Should I leave college to go on active duty?

Finish your college. The Army will still be there and if you want to be promoted you will eventually have to work AND go to school.

Knock out as much college as you can, while you are still young. It only gets more difficult to do as you get older. "Life gets in the way."

But, if you aren't enjoying the "structure" of college, there are some alternatives.

CLEP, DANTE, Excelsior exams. Talk to the local Base Education officer, and find out what the cost is to reserves. Most colleges will take up to 30 credits (1 year) worth right off the bat, which will help. You can take these and knock out some of the low level classes & humanities, and get you into the "fun" or degree level classes.

Professional Military Education (PME) Correspondence Courses. Talk to your unit. Find out what is required, and which ones give Reserve Retirement Points, and which ones will help the MOS you are looking at. Do these in your spare time. Some of these "can" be worth college credits as well. The Air Force & Marines also have Correspondence programs, and you can take their equivalent MOS classes.

Education opens up opportunity. Having schools done, means you have a check in the box, compared to someone else who doesn't. If you want to go WO or Commissioned in the future it will help. If you want to stay enlisted, it will help, especially in professional writing.

There are very few downsides to staying in colleges.

Pvt Pvt. Adams this is a complicated and serious question that you are asking here and I am glad that you posted it. First, let me say that 30 years ago I was in your exact position. I wish I had a forum like this where I could have asked experienced adults/servicemen these types of questions when I was a young man. However, I do wonder if there was, would I have heeded their advice or just have done what I did anyway? There is really no way to know. Also, now these 30 years later I have raised 3 boys all of which are successfully out on their own in the world. So, I feel I am in a perfect position to advise you.

First, you are at a solid school. MSU ranks in the top 100 national universities so a degree from there will carry weight in your future. However, one of the things that you failed to mention is what is your major? When you say, "I am really not into the whole college thing" could it be your major that your are not excited about? If it is, you can easily change that. Don't make the mistake of just getting any degree. Whether you go Army or not, you need to make sure that your major is marketable. A combination of a solid school and a marketable degree will give you options for the rest of your life

There is an easy way to tell if your major is marketable. Simply go to the next career fair at MSU, there will probable be on coming up in the spring, walk around and ask the employeers what majors they are looking for. Remember, these are business that not only have taken a day from their work to come and talk to you, but they have paid for promotional products and usually paid the school to be there! You will see a definite trend in the majors that they are looking for. If only one or none of the recruiters are looking for your major, I would give serious thought to switching or you will just join the ranks of the thousands and thousands of young college graduates with a ton of student loan debt working as waiters etc.

What I am trying to get at is you want to give yourself options in life. A degree will help you whether you decide join the enlisted ranks or the officer corp. It will also help you when you leave the service, which will also happen at some point. I know it is hard to look that far into the future, but the decisions that you make now will have a long lasting ripple effect throughout your life.

In the end I can only advise you the same as I did my own boys. All three went to excellent schools and got marketable degrees. My oldest went to Stevens Institute of Technology where he got an undergrad and masters in computer science. He has a full time job which he had before he actually graduated. My middle son went to Drexel (double major) and is now in his last semester of law school at Rutgers. He also already has a full time job as a clerk for a state judge after graduation. My youngest son went to Penn State (double major and minor) was in ROTC and is now commissioned as a 2LT in the Army stationed down at FT Hood, TX. Obviously he has a more than full time job after graduation. He is already applying to graduate schools and wants to do that while he is serving! If you would like his contact info I will be happy to send that on to you. Sometimes it is easier to take advice from a peer than one of us "old guys". Lol

So, I really feel like I am the perfect person to respond to your question. In short, stay in school! Look at your major if you need to. College is not perfect, but I have news for you, neither is the Army, or any other branch for that matter. Neither is any job after the service. What I wish for you is the same wish I had for my boys...options in life. Then whatever decision you make for yourself will be a choice based on desire not based on a lack of options. That's what leads to happiness.

I have sent you a friend request. Please feel free to message me with any other questions. I wish you much success and happiness whatever you choose to do!

Go Spartans!