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Poor grades, did terribly in school? You will not score well on the ASVAB, your options will still be limited. You might be able to get into the Army and become an 11b ground pounder/cannon fodder.
I did very poorly in school. My high school GPA was 1.something. When I went to Marine Corps basic I found out I had the highest test score out of the entire series (4 platoons, about 250 recruits). I was the series secretary and I saw everyone's score.
I dropped out of high school, rarely ever got anything above a D, and scored in the 97th percentile. To find out, met quite a few poor high school preformers who did amazing in the Navy and its schools.
i am a 17 year old male, i have done terribly in school i will be graduating in a month and have limited options due to low grades and gpa. and i was told the military is a good option for schooling and other things. i have done a little bit of research but i want to get other opinions and facts about the different branches and what they can offer, i have always wanted to support my country in some way since i was little and ì dont want to stay in missouri my whole life.Also i have taken engineering classes for 3 years and that is most likely what i will be looking for
The Air Force offers the most stable lifestyle if you're looking to go to school. But all branches will help you get the schooling if you want to do it.
The pay's the same for all branches, the bennies, etc.... its the lifestyles that differ, and your career field determines a lot of your lifestyle too. You can travel a lot in any branch.
There are people who have become successful from serving in each of the military branches. I did 20 years in the Navy, so I favor the Navy.
All branches teach jobs that can translate to civilian jobs.
I recommend that you take the ASVAB and get your scores printed out, then go around to each recruiter and see what each branch has to offer you.
Among your friends and relatives, do you know anyone who has served in each branch? Take them with you when you talk to a given recruiter. Take a former Navy sailor with you when you talk to a Navy recruiter. Take a former Army solder with you when you talk to the Army recruiter. etc.
Base-pay is the same among all branches, that is fact. But take-home pay may be way different, because take-home pay will include all of the other assorted pays and how many months spend tax-free each year. Both of my sons enlisted in the Army. When the Army recruiter was talking to each of them about cash bonuses, they had to laugh as they were familiar with how much bonus cash I had been getting.
Talk to all of the recruiters. If you can, bring along someone who is familiar with that branch.
It is best to take the test, see what each branch offers, then come on here and ask for advice. There are just way too many variables to give specific advice.
You need to know why you don't do well in school. Military, is NOT a place for people with no options. If you believe the myth, then you are not going to be successful in the military, period.
This is not true at all. MANY people join the military because they ran out of options in life. Many are college dropouts. Many were pizza delivery folks. Many were burger flippers just like me.
I dropped out of community college and was burger flipping in Texas before I joined the Air Force a decade ago. Now I'm college educated, traveled the world, and have marketable skill for when I separate. That's the point, being in military will make you into a man. No one joins the military, especially enlisted, as a person who has their life together. If they had their life together they would've went officer or never dropped out of college to begin with.
Enlisted military is never the first option for the vast majority of folks who join. It was their last option. Only 1% of Americans who qualify for the military even have interest in joining.
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Originally Posted by lilyflower3191981
The people who had no "options" in the civilian world do not magically find success in the military.
Wrong again. You have no idea how someone will react or respond to serving in the military, based only off their civilian life.
Colin Powell is quoted as saying ROTC was where he found his calling and purpose in life. Before it, he was lost.
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It was only once I was in college, about six months into college when I found something that I liked, and that was ROTC, Reserve Officer Training Corps in the military. And I not only liked it, but I was pretty good at it. That's what you really have to look for in life, something that you like, and something that you think you're pretty good at. And if you can put those two things together, then you're on the right track, and just drive on.
Air force to me is very dull* and usually stationed in the middle of the country. Same for Army. Marines are usually based near Navy, which is most always near the ocean. The one exception that comes to me is Crane Naval Weapons base in the middle of Indiana. The drawback to the Navy is the 6 month ship deployments. I'm not sure how often they happen these days. The Army and Marines are a sure bet to 8 month deployments to the Middle East.
As a Navy vet I can only speak to Navy but two of the better "jobs" I remember:
Seabees - a traveling construction and civil engineering crew Home
Divers - you would go to a rating school then dive school. If you become a welder then diver, this translates to decent money for a non college degree, civilian wise**. If you fail dive school, being a welder in the Navy is not the best job. Just one example.
It's been a long time but those are two that are off the top of my head. If I could go back in time I would have liked to have been a Seabee, even though women weren't offered it back then. I remember wanting it so badly when a crew had come to work at the command where I was stationed.
I don't mean this cruelly, but it doesn't sound like you would be considered for Coast Guard, which is what I try to talk my nieces and nephews into. The Coast Guard has very strict requirements for who gets in; GPA, how much you volunteered during your high school years, community involvement etc. You need a resume for consideration. I also highly recommend officer over enlisted.
Best of luck to you! The military can give you direction, take advantage of everything it offers.
*I live near Patrick AFB and it is a ghost town; I never see anyone out walking about and the gym (although state of the art) is usually empty. There is rarely any activity; maybe one helicopter a day takes off, no sense of camaraderie. It just doesn't have the sense of action like a Naval base. My two cents.
I was in an Air Guard Civil Engineer Squadron. Air Force has that. Air Force has the biggest budget and the best facilities.
I work for Navy Facilities/NAVFAC right now. There are Seabees that are engineers. If you go that route then you WILL have a future with NAVFAC. Be flexible and move around and you can find yourself anywhere in the world.
There are different kinds of engineers, as you know. Mechanical, Electrical, Civil, Architectural. Any of those would be sought after civilian careers.
With today's school system, I can't blame anyone for not taking it seriously.
Poor grades, did terribly in school? You will not score well on the ASVAB, your options will still be limited. You might be able to get into the Army and become an 11b ground pounder/cannon fodder.
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Originally Posted by victimofGM
Not necessarily. Some people who do bad on school test score well in mechanical aptitude test.
And some people who were given poor report card grades in school, may do very well on comprehensive achievement tests or on the entrance tests for military service. Those types of tests are given and scored by people who don't know anything about those taking the tests and they can't let personal prejudices alter the results. This is not the case with classroom grades, which may be dumbed-down for some students, if the teachers or administrators choose to sabotage them.
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in the civilian world do not magically find success in the military.
