Hi everyone, I'm a college student hoping to apply to CSPI in about 9 months. I want to make my application as strong as possible. I hear the Coast Guard Auxiliary looks great on applications for CSPI or OCS, plus it sounds like it would be a great experience... (I hope?)

I also joined the Auxiliary while I was in college to start building my resume and also for the experiences. The only issue is that it can take some time to join, my whole process took about a year, but hopefully it's better than that. The Auxiliary is a great opportunity to start gaining experience with the Coast Guard on a volunteer basis. You can get crew qualified to go out on boats, stand radio watches, become a vessel examiner, and more. At the moment I'm working on gathering what I need for my officer application for the next SRDC board in the summer. I'm sure my experiences with the Auxiliary will help and if nothing else, it gives you an idea on how the Coast Guard functions and you get to support their mission at the same time.

The auxiliary would give you some insight and experience. Every auxiliary location is different however, and most of the people are retired. They don't exactly have set schedules and most of them use their own boats.

Ours helps us on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but its mainly two guys leading some others to get their boats underway, and then they help us with training (two-boat evolutions). With covid it was alot less this year but they were still able to get out there a few times. We are lucky in that we have a few that are very motivated and committed to coming out and supporting the crew.

The Officer Corp is looking for strong leaders. Having a job where you are leading a team is going to most prepare you for the interview and make your application stronger. They'll ask you real life questions, "Explain a time you had to motivate a team that wasn't motivated, how would you deal with a member that is always late, how would you deal with a member that came to you with a drug or alcohol problem?"

Know what the Officer Career tracks are. They'll want to know that you researched their jobs and what you would ideally like to do.

If it doesn't work out with OCS, you can enlist. Alot of enlisted members have degrees. I have quite a few friends that we all worked together 8-10 years ago and they are now officers, and had enlisted originally with degrees.

Be aware of how officers transfer and what their career tracks tend to be. If you aren't in aviation, you are most likely expected to get underway every other tour or every few tours until you are really on a specific track (like intel). You're also expected to have a "staff tour" every so often, and usually at headquarters (in DC).

Just make sure its really what you want to do. You can apply until your 33rd or 34th birthday (depending on what time of year your birthday is and when the class is conveneing). I had applied my first year in, and didn't get picked up, and the last few years I've gone back and forth applying again, but I just dont want to deal with the pigeon-holeing of their career tracks, and limits of their locations.

Let us know if you have any other questions

Hey, this is a great program run by the Auxiliary for folks looking to apply to CSPI or OCS: Coast Guard Auxiliary University Programs. If there's no unit at your college, you can join the remote one. PM if needed!

http://www.cgauxedu.us/

I joined the Auxiliary before the Coast Guard. I was still a Police Officer at the time, but after I enlisted in the Reserves I still worked hard in the Auxiliary and sought leadership opportunities. It look great on my OCS packet and I was picked up on my first try, which would be about 3 years into the Auxiliary. I was Vice Flotilla Commander and least the District in Vessel Examinations. If you seek out leadership opportunities it will be what you make it and give you a leg up.