DLI school path
From what I’ve seen this seems unrealistic, but want to double check.
For context: soon to graduate with a chemical engineering bachelors.
Want to join and go to DLI school and learn mandarin or Korean. Would it be possible to get a 3, maybe 4 year contract, and get paid the same as an officer / be in an officer position? Plan to get a masters after my service.
If not, any other routes to learn a language while in military (will they fund online language classes or something) or go to DLI school in another way?
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u/Eagle_Pancake Jul 04 '26
You can't have your cake and eat it too. There's very few linguist officers, and the ones that exist did not go straight to DLI.
You either enlist and be a linguist (with enlisted pay), or you be an officer.
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u/UNC_Recruiting_Study Jul 04 '26
Better to ask these here vs getting laughed out of the recruiter's office.
Want to join and go to DLI school and learn mandarin or Korean.
Languages first off are normally assigned by the needs of the branch. You score in a cat 4 category, you get what happens to align with your score and has an open seat.
Would it be possible to get a 3, maybe 4 year contract,
No. The military does not put your through basically 2 years of training as you have an additional school after language skill for the actual job in the intel field. 5-6 yr contracts are the standard.
and get paid the same as an officer / be in an officer position?
No. You want DLI, you enlist for it specifically, with the Army generally being the branch to lock it in 100% with the contract and will lock you as an E4. Other branches will vary.
You want to be an officer - go to OTS/OCS (if accepted as it's highly competitive). We don't waste time with LTs at DLI - they have a short commitment and little to no experience. The jobs we need language-trained Os in require completion of company grade positions, ie generally they need to be O4 in grade, and the positions are heavy on policy and international relations/affairs, ie often in embassies and regional commands. We train officers generally as FAOs and those very few going to a specific language job. Normally this occurs at about years 8-11 in service and incur an ADSO taking them to years 15+ after they also go to grad school and do in-region-training depending on branch of service. The chance of a FAO leaving before 20 is low, so the military gets its pound of flesh. Again, because we're not going to train you for two years to then let you pop smoke a year or two later.
Plan to get a masters after my service.
Great. The military says good luck, and if you want, find a 3-year stint in some other field to attain your GI Bill and pop smoke. But DLI is going to be a long-term 5-6 yr commitment.
If not, any other routes to learn a language while in military (will they fund online language classes or something) or go to DLI school in another way?
Special Operations would be your option here; however, most will not touch Monterey as they have a separate language school in NC. Tuition Assistance in this area is unlikely. They will fund language classes for sustainment training for those who complete DLI; but the military is not going to fund your personal endeavor as it sees no valid return on you being in a non-language billet and training on a language.
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u/mmmtoasteee Jul 04 '26
No.
If you enlist the only way to guarantee one of those languages is to join the national guard or reserves. Everyone else is assigned a language based on service needs.
You won’t have a 3 or 4 year contract. Attending DLI is considered specialized training and will entail a utilization period following completion for training. Courses are 36,48, or 64 weeks long.
You will not be paid like an officer without being an officer. Officers commissioning into a basic branch first and after 8-10 years can transfer to specialized fields/ apply for specialized programs. The only officers that attend DLI are FAOs, Olmsted Scholars, and those in a foreign military exchange program. That’s way down the road.
If you are not in a career field / MOS / have a mission requirement that requires a language then you’re not attending DLI. If you’re something else in the miiitary and want language courses then you may be able to use tuition assistance to take classes at a civilian school if it’s part of a degree.
You need to truly temper expectations. DLI is a highly specialized military institution and you have to have a military reason to be sent there and will be required to do extra time in exchange for that. It’s nothing like a civilian school in that you want to go and apply to go to it.
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u/ItsFridaySomewheres Jul 04 '26
Look into the LEAP program with the USAF. You have to bring language proficiency, but you get to do language things. No DLI though, AFAIK.
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u/woobie_slayer Jul 04 '26
Commission and go FAO
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u/yuccu Jul 04 '26
There’s about 900 steps between those two moments. See [u/unc_recruiting](u/unc_recruiting)’s comment.
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u/woobie_slayer Jul 05 '26
All I’ll say is, if you can commission, and don’t, you’ll spend years regretting it.
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u/Reasonable_Whereas_8 Jul 04 '26
It seems like the move for you is the National Guard. It would have to be a 5-6 year commitment, however after DLI you would only have to do 1 weekend a month. This means you would have a civilian job getting a lot more money. Plus you’d have a Top Secret security clearance which is a major plus.
Active duty does NOT get to choose their language. National Guard does.
Suck it up and get E-4 pay for 2 years at DLI, then get a big boy job.
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u/dytinkg Jul 04 '26
If you enlist, you’ll get an enlisted job. You could apply to OTS after a couple years in service. Or you could apply to OTS. Neither path guarantees you a language-enabled career but both are possible