Will I have time to continue to attend college during BLC?

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 09 Feb 2020 17:25:41 -0500

I'm scheduled to attend BLC in July and I'm also going to college. Normally I'm able to handle the requirements of a condensed university summer semester without issue however, I've heard from my peers that have recently attended NCOES that it is quite a time-intensive undertaking. Will I have enough downtime during the course to effectively complete the university class I'm scheduled to take? Or, should I drop the university course so I don't risk a poor grade and it impacting my 4.0 GPA?

Response by SSG William Jones made Feb 9 at 2020 5:31 PM

SSG William Jones — Sun, 09 Feb 2020 17:31:03 -0500

I believe your peers bear listening to. That's a pretty intensive undertaking.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 9 at 2020 5:34 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 09 Feb 2020 17:34:24 -0500

Definitely drop your courses and focus on BLC. It's not that time intensive or difficult, but it would be very difficult to do both well at the same time. If you do both and do poorly with one, the negative repercussions are bigger than the benefits

Response by SGT Victoria Belbusti made Feb 9 at 2020 5:35 PM

SGT Victoria Belbusti — Sun, 09 Feb 2020 17:35:34 -0500

I dropped an online physics class but every night the classroom was open for us so I would have been able to do both. It depends on what course you are taking. I was AD and did a 4 week WLC in Germany in 2013. Pretty sure it’s changed since but WLC was easy, the tests were open book, so I’m sure you would do fine. You know you better than any of us, so go with your gut.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 9 at 2020 5:44 PM

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 09 Feb 2020 17:44:59 -0500

My initial response is that yes, you can still attend commend. But it does depend on a few factors. I can't speak for everyone's BLC experience for for me the average day was a 0600 wake up for pt then class till lunch and again until dinner. Then we were released for the day, but some nights had homework and other things such as your leadership day to plan ahead for. BLC is vastly based on writing papers now. Personally, I'm a very quick and good writer so I had no problem finishing all the papers for the course by about halfway through the course, leaving me ample time to complete any college work had I been taking summer classes. If you are an efficient writer, I would definitely say you're able to take on both. If you struggle with writing multiple papers, you may want to just focus on BLC and hold off on college classes until fall semester. Good luck!

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 9 at 2020 11:53 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 09 Feb 2020 23:53:21 -0500

True story from SFC Boyd. If you want to do well at BLC it requires your undivided attention. And why wouldn’t you want to do well?! There’s nothing terribly challenging about BLC other than challenges that soldiers create for themselves. Don’t create the challenge of juggling more balls than needed.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 10 at 2020 10:44 AM

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 10:44:02 -0500

I went in Graph last September, and I was in online classes just before BLC started. You’ll do fine, you’ll have time at night and on the weekends to do your work. No worries bro.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 10 at 2020 12:12 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 12:12:20 -0500

BLC is a resident course, with the new format focusing heavily on written assignments. If you can manage the workload, you could complete both. If you want to do well in BLC and the course, I would listen to previous advice and focus on BLC.

Response by SFC Kelly Fuerhoff made Feb 10 at 2020 4:14 PM

SFC Kelly Fuerhoff — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 16:14:37 -0500

I wouldn't do both. I know it's changed since I went but I would just focus on BLC while you're there and not have anything else that could be a distraction.

It took me six years to get my first Master's because I had things come up and had to drop a course and go back later and do it. But I still got it.