This guide is for people who have not talked to an OSO yet, or have not been selected for OCS. If you have been selected for OCS, check out my OSC page. If you have graduated OCS, check out my TBS page.
Okay so the links have been acting weird, so try these:
https://sites.google.com/view/officerselectionofficer
https://sites.google.com/view/officercandidatesschool
https://sites.google.com/view/thebasicschool
This page is not meant to replace talking to an OSO. An OSO will have much better information than I will. This page is just for you to get an idea of the initial process.
There are two paths to becoming a Marine Corps Officer.
Go to a service academy, including West Point (army), Naval Academy (Navy), or the Air Force Academy (Air Force). The Marine Corps' commissioning source is the Naval Academy. Marine Corps officers can come from any of the three, but West Point and the Air Force Academy have less allocations for Marine Corps officers.
Go to Officer Candidates School (OCS). There are different kinds of OCS, but they are similar.
OCC - Officer Candidates Course. This is a 10-week program that you usually complete after you have already graduated college. Prior-service Marines (MECEP) will complete this before finishing college. There are Winter, Spring/Summer, and Fall courses. I did OCC Winter 2019. It was a chillin' good time.
PLC (Platoon Leader's Course) Juniors and Seniors - OCS broken into two segments, done before one graduates college. I believe they are five or six weeks long. Juniors is BEFORE your Junior year of college, Seniors is BEFORE your Senior year of college. You will go back and do your Senior year before you can commission.
PLC Combined - Juniors and Seniors combined, done before you finish college.
If you are just starting college, and you know you want to be a Marine officer, an OSO will point you to PLC and you can prepare as soon as you get to college. For those interested in NROTC (Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps), you would get a scholarship for college, and then go to OCS. I am not so familiar with this, and I am not sure if you go through an OSO. I will find out more information.
There are 4 types of Officer contracts:
Ground
Air
Law
Cyber (this is new)
Most people go Ground contract. That's what I did. It is all the MOS (military occupational specialty) that a Marine officer can have except being a pilot or a JAG (Judge Advocate General's Corps a.k.a. military lawyer).
The Marine Corps is the only branch that lets you contract as a pilot initially. I believe you have to take an aptitude test, the ASTB (Aviation Selection Test Battery). Your OSO will know more. Just be warned, Air contracts require more extensive physical qualifications, and around 1 out of 5 do not complete flight school. These people get redesignated to a ground contract. Air contracts are longer than Ground contracts.
At TBS (The Basic School, after OCS), there is sometimes an "up-for-grabs" flight contract. Usually ONE. This is called a "Competitive Air Slot."
Law - If you have a law degree, or you are in law school, you can contract Law. Sometimes your time in law school counts toward your time in service.
Cyber - This is a new contract. When I went to TBS in 2020, this wasn't a thing, but now it is. I do not know much about this contract, but according the memorandum, there are "no additional or unique qualifications requirements for Cyber Officers." The memo also states that Cyber Officers must meet the requirements in reference MCRCO 1100.2A, but on closer inspection of this 215-page document, it appears that this is just a manual for the overall qualifications for officers, not just cyber. So basically, no additional qualifications, but must be qualified to be an officer. There are also only about 72 allocations for cyber contracts per year.