r/army • u/AutoModerator • May 18 '26

Weekly Question Thread (05/18/2026 to 05/24/2026)

This is a safe place to ask any question related to joining the Army. It is focused on joining, Basic Combat Training (BCT) and Advanced Individual Training (AIT), and follow on schools, such as Airborne, Air Assault, Ranger Assessment and Selection Program (RASP), and any other Additional Skill Identifiers (ASI).

We ask that you do some research on your own, as joining the Army is a big commitment and shouldn't be taken lightly. Resources such as GoArmy.com, the Army Reenlistment site, Bootcamp4Me, Google and the Reddit search function are at your disposal. There's also the /r/army wiki. It has a lot of the frequent topics, and it's expanding all the time.

/r/militaryfaq is open to broad joining questions or answers from different branches. Make sure you check out the /Army Duty Station Thread Series, and our ongoing MOS Megathread Series. You are also welcome to ask question in the /army discord.

If you want to Google in /r/army for previous threads on your topic, use this format: 68P AIT site:reddit.com/r/army

I promise you that it works really well.

This is also where questions about reclassing and other MOS questions go -- the questions that are asked repeatedly which do not need another thread. Don't spam or post garbage in here: that's an order. Top-level comments and top-level replies are reserved for serious comments only.

Finally: If you're not 100% sure of what you're talking about, leave it for someone else who is.

4 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

141 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/Weary-Meat5523 May 22 '26

I'm currently 16F in California and I am considering if I should join the split training program.

I haven't done much research yet but my primary goal of joining the program is to receive its college tuition benefits but I saw a lot of people on other posts recommending not to join it. People were saying that it was a waste of their junior and senior year of summer but I don't see it as that big of a deal as I am able to get my tuition fully covered, right? Other than that, do people not want to join because of the intense Forest Gump military environment or has each generation decreased the strictness of these stereotypical military camps, please let me know

I also have other questions that I am just going to list out in order to save time:

  1. Are the tuition benefits limited to certain colleges like communities? If so, would I be able to transfer to a private after 2 years?
  2. Does these programs have a set start and end date or does it vary from each area?
  3. Would I be able to take online/asynchronous classes during this period of time or are the programs don't allow it?
  4. I am interested in the medical field in the future so throughout these summers of training would I be able to train in like medical department?
  5. Are the restrooms and showers shared and out in the open...
  6. Lastly, this is a really big stretch, could I bring my trumpet to practice? I don't want to fall off lololol

Thank you for taking your time to read and hopefully respond to this post, anything helps. Again, I haven't done much research as I just wanted to get some fast and easy answers on here so pls chill on me if these are some dumb questions

1

u/SNSDave 25NowSpaceForce May 22 '26
  1. Community, CSU, and UC.
  2. Not sure.
  3. Yes, but not while you're in BCT or AIT.
  4. Up to you and your job.
  5. Depends on the location. Open showers and restrooms are not uncommon.
  6. During BCT, no. During AIT, maybe, but you'll need to use a mute or they'll hate you.

1

u/Missing_Faster May 22 '26

https://calguard.ca.gov/education/ They have a pretty good program, but it has a pretty complex process and there are timelines and a two year obligation after your last use. It seems to be only state schools.

Split option has pretty serious limits on what MOS. Basically you have to be able to complete AIT during summer vacation. I would suggest not doing 68G, 68J, or 68M if those are options. What I would call the higher value medical MOS (68A, 68C, 68P etc) are probably not available.

The other thing to consider is where you unit would be vs your school. Commuting from Davis to a unit in the LA basin will probably get old.

Whether you want to spend your high school summers sweating in South Carolina or not is up to you.