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Schedule

Your typical week will include physical training three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 5:45-6:45 a.m. You will have your Military Science and Leadership class intermixed with all your general and major classes. Those classes will vary how often you meet depending on your student status. First-year students meet for one hour each week, sophomores for two and junior and senior year for three hours. This is your typical week.

Other weeks will include more training, and the training will vary depending on what we are learning at the time. Just as any chemistry class will have a lab associated with it, our classes do as well. Every Wednesday we hold lab from 5-7:00 p.m. This allows Cadets the opportunity to meet as a battalion and expand upon what you have learned in class. The labs allow time to do the hands-on portion that we do not have time for in class.

Through Army  ROTC, you are a college student who just happens to be in ROTC. Your GPA is top priority, and we are flexible with training if you need extra time to study for tests. The best way to explain your commitment and time involved in ROTC is that we land somewhere between an extracurricular activity (spending some time outside of class) and a varsity-level sport (where they tell you when to wake up, take classes, what time practice is and when you are to go to bed). We require time outside of class; however, you are still a college student.

Training

We have one large field training exercise each semester that lasts about three-and-a-half days. We do rappel from a 40-foot tower, obstacle course, day, and night land navigation, qualify with M-4 rifles (shoot live rounds) and spend an entire day of squad situational tactical exercises (running Army missions). Examples of those missions would include doing reconnaissance missions, attacking a known enemy,  implementing an ambush.

Training will change slightly as you progress from a first-year student to senior. In your freshman and sophomore year, you have less responsibilities and are learning the basics of the Army. Basic camp is a requirement in the summer of your sophomore summer (this depends on when you start the program and if you have already completed basic training). Your junior year is the focus year, as you are in evaluated leadership positions. You will oversee our physical training sessions, getting information out to all the Cadets, planning and running labs and overall preparing for advance camp. Advance camp is held  at Fort Knox, Kentucky. The U.S. Army’s largest training exercise, advance camp is the U.S. Army Cadet Command’s capstone training event. The purpose of this course is to train U.S. Army ROTC Cadets to Army standards, to develop their leadership skills and to evaluate their officer potential. Most Army Cadets attend advance camp between their junior and senior undergraduate years after having contracted to join the Army. Successful completion of advance camp is a prerequisite to becoming an Army officer through ROTC.

The 35-day course starts with individual training and leads to collective training, building from simple to complex tasks. This building-block approach permits integration of previously learned skills into follow-on training. This logical, consistent training sequence is the same for each training cycle. Every day at advance camp is a day of training. There will be little you see there that you have not seen here at SDSU. After completing advance camp, you will return as a senior and will oversee all the Cadets, under supervision of the Cadre. You will be running ranges, evaluating the juniors, and helping them get ready for advance camp.

There are training opportunities you can apply for during the summer. This includes airborne (jumping out of airplanes), air assault (working with helicopters), mountain warfare (learning to survive in mountain environments) and cadet troop leadership training opportunities. Cadet troop leadership training allows you to shadow an active duty lieutenant for approximately three weeks to see what their job entails and what it is like to be active duty.

What's Next?

After graduation and commissioning, you will go to Basic Officer Leader’s Course at an active duty post to learn your job as an officer in the Army. This will happen regardless of whether you select active duty, National Guard or Army Reserve. This training will last anywhere from three months to a year-and-a-half depending on the job. There are a host of other military benefits, too many to talk through. One example is military discounts at retailers and food places. The biggest benefit, though, is the training you receive. Should you decide to leave the Army, when you put your Army service on your résumé, you have a big advantage over all other applicants. If you put down that you were an Army officer, they realize that you not only know how to work hard to accomplish a job, but you know how to lead and manage people to do the same. Allowing  you to get a better job than planned. No matter how you go through Army ROTC, if you pass college, follow ROTC requirements and abide by the law, we can guarantee you a job upon graduation. Few other organizations can do that.