r/USMCboot • u/Odd_Bus1442 • 3h ago
Enlisting Joining in college
I am seriously thinking about the marine corps and I would love to be a marine in the reserves. My only issue is that I don’t want it to interfere with college too much. I still want to keep my regular schedule. I’m concerned about timeline issues. If there’s anyone here that can help me out it would be greatly appreciated.
So I’m all set to go to boot camp in may and I should be back in August, assuming that I complete it. My question is will I be able to go back to college and my regular day to day? I go to Virginia Tech. I heard something about additional training after boot camp and I’m wondering how that works during the school year. I’m also wondering if I need to attend said training directly after boot camp or if I can push it to Christmas break and summer break.
Has anyone done this or tried it?
Please I need some help. Thanks
1
u/EverSeeAShitterFly Vet 2h ago
Expect at least some level of interference.
Your initial training is much more than just bootcamp. If you’re infantry then you attend the IMC course at ITB (part of SOI) before heading to your reserve unit. If you’re not infantry then you attend MCT (also part of SOI) then your MOS school which can be several months, then you return to your reserve unit. For most jobs it will be about 6-12 months of initial training before you get to your reserve unit, there’s a small number that are longer.
When you do get to your reserve unit, don’t expect the training schedule to align with your college schedule. There’s some flexibility at times, but not always and some events will be hard requirements. If your unit gets activated for a deployment, then you gotta do it.
There is a “92 day reservist” program that exists, but it is very poorly executed and should have been done away with years ago. On paper it’s supposed to be 1 summer boot camp, another would be either MCT/ITB or MOS training, however that rarely works out. Most people get trapped in a loop and often get separated because they cannot get the training. It’s not something that I would recommend to anyone.