There's lots of information on basic. What's the difference between Officer Candidate School and Basic?

Regardless, to get to Army OCS, you will have to go through BCT. You will THINK that you are repeating basic - at first. However, as the course progresses, you will start having more leadership courses. I was commissioned through OCS. Until you reach senior phase, you are pretty much restricted to the company area.

The OCS cadre are all 1LT's (Platoon leaders) and the CO is a Captain. Most of the subject matter instructors are either senior NCO's or officers. Both the physical and mental aspects of OCS are tough. I was a mustang having just come from the 82nd Airborne as an E-5.

As someone who has been to OCS (didn't graduate due to bad knees) I can tell you that OCS is 10x the physical aspect of Basic Training, plus you have classroom lectures and tests that you must pass to graduate. At OCS, you will run, then run some more, and then run again. I kid you not. When I was there in 2010, one of our instructors wrote on the board, "Running = Leadership = Running" So if you are a marathon runner, you are golden. If you are more intellectual and not so much a runner, you're going to have a tough time. That's why you almost always see Officers who like to run a lot; they were either really good at it before coming into the Army and got better at it, or were conditioned to do it while at OCS/West Point/ROTC. Officers are expected to lead their units from the front. That's why they put such an emphasis on running.

What OCS really looks like will also be different depending on what route you take. While you learn the same skills and are put through the same tests and training requirements, Federal OCS and Guard OCS (Either accelerated or traditional) are vastly different when it comes to time commitment and training environment. Having gone to Basic Training and traditional OCS with the National Guard, there are very few similarities I can draw between the two experiences other than lots of PT and not a ton of sleep.