm a 17 year old female, graduating High School in may 2010 and was hoping to get into the air force. I want to try to get into the US Air Force Academy. If I dont get accepted, I still want to get into the air force. I wanted to know if it would be better to get 4 years of college and then apply, no reserves but full active duty, or to just apply to the Air Force straight out of high school. Keeping in mind I want to get into the technology related air force fields, what would be the best path?
Hi Amanda,
If you have the financial means to go to college, my answer is always the same for these types of questions: Go to college first. The military will still be there after college.
If the Academy doesn't work out, you might want to check into an Air Force ROTC scholarship (see: http://www.afrotc.com/).
You could join active duty directly after high school, and then use the GI Bill and active duty tuition assistance to help pay for college courses, but if you do that, you have to remember that active duty is a full-time job, so you would only be attending college courses part-time (after duty hours and on weekends). That means it would take you much longer to get your degree, and be eligible to become a commissioned officer.
Hope this helps!
Rod Powers
http://usmilitary.about.com
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Answers by Expert:
Rod Powers
Expertise
Rod Powers is considered one of the premire experts about U.S. Military career information on the planet. He has more than 30,000 articles about U.S. Military career information on the About.com U.S. Military Careers Information website at: http://usmilitary.about.com. Additionally, he is the author of "ASVAB for Dummies," "ASVAB AFQT for Dummies," (available in Dec 2009), and "Veteran Benefits for Dummies," all published by Wiley Publishing. He is also the author of "Barrons' Guide to Officer Candidate School Tests," published by Barron's Educational Series.
Experience
Rod Powers is a retired Air Force first sergeant, with 23 years of active duty service, 11 of those years as an Air Force First Sergeant. He has helped thousands of military members, recruits, and military applicants since he took over the About.com U.S Military Careers Information site in 1999. He has a reputation for "telling it like it is," so questions may not be answered based on "what you want to hear," but will be answered based of the bast available information, concerning the service/situation.
Education/Credentials
Rod is a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Noncommissioned Officers Academy, the Air Force Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy, and the Air Force First Sergeant Academy. He also holds an Associates Degree in Personnel Administration from the Community College of the Air Force (CCAF).
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