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Joining the National Guard before Law School

Posted: Sat May 16, 2015 10:09 pm
by legalbeagle12
I am planning on the Joining the National Guard and attending Law School in the near future.

I work for a company headquartered on the east coast . My plan is to transfer to the headquarters and attend Law School at Rutgers part time. New Jersey offers a tuition waiver program, which would allow me to attend law school for free. The problem is that I have to wait at least one year, possibly longer, until my job transfer request is granted. Additionally, I have to gain admission to Rutgers.

-Should I join the National Guard now or wait until my transfer request is granted?
-How difficult is it to do an interstate transfer in the National Guard? Can a transfer request be denied?
-If I join in my current state; should I join as an Officer Candidate or just enlist and apply to OCS once I am settled in my new state?

Thank you in advance for your help

Re: Joining the National Guard before Law School

Posted: Sat May 16, 2015 10:16 pm
by elterrible78
I would actually wait until your transfer is granted to enlist, unless you have some compelling reason not to. How is attending BCT and AIT (or OCS) going to look for you? Will there be any problems with your job?

The difficulty of the IST (and everything else in the Guard) has everything to do with your unit. Some units are pretty high-speed and take care of things quickly, others are complete disasters and will take forever to do anything. I've never heard of a request being flat-out denied, but I do know people who have had a ton of trouble just getting it taken care of.

If you join now, I would just go to OCS straight after BCT if you can swing it.

Re: Joining the National Guard before Law School

Posted: Sat May 16, 2015 10:34 pm
by legalbeagle12
elterrible78 wrote:I would actually wait until your transfer is granted to enlist, unless you have some compelling reason not to. How is attending BCT and AIT (or OCS) going to look for you? Will there be any problems with your job?

The difficulty of the IST (and everything else in the Guard) has everything to do with your unit. Some units are pretty high-speed and take care of things quickly, others are complete disasters and will take forever to do anything. I've never heard of a request being flat-out denied, but I do know people who have had a ton of trouble just getting it taken care of.

If you join now, I would just go to OCS straight after BCT if you can swing it.