Originally Posted by
CLazarus
I knew a lot of Zoo graduates in my USAF time, and frankly I don't remember any who came away with fond memories of the place. My UPT class was mostly fresh Academy grads and their mindsets reminded me of paroled prisoners. The best reason to attend is if you can't afford to go elsewhere and have ambitions towards a full career with maximum promotion potential, as the Zoomie Force is strong in networking. Since you already have a full ride and don't pine to wear stars, you really don't need to put yourself through the pain of Zoo education. And getting a civilian education has a lot of benefits all its own.
Aside from getting hired with the ANG, another avenue is ROTC if your school offers it or OTS. Anyone can walk on to ROTC and try to get a pilot slot, scholarship or no. One of my best buddies left grad school for OTS with a UPT slot in the early 90's, I don't know if OTS is even an option these days but when recruiting is tough like it is now I'd imagine it is. Considering the Active Duty pilot commitment is the same regardless of AD commissioning source and it seems you'd be happy flying any manned USAF platform, you should really look into ROTC and OTS. In the meantime, feel free to pursue the ANG path, it is a great way to serve and get a seniority number to boot.
There's really no advantage to going to USAFA other than not having to pay for it. Unless you graduate in the top 10%, it's not something that will be helpful for a career either. If you want networking opportunities, you'll get those in whatever flying unit you join.
I'm with C130driver on this--if you can get the guard slot, it's a no-brainer.
For what it's worth, whenever someone asks me where I went to college, it's always somewhat embarrassing to say USAFA. Not a good place to be, not a good place to be from either.