Originally Posted by Adlerdriver

Why not pursue a meaningful degree you can use as a backup? Consider ROTC while you’re attending college. If not, enlisting to help pay for school can be a good option and a way to possibly pursue a commission as an ANG officer as well as selection for UPT. If you have other scholarship options, consider those as well, so you can graduate with little debt and be available for officer training ASAP. If you truly don’t want to use the military as a stepping stone, then make officer training and completion of UPT your primary goal. As soon as you’re done with school and the opportunity is available, go to UPT. You’ll spend several years on full time active duty getting all the training competed. You may have the option to get a full time position at your Guard unit after you get back from training. The training you receive will be far superior to anything you can get at a civilian college. Opportunities for civilian aviation jobs will most likely be available at some point in your future, but for now success as a military officer and UPT student should really be your focus if that’s what you want. After you have some experience, you would still have the option to get a job at AE eventually; the only difference is you may not have the extra couple of years of seniority. In the long run, once you’re flying for a major airline – who cares