Friday, August 07, 2009

Best "College" In The US?

According to Forbes, it's my alma mater.

From the story itself:

A big factor in its top rank is that grads leave without a penny of tuition loans to repay. The Army picks up all costs and pays the cadets a stipend of $895 a month. On graduation, they start as second lieutenants, earning $69,000 a year. They have to serve in the armed forces for five years plus three more years of inactive reserve duty. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have pulled 15% of reservists into active duty.

Wow, a 2LT makes more money than I do. If that figure above is true, I'm surprised. Not disappointed, but surprised.

Update: doesn't appear that figure is necessarily correct. According to the pay scale at army.com, a 2LT with no prior service currently earns $2655.30 a month. Of course, there's also quarters and subsistence (food) allowances, both of which are non-taxable, as well as a potential variable housing allowance and possibly combat pay. Even given all that, $69,000 a year for a lieutenant seems a bit high.

3 comments:

gbradley said...

Just read this, Knew that you would post about it. Congrats.

Carson said...

Like they say in a cadence here. They give you 100 dollars and take back 99. My monthly pay is 895 dollars but there are things that get automatically get deducted from my salary so I end up with less than 200. So a 2nd LT may make 70 grand but the army probably finds a way to take back some of their money. Then again I'm a New Cadet and they're army officers...

Anonymous said...

First, an O-1 in the military is getting paid about $40K per year before taxes, depending on where they live (which dictates housing allowance). Housing and subsistence is not very much at first. Second, these guys are the ones getting shot at and dying for $40K a year... they are the ones out on the front leading the troops, not hanging out in some office some where.