I'm an incoming college freshman who is deeply interested in applying to OCS for ether the US Marine Corps or Army. I was looking at the the Platoon Leaders Course basic requirements and I easily would meet all of them. However when I looked at the Platoon Leaders Course class requirements it said that I had to have an SAT/ACT of 22/1000 or take the ASVAB and obtain a GT score of 74. Now I didn't get a 22 on my ACT(I got a 19) mainly due to a learning disability in mathematics. Although this learning disability would not effect my ability to serve as an officer in any matter or way. So is this requirement official because I'm confused by the statement made in terms of basic requirements and then what s mentioned in class requirements. Unless they could possibly be two separate requirements that need to be met for the course.

Btw the new ACT/SAT comparison came out and a 19 is now converted into equaling a 1000 on the SAT enough to met the requirement according to my understanding.

I also have a previous ACT score that give me composite score of 23 but left the composite score box blank and said I was unprepared for college despite the fact that I scored well in the areas I did do.

Could someone give me an opinion on this matter?

Read this thread "Officer Candidate School Information at this link" thoroughly. After you've soaked up enough information, seek and contact the OSO.

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Originally posted by HollywoodMarine:
Read this thread "Officer Candidate School Information at this link" thoroughly. After you've soaked up enough information, seek and contact the OSO.

Thank you for directing me to this thread.

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Originally posted by Kevin1990:
Although this learning disability would not effect my ability to serve as an officer in any matter or way.

Kevin, I don't know how you can say that..but like Hollywood said, see an OSO for your answer.

I will say this, however..this is a HIGHLY competitive program.... many are called..few are chosen... ACT/SAT is one base requirement and measurement in the program.... if you and another cnadidate were equal in all aspects except this one, which one do you think would be chosen??

See your OSO... ask if there are other areas, if any, that you are stronger in that could offset these...

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Originally posted by BobTate:

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Originally posted by Kevin1990:
Although this learning disability would not effect my ability to serve as an officer in any matter or way.

Kevin, I don't know how you can say that..but like Hollywood said, see an OSO for your answer.

I will say this, however..this is a HIGHLY competitive program.... many are called..few are chosen... ACT/SAT is one base requirement and measurement in the program.... if you and another cnadidate were equal in all aspects except this one, which one do you think would be chosen??

See your OSO... ask if there are other areas, if any, that you are stronger in that could offset these...

I know it's a very competitive process.

However in terms of my learning disability effecting me in the position of an officer, I say it would have no effect for the following reasons.

.I'm very good at basic math and graphing,and I'm excellent at navigation.

.I'm also pretty good in terms of approaching technical/mechanical/electronic application and issues.

Also I'm not aiming to become an officer in aviation or artillery.

So overall even though my disability poses some problems it can be overcome or worked with.

As a Marine officer you will have to be able to:

Calculate distance vs time quickly

Be able to call for fire (from mortars/arty...involves getting and converting azimuths from grid to magnetic, mils to degrees, add/subtract GM angles, convert meters to feet, OT factors. Call adjustments.

Call for close air support (much like call for fire, converting grid to magnetic, getting reverse azimuths, angles, meters to feet to nautical miles).

That is the kind of math that you need to be good at, no matter what MOS. This is what they will expect from you at TBS. Just to give you a good idea.

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Be able to call for fire (from mortars/arty...involves getting and converting azimuths from grid to magnetic, mils to degrees, add/subtract GM angles, convert meters to feet, OT factors. Call adjustments.

heh, well actually they use grid anyway. When you CFF you read them mils magnetic and the FDC will do all the math for you. You're never going to have to convert mils to degrees in CFF. Even so, going from mils to degrees or vice versa is as easy as looking at your compass. Getting an azimuth requires no skill either, you point your compass at the target and voila, there's your azimuth. CFF nowadays is a piece of cake with vector21's. Point it at the target, get 10 digit grid...and if your FDC and gun line know their jobs, you'll have first round effects on target.

Anyway, your point still stands. You're going to need some kind of math comprehension skills as a Marine...period.

For the OP...how in the world can you say this with confidence?

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Although this learning disability would not effect my ability to serve as an officer in any matter or way.

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heh, well actually they use grid anyway. When you CFF you read them mils magnetic and the FDC will do all the math for you. You're never going to have to convert mils to degrees in CFF. Even so, going from mils to degrees or vice versa is as easy as looking at your compass. Getting an azimuth requires no skill either, you point your compass at the target and voila, there's your azimuth. CFF nowadays is a piece of cake with vector21's. Point it at the target, get 10 digit grid...and if your FDC and gun line know their jobs, you'll have first round effects on target.

That's what I thought, but I was doing CFF with LAV's 81s the other day, and they said they want it in degrees when you call it in. Said mortars was always in degrees?? Maybe an LAV thing. Like you said, not that big of a deal, but we were using tanks to get us headings, all in mils..plus we were doing CAS too, so we did alot of converting.

81's are still 0341's...whether they're with LAR or a straight leg bn. They should know better than to use degrees. You remember who the section leader was?

No. They actually rotated sections all week. We were out at OP-3 doing a TACP shoot all week.

I can't remember who told us, I think it was a Capt or 1st Lt, said to give it to them in degrees. We told them that is not how they teach it up in Q, but they said to do it anyway, plus it makes it easier for them... I don't know. It just made it more confusing for us...