M14 Forum

carpshooter

I've read that now the Corps wants only high school graduates anymore !

Today's Marine must be smarter than past requirements to become a jarhead , is this true ?

2336USMC

Been that way for a long time. I was banished to recruiting duty in the late 90's so I know what the standards were then. Straight up high school diploma was pretty much a requirement. A GED required a waiver and a guy had to jump thru a lot of hoops to get that waiver. Non-high school grad was pretty much out of the question.

Little known fact that the Marine Corps also had a higher cutoff for ASVAB test scores than some of the other services, and even at the lower end of the Marine Corps allowable score range a guy had to jump through hoops and be flawless in just about every other way to get in. No flaming of other services, those were the standards enforced at the time.

m1a shooter

Also some figures I've seen state that 75% of our nations youth are not qualified to enlist in any service.

9th

What was the education requirement for Marine draftees?

2336USMC

True statement based on my experience. Sad state of affairs.

We had a rule of thumb that said if a young man walked into the office out of the blue and said he wanted to join, there was about a 99% chance he couldn't pass the ASVAB test. It held true, and the ASVAB test is not all that hard to pass. In order to find guys that could pass it we had to work our butts off.

We had a some pretty basic off the cuff questions we used to ask the kids at the high schools when they showed interest, just to get an idea in 30 seconds or less if they had a chance. Things like "What's the square root of 100?"

I was in the San Fernando Valley in the northern Los Angeles metro area, and there was a lot of gang activity. It used to break my heart when some young man would come in and pretty much beg to join so that he could get out of the neighborhood, out of the gang life, and would tell me straight up that he knew he was wrong and wanted to change his life and become an honorable man. Then I would ask him somne questions about his criminal record, and have to tell him that he was totally disqualified from joining the Marine Corps, ever. I think a lot of those guys had the right motives aqnd probably would have been good Marines and for the right reasons, but the standards didn't bend. They will have to live with the choices they made.

The days of the judge ordering a young man to either enlist or go to jail are over.

carpshooter

If you looked sharp , than the Corps got you , I had a high school diploma , was over qualified for the Army back in them days gone by !

str8shooter

I went to Catholic school for 11 years. At the beginning of my senior year I got in trouble with the Principal, a nun. Something about telling her to go somewhere and do something with herself. I was asked not to return. I tried public school, but quickly found out I already had more than enough credits to graduate from the state school system, and couldn't find the motivation to go anymore. They wanted me to attend for a semester to get their diploma.
Long story short, I signed up for the Corps at 17 w/o a ged or diploma, and no one asked. At about 3.5 years in my training NCO calls me in and asks me if I have a diploma or ged. I told him the story and he laughed. I returned to school at night and got my HS diploma. Luckily school took precedent over thursday night barracks cleanup!

GARRARD

When I joined the Army it was high school diploma or GED and a waiver. Soon after 9/11 those standards went right out of the window and for the last few years they've been letting convicted criminals in with waivers, waivers that aren't hard to get.

There's definitely a price to be paid for lowering standards and unfortunately, NCO's like myself get to deal with it.

rageagainst1984

Today if you wanna join the Corps you have to have a High School diploma or GED with I believe two college courses in the 100's or higher could be as simple as Phys Ed or English.
Any misdemeanor crimes require a moral waver even if committed as a minor and many of those are still rejected. They want high school kids with clean records!

Believe this but tattoos are starting to raise some eyebrows, I believe that is due to gang activity that is becoming an issue, yes there are gang members in the Corps and you don't wanna teach them how to set up an ambush do you, or kill a man with a stare at 200m?

Right now the Marine Corps is at capacity (200,000 i think) and they dont need new recruits, boot camp wait time is 6 months if you signed up today, average.

UAWMAN

"What was the education requirement for Marine draftees?"
Didn't seem to matter when they needed us then did it?

javajoy

I was an 8411 94-97 in the mountains of western NC (PCS Waynesville/ RSS Asheville). You had to be a HS grad or GED with 15 semester college credits to join. No exceptions. I put only 1 GED in who had the credits. Males needed an AFQT of 31 and females a 50 (did get one waivered though). In addition to all that they had to pass an initial PFT which was I believe a 1.5 run, 30 sit ups and 5 pull ups, which had to be accomplished before shipping. These were the Clinton lean years. It was tough to make mission and I did eat many a donut!

carpshooter

In the Army , being smart is not a strong requirement as this photo shows !

Attached Images

!cid_4F03186295CC4998B48E1B61811E1EA0@PuckPC.jpg (18.0 KB, 31 views)

thefishguy77

I don't care who you are that's funny.

JavierC

LMAO Unbelievable event if it wasn't for the picture before our eyes.
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I dropped out of high school in my senior year (17½ years old) and joined up.

When I was at Great Lakes Naval Hospital, after being released from the ward and put into Marine Barracks there, I underwent GED course to obtain my high school equivalency. The Navy Ensign who gave the course came to me after we had completed the final tests and received our certificates. He told me to go on with education because I showed at least two years of college level comprehension in all classes he had given.

1911M14

sorry to bring up a dead thread but Im currently reading "Miracle at Belleau Wood" and found something really interesting. of the Marine Brigade at Belleau Wood in 1918, 60% had attended college, which is something i find truly remarkable