no go to the navy..i like how they will pay for your school! 2.5 gpa is pretty low and you may have difficulty getting into good 4 year university..if you don’t choose the navy route, i would just go to a junior college, get good grades, then go straight to a good 4 year…but the navy sounds good right now..believe me, i have a lot of debt to pay back..so navy sounds good! good luck!

Think 7 year plan, you will be about 26 then and just ripe to take the world by storm. Any variation on your plan is workable within that framework. If you go to college

right out of high school, get hold of Barron’s Guide to American Colleges. It will show you all known schools in all 50 states, scores needed to compete etc.

There are several advantages going into the Navy, or any other branch of the military: you’re not treading water, no pun intended, you are getting paid while learning; 2 years in the Navy can be equivalent to a 2-year community college; you learn discipline; as a veteran, it may help you get into college (incidentally, you might be able to compete in Navy track as well). There are two things to consider going into the Navy: you are committed and you could be sent to a war zone.

Now as to your GPA. Is that 2.5/3.0 or 2.5/4.0? Your ACT of 24, according to what I’m looking at on the Internet, is competitive, kinda like in the middle of the pack. So I’m thinking you can get into several colleges right out of high school, especially if you are mature and had some good extra-curricular activities. Make sure you check out Barron’s if you go that route.

As they say, plan your work and work your plan. Good luck!

Go to college now. I do not know about Minnesota, but you can try to get into University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) with those scores and your track experience. I attend the University of Nevada, Reno, but I spent a week on UNLV’s campus for a conference and I loved it. If you want to go into the Navy, you can still do so after you earn your degree and then you will qualify to be an officer with higher pay and benefits. Las Vegas is a lot of fun, and if you have family there, too, all the better. Worse comes to worse, take out student loans and attend community college wherever the university you want to graduate from is located (you might have to pay out-of-state?). You will never regret getting college out of the way while you are still young.

Going into the military is a great plan. It will teach you discipline and give you resources for your future studies.

With a 2.5 GPA, you would probably benefit from going to a Community College, then transferring to a University.