The US Recruiting Command lists the top five reasons for wanna-be recruits getting turned down for the Army:

1. Too low a score on the ASVAB
2. Medical disqualifications
3. Moral disqualifications
4. Dependent status (too many dependents, i.e. spouse and children)
5. Admin reasons (too young, citizenship status, high school diploma, etc)

Some of the medical conditions you cannot enter the military with include diabetes, drug/alcohol addiction, high blood pressure, deafness, asthma to name a few, but, there are others as well.

You can't change the number of dependents that you have and you can be disqualified for having too many dependents. In the Army, you can only have a spouse and two dependent children (living with you). This is to make sure that you can financially support your family.

Moral disqualifiers include things such as too many minor offenses, which includes traffic offenses, as well as felonies. If you have made mistakes in your life that caused you to be disqualified on moral issues learn from your mistakes and get your life in order. You might not be able to join the Army but getting your life in order will certainly change your future options in the civilian world.

Some administrative reasons for disqualification include being too young or old, not having the proper documentation for citizenship or alien status as well as problems with those trying to re-enlist who have been discharged less than 2 years ago (if they had an uncharacterized discharge) or for those who were deemed not eligible for re-enlistment. Age can also be a disqualifier. You can't change your age (only time can do that) and you can't immediately change your citizenship status.

You can however, change your ASVAB score (Read more about the ASVAB). And here are some suggestions. Use one of the ASVAB study guides. The higher you score on the ASVAB the more MOSs (see What is an MOS?) you will qualify for. If you are in high school, take the test offered through your school. When a student is already in a learning environment they tend to score higher on this type of comprehensive test.

Some of the biggest mistakes recruiters report are:
1. "Doing something stupid at the interview or in your everyday life."
2. "Saying something stupid."
3. "Being stupid."
4. "Hanging around stupid people."
5. "Doing the same thing stupid people do."
6. "Doing something stupid in public."
7. "Being around someone doing something stupid in public."
8. "Driving while being stupid."
9. "Putting something stupid into your body."
10. "Not listening to parents, teachers, adults who are giving you good advice (to include your recruiter, at times)."

You might think these 10 things are of "tongue in cheek", but if you really look at it, it is pretty much common sense.

So how can you avoid doing one of the "stupid" things? Stay honest, don't break the law, stay away from those getting into trouble, keep away from drugs/too much alcohol and follow the guidance from your recruiter, you should do fine.

In closing here are some important statistics from the U.S. Recruiting Command:

• For the past three years, the Army has EXCEEDED all its goals for enlistment.
  
• The mission for fiscal year 2002 was 79,500 Active Duty and 28,825 Reserve, which the Army achieved six weeks ahead of schedule.
  
• For this fiscal year 2003, the goals were to enlist 73,800 Active Duty and 26,400 Reserve. By February 2003, the Army was already 100.7% ahead of schedule for Active and 103.5% ahead for Reserves.

What do these statistics mean?

1. The Army is not an option for desperate people.
2. The Army has many well qualified, quality applicants to choose from. This means that if you are not fully qualified according to the enlistment standards, it will be harder to get a waiver to come in. A waiver is just paperwork that is initiated if you do not fully meet one or two of the enlistment requirements. For example if you have two or more misdemeanor offenses, you will need a waiver to try to get into the Army

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