I am 32 years old and I will be joining the Army. I have a graduate degree, and I am trying to figure out if I should apply for OCS, or if I should enlist then apply for OCS. My concern is the cutoff for OCS is 35, and I am not sure what the time frame is once I get in.

What exactly are you trying to find out? I served in both officer and enlisted capacities, but I can't help if you don't specify your question.

A lot more pay and better working conditions, why would anyone want to go in at the bottom

Stg, thanks for the reply.

I went to speak with one of my local recruiters. He did not have a lot of information on officer but I feel gave me a lot of good information to start. He did however tell me slot more about the enlisted side and how if I started that route I could switch submit my packet for OCS. The loan repayment would be great for my graduate degree, but I am concerned there is a timeframe from enlisted to officer that I may not be aware about. Since the cutoff is 35 I do not want to push. I want to be a officer with the Army, just was not sure if I wanted to try enlisted since they had the loan repayment program.
What type of officer were you in the army? Being that the recruiters do not know a lot about OCS do you know of another way I can talk to someone in the Army specifically about being an officer. I found OCS website and sent them an e-mail last week. I just wanted to see if there are recruiting officer setup to talk with external officer candidates.
Thanks for your time.

I was a chemical officer, but that was under the branch detail program. When the detail ended, I went to my "home" branch - Quartermaster. I never once worked in a QM role, though. Given my enlisted service as an 88M10/88M20 (motor transport operator), my battalion commander assigned me to a transportation unit.

I would normally suggest going enlisted, then officer. It makes you a better officer. The main reason is that your BS filter is so very much better... and that's speaking from direct experience with dozens of examples readily available. However, given your age, I'd suggest going the officer route directly.

Otherwise, you'll be stuck as a junior EM for a number of years. You'll feel your talents and education are wasted... because they will be.

Hello f:

Officers ISSUE orders. Enlisted people carry them out. Seems to me like you MUST have thought about management before, having attained a graduate degree. But, maybe you're just a technical guy and don't want to run anything... I don't know.

excon