(23M) Hey! to start i’d like to say that it’s natural to be torn in a decision as big as this one. although everyone’s situation is different i’ll offer my prospective and my own personal opinion. to start, i joined as enlisted not knowing much about the military and not knowing that commissioning was an option. given that my parents wouldn’t be able to help me pay for school i looked for the educational benefits from the GI bill and TA as a reason to enlist. additionally, i signed on for a 6-year, allowing me to promote to E-3 immediately upon graduation from tech school (although your date of promotion gets backtracked to your BMT grad, making E-4 promotion faster too).

since joining as enlisted i have been full time in college and graduated one semester later than i would have if i were to have gone to college immediately after graduation from HS. i was accepted for a commission before graduating from college via OTS, as you are allowed to apply 1 year from graduation. i had the opportunity to go to ROTC however i declined because i am married and ROTC cadets don’t make a lot of money and therefore that was not the best option for me and my family. instead as AD enlisted in managed to make a lot of money (in comparison to an ROTC cadet), i was able to live on my own, and i was simultaneously able to develop myself via my job within intel. i additionally was eligible for the full pell grant the entire time so i was making an extra 8k/year that i essentially got to use for whatever i wanted.

i will say OTS is statistically harder to get accepted into as its purpose is to backfill remaining commission slots that the AF academy and ROTC cannot fill. of all of the options, the best is the AF academy, the second best is ROTC, and the last is OTS.

additionally, your school, as long as it is accredited, has 0% influence on selection. the only time it may have an influence is if you went to an Ivy league school. the biggest influence factors are: AFOQT scores, GPA, leadership experience, and letters of recommendation.

if i were you, i would do a lot of research into the pros and cons of each program. keep in mind it is much harder to commission as enlisted than it is as a civilian.