Stay Enlisted or go Officer?

[CLEP101]

Knowing what I know now, I would have done better in HS and tried to get accepted into West Point. Failing that, I would have gone to a good school and done ROTC. That way, I'd have come out with no student loans, a degree, and a job for the next 4 years. After several years in the service, I'd apply to a top 20 business school and earn an MBA. After the MBA, I'd follow it up with a 20-30 year career, then use my B-School connections to land a sweet job on the outside to supplement my already sweet pension.

Good job security, check. They can't fire you haha.
Respect, check. Military officers were among the most respected professions in a recent survey.
Nice pension, check. Retire with 20 years in as a MAJ and take home 48k/yr. Put in 30 years retiring as a LTC gets you 121k/yr. After taxes.

Edit: Degrees are important because they get you to where you want to go. You can't be a military officer without a bachelors degree. Most senior officers have masters degrees too. I would recommend a B&M school over online to any young person simply because of the people you meet and the friends you make. A college roommate can becomes a lifelong friend. Online classmates, probably not so much.

I agree HawkGuy.
However this is something that I was not thinking about when I was 18 years old, as I'm sure many aren't either. I really didn't want to go to college. But now 13 years later, I'm about to finish my degree finally, and more doors are opening up.

Don't get me wrong, I love being enlisted because we are the ones training the Soldiers. We are directly responsible for their lives when we deploy. While the Officers are making the command decisions in battle, we have to accomplish the mission, and keep all our people safe so we can all go home alive. We are basically the Personnel Managers, we'll say where people will go and what they'll do based on the mission we are given. Brand new lieutenants and Captains get trained by their enlisted counterparts. You will be a great officer if you are trained and mentored by your Sergeant First Class (E7) or First Sergeant (E8). Simply because of the experience. As you make Lieutenant Colonel and above, then you'll rely on the Sergeant Major (E9).
Now that I know the enlisted side of the house, I think that will make me a better officer when I choose to go that route. Nowadays, instead of seeing brand new 23 year old lieutenants with a Bachelors degree straight out of college, we are getting brand new lieutenants with a bachelors degree, at least 2 or 3 years of combat experience, paratroopers, ex-infantry, drill sergeants, etc.. Which will add to better command decision making. That's what I think anyways.