What are my chances of becoming a Navy Officer?

Make an appointment to talk to a Navy recruiting officer. Wishing you fair winds and following seas in your journey,

In general, your assignment is based more on the needs of the Navy than on what you want. How do you think I wound up as an Electricians Mate instead of Electronics Technician. (Never mind the year that I spent in the galley, the nine months I spent in Hazmat, and all of the other stuff I did that had nothing to do with being an electrician.) So, unless you are guaranteed a school before you sign up, you could go anywhere and wind up doing anything. My old Division Officer had his degree in Spanish and knew nothing of what us electricians did.

If you go in as enlisted, you won’t get a shot at being an officer for quite a while. Basically, you’re better off going in as an officer right off if you can swing it.

BTW, if you want high-stress and you have the ASVAB scores for it then try Nuclear Propulsion. The reason I say that is that you don’t get much more stressful for prolonged periods without physical danger. The guy I shared a barracks room with was hauled to the ER three times for going into seizures due to stress. Spending a minimum of 80 hours a week in the classroom, trying to cram a couple of years of science and engineering into 24 weeks, having to dot every “i” and cross every “t” lest you wind up going to Captain’s Mast, lose a stripe, and hit the fleet as a non-Nuke… if you can handle that without going nuts then you can handle just about anything, However, unless the standards have dropped since i was in, you need at least an 80 on your ASVAB to even be considered to be given the NFQT (the Nuke School entrance exam) so you better be as smart as you think you are or you won’t even get a chance ;)

Read this information provided by the Navy.

If you aren’t on the OCS track at enlistment…you aren’t going to get a chance at it barring some chance recommendation. Try the recruiter and…try the Army. They need more officers and so does (if you just have have water) the Coast Guard.

@throssog I know a few mustangs, but they had at least a decade in before they got even a chance at getting their commission. The vast majority of Navy officers I knew were officers from day one.

Listen to @jerv and @throssog. You enlist and OCS is the very dim light at the end of a very long tunnel. Since you are a college grad, seek OCS immediately. Coast Guard first choice.

BTW…since you are a college grad, it would be good to learn to say “I graduated FROM college”, not “I graduated college”. I would have strong suspicions about a person who said the latter…as to whether he actually completed an entire college curriculum without learning how to speak the English language. It happens. Pretty often I imagine. But you do not want to be one of them. Better brush up on a basic grammar course from 9th grade.

I always thought that if you went in with a degree you were automatically an officer. I could be wrong though.

@Judi No. One of my nuke school classmates already had a degree in criminal justice yet wore the same uniform and got the same paycheck I did. (We were both E-3 in Boot Camp and A-school, then E-4 in Power School.) Truth be told, a college degree is of little use in the Navy unless you are trying to enter as an officer; it doesn’t help a “blue shirt” out much, if at all. The only real use for one is after you leave.

I enlisted in 1998 and knew a bunch of people with four year degrees. It’s not easy to go to OCS, especially in the Navy. Especially right now! There is a big draw down and they are trying to unload lots of people. Plus, people are starting to realize how great a career the Navy is due to this depressed economy. So, you better be tops to get a shot at filling one of those Ensign billets.

For people who have yet to graduate, you may be better off getting into Annapolis than OCS, then at least you have a sure commission (at least as sure as graduating).

Just as a reference, I had two technical degrees, 3.6 gpa, and nine years enlisted Navy with sparkling evals, and recently was turned down for Navy OCS due to three speeding tickets in the last five years (granted one was a couple months before).

Also consider you need a secret clearance to go to any OCS, so you have to qualify, but it’s not tough.