Leaving University For a Career In The RM?

[Sandman]

For the past 4-5 months now i've been training for the Royal Marine Reserves. I have just finished my first year at uni in Portsmouth but in the past month i have decided that i want to go for a full career within the RM. Obviously, this would mean that i have to finish my studies early. Although I want to be a Royal Marine more than anything i am worried, after reading many threads in this forum, about the amount of people that drop out during the 30 weeks basic training. Like i said before, i want a career within the royal marines MORE THAN ANYTHING. I am sure though that most other recruits who join also feel like this but a lot still inevitably leave during basic - if what i have read is correct?

I have a good (at least i believe it to be a good) background knowledge of the RM and am fairly up to date with the latest news. I have also read all of the information given to me by the AFCO through and through, especially the parts on the specific modules during basic just to get my head around exactly what will be entailed.

The last thing i want to do is get past PRMC (which i know will be a challenge in itself) and then get to basic only to find that it isn't for me. (especially after leaving uni to do it ).

Sorry, i'm just rambling on and i haven't even asked anything yet. I suppose, what i'm trying to say is, i know that the number of people that finish their training with their original troop is low, but how many recruits who start the training actually get through to the end, whether in their original troop or after being put into hunter company and retrying a module?

Although i "know" after reading around all thats involved in basic training that i have the strength and determination to do it, i am worried whether my "know" will suddenly change to a "Hmm, i'm not to sure about this now". I think maybe though, that because i am leaving uni for a career within the RM there will be more pressure on me to complete training, as if i don't then i will have wasted a lot of time and money on education and i will also have failed another challenge that i have set myself.

I apologise for rambling on, especially as i have not really asked many questions but if anyone has any advise or suggestions then they would be very much welcomed as i am now tearing my hair out (proverbally anyway, cos its shaved off, LOL) about what to do.

Regards
Mikey 0X

[braywick]

Hi Sandman,

I can't really answer your question directly, but what I would say is that PRMC gives you a good idea of whether you think you could get through recruit training.

By the end of the second day I was sure it was what I wanted to do, even though I failed my PRMC.

In contrast some of the guys who passed with ease were unsure if it was what they wanted to do.

I would advise you to go for the PRMC and see how you get on.

Hope this helps

Braywick

[Grimey Vibes]

Basic training is different from what it is like when you pass out and become a fully fledged Royal Marine, although i have no experience of this myself. In basic you are treated lowest of the low for 32 weeks as well as pushed to your physical limits. If you get through that, the good stuff starts. I know people who think the army is like what they see on Full Metal Jacket all the way through your career, i used to before i researched it fully. All you have to do is grit your teeth and get through basic, then you can decide if it is for you. Just become a reserve and you can decide if it is for you based on your experiences, but wait untill you pass out though before making any decisions. That way you can see if it is for you while still at Uni getting your degree. When you get your Degree, you will have a back up incase you do decide to jack it in during basic.

[Sandman]

When you get your Degree, you will have a back up incase you do decide to jack it in during basic.

Only problem is, im already 24 so by the time i have finished my degree ill be getting to the age where ill be to old nd wrinkly to get in (LOL).

The advise on not deciding until after the basic though seems to be Top Banana. That definatley seems like the wisest move to make. I think also WHEN i pass PRMC and get to Lympstone ill tell my family that if i come home early from training that i'm weak and make sure that they keep reminding me that im weak if i say i want to come home. That way ill be to ashamed to leave and ill have to stay to save the embarresment. HAHAHA

Mikey

[bigbart]

I'm sure the training staff will let you know how weak you are if you tried getting out. I've never been to CTC but I would have tjought that any doubts in your mind could be very destructive and if you even have the slightest doubt, maybe it's not for you. Remember wahat they say..99.9% need not apply. On the other hand, if you can just keep reminding yourself of the good times that lie ahead, and if your mind is strong, you might be able to drag yourself through the training and come out the other end a Royal. Green lid and everything. Good luck, anyway.

[Mince]

Pulling out of university doesn't show commitment, which you'll need bags of to get through CTC. I think it's in the 'what makes a good officer' thread that someone says joining in your late 20s is a good thing, if anything; you'll be more mature and worldy-wise. Stay at uni and use the next 2 yrs to run amok with the RMR and sports clubs. I knew a bloke who fell off a rope in RM training and broke every bone in his body; if that sort of thing happens to you (and you survive it) then at least as you sprawl bust on the ground you can know you have a degree to fall back on.

[Edwards159]

what ever you decide think carefully about it. Dont rush into anything. The decision you make will influence the rest of your life!!

[Sandman]

I'm sure the training staff will let you know how weak you are if you tried getting out. I've never been to CTC but I would have tjought that any doubts in your mind could be very destructive and if you even have the slightest doubt, maybe it's not for you.

This is exactly why i'm thinking very hard about joining. I know full well that if i have any doubts at all about myself about my abilities i won't succeed! I'm thinking of all my possible doubts and getting over them one by one. I don't have to many doubts anyway, but i think if i had no doubts to get over in the first place then i should seriously worry (or seek psychiatric help!).

Pulling out of university doesn't show commitment, which you'll need bags of to get through CTC.

And normally i would agree. I spent last year studying medical genetics at the University of Wales, Swansea, but soon realised that there was no way i could spend the rest of life working in a lab, couped up all day. I then decided to change course, and uni. I decided, after many talks to the head of school, to study Palaeontology at Portsmouth as i wanted a career where i could spend a lot of time outside. It turns out that outdoor work in palaeontology is seriously limited (not to mention extremely expensive to fund). Unfortunatley they fail to tell you these things before you start the course. Even when you do get out on a dig it will usually only last for a couple of weeks and you then spend the next five years studying (couped up in a lab) what you have found. Unfortunatley this is not my idea of an excellent career.

This is what has led to my decision (and it hasn't been easy) to find a career that i can spend outside, that is a challenge and where i am able to progress. As i have said before, my mind is still not made up and i'm making sure that before i make my decision that i think very carefully about all of my options and the possible consequences of what my final decision will have.

Mikey

[Grimey Vibes]

If you leave your second degree after finishing its first year, won't you have a considerable amount of debt to pay back? Having debt limits your chance of getting in the Armed Forces.

[Sandman]

If you leave your second degree after finishing its first year, won't you have a considerable amount of debt to pay back? Having debt limits your chance of getting in the Armed Forces.

No. It's a student loan that you get when at uni. This is a loan that you pay back to the government that comes straight from your wages, just like income tax. It therefore doesnt count as a typical debt that one might have such as a loan from the bank. And basically if you earn under a certain amount you dont pay anything back until you are. I think its something like £10,000 p/a and anything over that that you earn you pay 9% of that amount.

Apart from my student loan i have no other debts so i doubt very much whether there will be a problem there.

Mikey

[robj]

Im pretty certain that you dont have to pay your student loan back until your earning over 16,000 a year (sorry pound sign doesnt work), so if you were to join the forces you will be ok

[druadan]

Another option would be to go RMR whilst still at Uni; you'll find out whether it's definitely for you or not without the same upheaval as quitting uni and joining the regs. You'll also come out with both a degree and a green lid, and you can transfer straight to the regs, so your age won't be a problem.

[Sandman]

Another option would be to go RMR whilst still at Uni; you'll find out whether it's definitely for you or not without the same upheaval as quitting uni and joining the regs. You'll also come out with both a degree and a green lid, and you can transfer straight to the regs, so your age won't be a problem.

Thats what i thought originally but when i asked the Colour Sergeant at Portsmouth RMR about transferring straight to the regs he aid that its not an option, you still have to go through all of the basic training again. He said that a lot of people join the RMR thinking that it will be an easy option into the regs but thats not the case.

I'm still torn between the two anyway so i think i'll go and do my PRMC and see what i think after that. Hopefully that will give me a good insight into the training involved and its structure.

Thanks for all of the replies guys, they were much appreciated and some of them have really made me think about things.

Thanks
Mikey

[rabby]

Thats what i thought originally but when i asked the Colour Sergeant at Portsmouth RMR about transferring straight to the regs he aid that its not an option, you still have to go through all of the basic training again.

If you do RMR training, pass and get your Green Lid, thats you a Royal Marine. If you wanted to go regs, as far as I'm aware you don't have to do basic training why would you, you've already been there, done that and got the beret to prove it. I know that a few lads in my troop who are at uni intend to go regular when they are finished their degree, and were told it wasn't a problem. It's not as if as soon as they get their lid's they're of regular, they still have a few years of uni to go so the RMR will still get the use of them.

EDIT: Just read it again, were you wanting to join the regs as an officer? Thats different, obviously if you pass RMR training and you wanted to be a regular officer then you would probably have to do thr YO training. I'm not sure how it works if you want to get commisioned through the RMR and transfer in the same way as above.

Hope this helps and hasn't confused the issue!

[bigbart]

Are you sure you can go from RMR straight to regular? As when I was in the Army last time there was a lad who had been a TA infantryman for a couple of years and was fully trained, but still had to start basic training from scratch. In the RMR you may have passed the tests, but it's a completely different world to regulars who live, breathe, eat and sh*t royal 24 hours a day. The full CTCRM course prepares you for life as a regular, whereas RMR training doesn't. Not by a long shot.