I’m a civilian about to graduate from college with a MS and BS in accounting. I have currently have a 3.5 gpa. What are the odds of me being accepted into the Air Force OTS program? How does this program compare to bootcamp? Do I et yelled at as much? Do I sleep in the barracks? any info on the ARMY OCS program is also appreciated.
Welcome to the boards greenteeth.
I’ve been through both Basic and OTS in the Air Force. They’re very different.
In Basic, you are told where to go and what to do every single minute of the six weeks. It’s easy to get through if you follow the classic advice: “Never be first, never be last, and don’t volunteer for anything.” (I don’t know who originally said that. S/He was probably referring to Army Basic Training, but it applies.) The other bit of advice I’d offer someone going into Basic is: “Don’t let them get to you.” It’s designed to be a stressful situation, just remember that it’s temporary.
OTS is thirteen weeks long. At least, it was in '94. I found to be much more stressful than Basic, mainly because they don’t tell you what to do with yourself every single minute of the day. Most of your day is structured but you have blocks of time that you can decide how to allocate. Trouble is, they assign so many tasks to you that there is no way you can get it all done in the alotted time. So people end up reading and doing homework by flashlight with a blanket pulled over their heads (so they won’t be caught violating curfew.) Are the tasks bullshit and busy work? Of course. It doesn’t mean you can get away with blowing them off. My biggest problem in OTS was sleep deprivation. (Geez, it’s been seven years and I still sound bitter 
So the advice for Basic - don’t let 'em get to you - goes double for OTS. You just have to do what you can and be creative about how you get things done. The other advice - never volunteer - didn’t work in OTS. A big part of OTS is training people to be leaders and you can’t be a leader if your strategy is to hide from responsibility. So they make it clear from the very beginning that you’ll be very conspicuous unless you volunteer for everything.
OTS is also different because it’s divided into two phases. In the first phase you’re in the lower class. The upper class runs your life. These folks have a grand total of six or seven weeks seniority over you, and in some cases they can really turn into petty tyrants. In phase two, you’re the upper class and you get to be a petty tyrant (or you could defy convention and actually try to educate and be supportive.)
Yelling: if I haven’t made it clear yet, you get yelled at at least as much in OTS.
Barracks: in '94 they were really like some run-down old college dorms. Two to a room, sharing a bathroom with the adjacent room. A little more privacy than Basic, and a little more square footage to be inspected. I think they’ve remodeled or moved into nicer quarters in the last few years.
I afraid I don’t know how much recruiting is going on right now. A 3.5 GPA is more than sufficient. And with a masters degree… I’d guess that they’d be overjoyed to get you.
I just have one more point to make about OTS. A lot of people voluntarily drop out. The training instructors usually don’t try to talk them out of it. In fact, in some cases they actually encourage people to leave. Almost all the people that drop out entered OTS as civilians. I think the main reason is that the prior-enlisted folks know that the “real Air Force” is nothing like OTS. They have a better idea of the goal that they’re working towards, so they are more willing to put up with the temporary bullshit to get there.
I hope this helps you. If you do decide to join, welcome to the USAF. Either way, please keep us posted.
PS. my personal email is down right now, but I hope to have a new account within a week. I send you my address in case you have any more questions.
I appreciate your response. It all sounds very interesting. Could you give me an idea of what a typical day at OTS would consist of. Also, how would this change as I moved further into the program?
We woke up at some ungodly hour - probably 0500. Actually, we were expected to get dressed and shaved and be standing in formation by no later than 0501, so we all set our alarms for 0450 or something. You risk getting a demerit for breaking the lights-out time period, but you’ll definitely catch hell if you’re late for formation, so…
An upperclass officer trainee (OT) would then march us to the chow hall (oops, we’re supposed to call them “dining facilities.”) You’re given about 45 minutes to eat, but that will include about 42 minutes of standing in line.
BTW, you do realize that this account will contain some exaggeration for effect, right? It’s almost impossible to talk about military training without a little hyperbole. I think it has something to do with using humor as a coping mechanism. And even if it’s not 100% accurate, it helps convey the you-gotta-be-kidding-me feeling we often got.
Usually, we would be in the classroom most of the morning and for a couple hours in the afternoon. Most of the classes are just your training instructor and your flight. (You are assigned to a flight at the beginning. You do everything with your flight. Flights start out with about 12 people.) Some classes are in a big lecture hall. Classes cover things like Air Force history, AF organization, customs and courtesies, management and leadership skills, speaking and writing skills, etc. Classes aren’t hard. Staying awake in class - now THAT was hard.
Afternoons were usually filled up with things like cleaning and inspection, drill (learning how to march and how to march others), yardwork and cleaning, inspections, ironing your clothes and polishing your shoes and boots - that kind of thing.
Evenings were mostly study time. And more cleaning. Oh, and filling out reports - safety reports, training reports, physical fitness reports, etc.
Routine is broken up once in a while for things like the obstacle course, physical fitness tests, fundraisers, sports.
The physical fitness portion is not hard. The emphasis is on a measurable improvement, but the minimum levels are not hard to accomplish.
The weekend is not too different. There aren’t classes, but most of the other stuff still applies.
There’s some stuff that you might expect but won’t get in AF OTS. We never put on warpaint and crawled through mud under barbwire. We didn’t learn about battlefield tactics and strategy. We don’t learn hand-to-hand combat. And we only get one session of weapons training - with the M9 pistol.
How does it change as you progress? Well, when you first get there, you have to have an upperclass OT march your whole flight every time you go from point A to point B. You can’t even go to the convenience store for deodorant without getting your whole flight together, and only when that OT is around to take you. After a couple weeks, when someone in your flight gets proficient enough, you get a “driver’s license” and your someone in your flight can lead the flight around. A little while after that, If I recall correctly, you can move around in groups smaller than the entire flight. You still have to march though.
What else changes? The biggest change is when you move from lower to upper class. Then you’re in charge of a lower class and you can catch hell if they screw up. Particularly (but not exclusively) if they screw up something that you were responsible for teaching them. But as an upper class OT, you definitely have more free time. You can leave the base on weekends, but usually not overnight. You occasionally can wear civilian clothes. And things are just generally easier because you get used to it, and are building on things you’ve already done.
Well, I’m sure that’s plenty of (boring) information for now.
Well, I was getting a BS in Meteorology, and my GPA at the time was a shade under 3.0 when I applied. I made it in no problem.
However, I was later disqualified due to some (IMO) bogus medical condition (had laser treatment to correct a minor retinal tear), and was unable to get a waiver.
Now I’m working for the USAF as a civilian.
Vis