Your Career After West Point
As a West Point graduate, you can expect to have many exciting and rewarding opportunities open to you throughout your lifetime. Joining “The Long Gray Line” of West Point graduates is a mark of distinction, representing high achievement and the promise of outstanding, ethical leadership.
Upon graduation, you will be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army and serve for five years on active duty. During your senior year, you’ll find out which specialized field, or “branch,” you will enter. Both the needs of the Army and your preferences will be considered.
Graduation. What’s Next?
In your first year after graduation, you’ll attend a Basic Officer Leader Course for general information and training. Upon its successful completion, you then take branch-specific courses to become competent in the technical aspects of your specialty.
Join Your Unit
Next, you’ll be sent to an Army unit where you will build experience in troop command for the next three years. You might lead a Military Police unit, a small artillery fire support team, or a Military Intelligence unit, for example.
The Army has a wide variety of specialized fields called “branches.” Each branch has its own brand of technical and tactical expertise. Depending on the needs of the Army and your personal desires, you will pick from branches, including:
- Infantry
- Field Artillery
- Armor
- Aviation
- Engineers
- Judge Advocate General
- Signal Corps
- Air Defense Artillery
- Chemical Corps
- Military Intelligence
- Ordnance
- Medical Corps
- Military Police
- Quartermaster
- Transportation
- Medical Service Corps
- Finance
- Adjutant General
