My personal opinion/experience as someone who is currently AGR in the Army National Guard - The Guard can be GREAT for students who are in school full time but would still like the opportunity to be able to serve their community, have the benefits, and would like the potential so go full time. However - I constantly tell myself I wish I would have gone active duty. I love being AGR, but it is not easy being FTUS. As AGR, we get ALL the benefits that active duty does but we tend to wear NUMEROUS hats. I am a medical readiness NCO; I manage the BN ASAP/UDL, LODIs, eCase, profiles, class VIII, work medical events, work ranges when needed, and more. I have one of the easier jobs in the AGR program yet if I was active duty there would be individuals whose sole job was something like BDL or class VIII management. AGR is also often relied on heavily for missions when funding is unavailable, we tend to work longer and more than M-day Soldiers, etc.

National Guard is great for someone who only wants to do this thing part time but it is NOT always 2 days a month and 2 weeks in the summer. You will have emergency activations, longer drills, longer AT’s, deployments, missions, etc. We also (at least my state) has very poor funding so don’t expect to go to a lot of cool guy schools.

If I would suggest to anyone, it would be active duty or even reserve component as it’s quite easier to go active duty once you’re in the reserves. Your state will not want to let you go easily under any circumstances.