Hi.. Didn't read all the thread... just the initial questions. If it has already been answered, my apologies.
1) If you already have some university, RMC is a waste of time.
- RMC RARELY IF EVER accepts 2nd year students. The nature of the college requires everyone to start from the beginning.
2) Based on that, id go ROTP CIv if you want subsidization and dont want to lose all the credits youve worked hard for. They wont coutn otherwise, so either finish a degree and go DEO, go ROTP Civ, or give up the credits.
3) I did 1 year of the ROTP Jr. Program, +IAP/BOTP. Did not actually end up in RMC for a variety of reasons, mostly belonging to the fact that I didn't like the premise anymore, and didn't want to waste more of the army's money.
I spent a year in ST Jean with the "Cream of the crop" of high school class presidents, sports stars and other people who have proven to be leaders somehow.
Recall that basically ROTP demands that you sell yourself. Which is great. But they are asking this of 17 year olds, in most cases. So you are talking about people who have won the popularity contest in high school, for the most part... there are exceptions - I was one, as were some of my friends, but still...
A friend of mine is a 2nd year, and I chat with him on msn from time to time. But he has little time to do so........ Im a full time university student, (2nd year) with 5 courses. 4 of those have exams.... He has 7 exams, 7 academic courses, PT, Sports, (seperate), French and Military Training, plus inspections, de rigeur mil prep, (polishing, cleaning, etc) ..... and we will end up with equivalent degrees in the end.
That said, RMC is a family atmosphere. Dysfunctional, but family.
It is built to make leaders. Does it mess up sometimes? Yes. But so does the NCO structure sometimes
The benefits to RMC do exist, and are somewhat influential.... having an "old boys club" to refer to when you want to leave and get that civvy job is great, especially when your entire network is military people.
There is also a certain personal pride in going to the Country's Military Academy and graduating, with honours, with a degree, in a program that is much harder to accomplish than Civvy U.
Plus, excluding the hats, the scarlets are generally applauded by all the young men for their skills with the women.
And Im going to get hit for this.. when I was writing a paper on military spending, I asked my friend for advice.. he said: "Ask for more beer money; anything to make the girls here look better".
No offence to any of the RMC girls around.