Officer Candidate School

The United States Navy's Officer Candidate School (abbreviated OCS) provides initial training for officers of the line and select operational staff corps communities (supply and CEC) in the United States Navy. Along with United States Naval Academy (USNA) and Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC), OCS is one of three principal sources of newly commissioned naval officers. Selection Qualified U.S. citizens who hold a bachelor's degree meet with an Officer Recruiter and prepare packages for consideration. Selection is competitive. Officer Candidates are already associated with a designator when they begin their training at OCS. This is in contrast to USNA and NROTC, where trainees are not associated with a community until soon before commissioning. Course of training OCS classes are numbered by the federal fiscal year of their graduation (e.g., 09-19 would be the ninth class to graduate in fiscal year 2019).