Preston said that although the MIT group ranks among the nation's finest cadets, nothing can ensure that applicants will receive an educational delay.

"The Army wants to make a good match though," he says. "They want to utilize the skills you have and not waste them in a job you don't enjoy."

Navigating the Job Market

While some ROTC participants question the motivations of recruiters' promising top jobs to greenhorn graduates, the jobs are there, although in short supply.

Capt. Randy Preston of MIT's Navy ROTC says competition should not seem strange in what he called the nation's oldest meritocracy.

But he acknowledges that some cadets attending some of the nation's best institutions are frustrated.

"There are jobs for ensigns and second lieutenants," Porter said, noting that Carmen M. O'Shea '97 managed to secure one of the coveted intelligence-officer positions. "They're just very difficult to get. So if a recruiter says that they're available, that's not really misleading."

But some cadets do not want to risk serving in what the Army calls the "unrestricted" combat sector for four years-a time when they could be working as a lawyer, doctor or intelligence officer.

Jay F. Chen '00 said he found that educational delays and top jobs were uncertain prospects. After training in San Diego at the start of this summer, he left ROTC.

"The positions that I wanted I couldn't get unless I served for three years," said Chen, a Crimson editor. "I could have been stuck doing something I didn't really want to do."

Chen had his sights set on working as a human-intelligence officer or as a lawyer in the military court, known as the Judge Advocate General-Corps (JAG). He thought that as a Harvard alumnus the likelihood of landing such a job would be high, but after one year at ROTC he said he felt his chances were sufficiently slim to warrant leaving the program.

Chen says he may not have investigated his options in depth before signing on to the ROTC four-year scholarship. He also says recruiters sometimes underplay the difficulties cadets encounter in vying for top-level job access.

"There was an element of miscommunication," Chen said. "They made [the jobs] seem much easier to get than they actually are."

Still, Chen says he had no regrets. "I'm glad I joined, because I learned a new perspective on the military," he says.

The Scholarship Gamble