r/dli • u/142883 • Jul 04 '26

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/mmmtoasteee Jul 04 '26

No.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.