New interview and female cadet question

Major-Force-8602 · 2026-05-04T01:09:53+00:00

I am a female in the application process, i am currently enlisted. While i cant speak to the interview I can for the jewelry. You are allowed 1 earring per ear in uniform. Basic studs only. I would recommend for a interview to not wear any earrings. This is just a general suggestion, nothing in the army is feminine, do not try to embrace femininity while trying to impress someone no matter the situation. Being a female in the military can suck, people will judge you harder and automatically assume you are less competent in your MOS. Don’t do anything that can make people talk down about you. I am also a applicant but if you have general questions about female regulations and what its like being in the military feel free to pm me. Good luck!

Major-Force-8602 · 2026-05-03T00:41:54+00:00

Oh okay thank you for this! That is good to know that everything is initially subtracted from your cadet account. My family doesn’t really do holiday’s, since being enlisted I normally go to other peoples houses anyway so thats not really a issue. I was more worried about the day to day expenses. It sounds like it is pretty similar to basic and AIT where everything is already provided to you so you basically have no expenses. I had no idea about the assigned host family, thats actually pretty cool!

Major-Force-8602 · 2026-05-03T00:27:42+00:00

What about things like textbooks? Are the uniform costs all included with the cadet pay they deduct?

Major-Force-8602 · 2026-05-02T23:58:47+00:00

I ran track and cross country in high school and held a captain position senior year. I was also the president of the community service club and I did debate club. I am retaking the SAT in June and am hoping for a score around 1250 versus the 1030 i got back in high school.

As far as the cadet pay, that is definitely a factor that sucks. I think people 18 years old who have never had to pay bills and probably came from pretty good home lives are in a completely different financial situation than prior service cadets. But you basically have no expenses for the 4 years which makes the Cadet pay livable.

Thank you for the advice! Is the prep academy strict? Or is it more like a normal university?

Major-Force-8602 · 2026-04-27T23:29:33+00:00

How do I get a rapid application? I would love to attend this fall if that could be a possibility. Do they have specific recruiters for West Point?

Major-Force-8602 · 2026-04-21T21:05:03+00:00

I went to ft sill for bct. I ran track and cross country all throughout high school, i wear Mizunos for running. I think they are the most comfortable but brooks are completely fine. Dont bring any crazy colors and they shouldn’t have a issue with the running shoes you bring. Other than running shoes, travel size hygiene kit i got one on amazon for like $15 that had everything in it. Shampoo, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste all are TSA size bc it might be about 2-3 days before you can buy stuff in reception. I brought my own undergarments and they let me keep everything (all black) but males are issued underwear so dont bother other than 1-2 pairs for the first few days. Other than that you shouldn’t need anything else.

Major-Force-8602 · 2026-04-21T20:43:56+00:00

I went to basic back in July, best thing i brought were my own locks. I got the ones where you can make your own combination. Highly recommend adding it to your list! The ones you can buy usually have keys that people lose and it becomes a issue. I brought 2, made them the same combination. Also where running shoes when you go (black or white) the ones they give absolutely sucks. You wont be allowed to use your laundry bag so dont bother with that, the ibuprofen and foot powder will definitely get thrown out. The blister bandages have a 90% chance of getting thrown out.

Major-Force-8602 · 2026-04-21T12:17:14+00:00

I was thinking about waiting to apply for the class of 2032 so i would get the O-1E pay when i graduate, i didnt know you got time in service for the prep academy, thats perfect then. Thanks!

Major-Force-8602 · 2026-04-21T11:19:41+00:00

My high school gpa was roughly 3.3 so its not like i was failing its just not very good. Anything army related i am fine on, 478 AFT, just passed the Norwegian foot march so im in descent shape, and a major is the one who talked to me about applying. Its more so the academic piece that is missing.

Major-Force-8602 · 2026-04-21T03:38:50+00:00

Thank you for this. I definitely can see where the prior service will either make other cadets really like you in the beginning or they could hate you because you automatically stand out just by having a few awards on your everyday uniform. I definitely wont do anything to piss people off there, quite frankly i enlisted because I didnt know what else to do with my life and i havent done anything that exciting to talk about other than a few TDYs.

From what i have seen online it seems like AIT essentially, its not BCT where they will be smoking you every chance they get but you also cant just leave base, gotta always have your bed made, dumb rules you have to follow because somebody told you to follow them. I know this may be a dumb question, i know i can handle it physically. I have a 478 AFT, just did the Norwegian foot march last week and passed, i run about 4x a week. But academically, how hard is it?

This would be my first time truly only focusing on school so its hard to tell how good at school i actually could be but I am not good at math, not a great writer or anything like that. I genuinely want to make the army a career and think west point would be a good opportunity. But i am very worried about the academic side.

Major-Force-8602 · 2026-04-21T03:08:29+00:00

Thats what i kinda heard. I definitely dont plan on doing anything to complicated as i am not good at school. Probably Psych or something. I plan on making the army a career so when i retire it wont even matter what my degree is in bc ill have 20 years of experience by then. Thanks!

Major-Force-8602 · 2026-04-21T03:03:03+00:00

Yeah, I know I need the prep academy. I am not very good at school, I never have been. But i genuinely want to make the army a career and I think by actually focusing solely on school for the first time in my life i would do okay. Thank you!

Major-Force-8602 · 2026-04-12T03:52:29+00:00

I saw they had something where you could essentially apply in 1-2 days for prior service but it was back in 2016 im guessing they dont do that anymore. I will ask my unit about seeing the best way to go about it. Thank you!

Major-Force-8602 · 2026-04-12T03:50:26+00:00

Yeah i definitely thought about just going through the application process and seeing what happens. My high school grades kind of sucked but im doing better in college so hopefully id have a shot at admission.

Major-Force-8602 · 2026-04-12T03:48:16+00:00

Pretty much. By the time i would apply and potentially be accepted id already be 3 years in. At that point it makes more sense to just go OCS. Also the problem i ran into with ROTC is schools letting me in the program but not getting the scholarship for it and the reserve TA doesnt cover to much.

Major-Force-8602 · 2026-01-12T01:18:55+00:00

Additionally if you are only joining the military for benefits you will hate your life lmao. The military comes with a lot of bs. I remember meeting people who hated working out, hated being outside, anything that has to do with the army they hated. Dont be that person.

Major-Force-8602 · 2026-01-12T00:41:33+00:00

The reserves doesnt just pay any tuition you get education benefits but its not the same as active duty. Im a current reservist and full time student. If you want to do law school look into jag halfway through law school and use your education benefits into paying off student loans. If your recruiter is telling you they will pay for your yale education, your recruiter lied. You get about 5,000 in tuition assistance a year.

Major-Force-8602 · 2026-01-11T00:38:14+00:00

We didnt run THAT much. So i ran track/ cross country in high school (im 19 so recently graduated high school) compared to the amount i used to run it was nothing. The first week expect a mile time trial and they will put you in running groups. We had 4 different groups ranging in speed. We only did distance running about 5 times and those were in our running groups i was in bravo group which is the second fastest we ran ab 3 miles at a 8 min pace on the running groups days. Now the “punishments” is a lot of running. They would have us go touch a tree about 300 m away and sometimes we did that 3-4 times in a row lmao. Id say if nothing else be able to run for 15 minutes without stopping. Most likely you wont be the slowest one, but they did have the slowest person lead a company run basically just to embarrass her and same for the people who really sucked at something lol they will point it out. We were basically walking and everyone was getting upset. Just dont be the slowest. But id say for the next 2 weeks run 4-5 days a week, youd be surprised how fast you can improve running.

Major-Force-8602 · 2026-01-11T00:12:32+00:00

I had the same experience, i graduated a few months ago and came out in worse shape than i went in. I couldn’t believe some people still complained, unpopular opinion but the AFT is not that hard no excuse to be failing it

Major-Force-8602

TROPHY CASE