Quote Originally Posted by Steve Blair View Post
The Air Force has been using its scholarship system for some time to more or less prioritize specific majors. It's a system that tends to undervalue some areas, and can be slow to shift in times of need. That said, it has been very successful at recruiting engineers.
That's very true. My wife is an example. She was accepted to a prestigious engineering school and in exchange for a full-ride from the Air Force, the service picked her degree and career field. It worked out really well for her.

However, I don't think it's appropriate to run the entire system this way - you need generalists and you need people from a variety of educational backgrounds.

Language incentives for ROTC are a good thing, IMO, though these will only be effective if there continue to be incentives once in the service - IOW, more pay and promotion opportunities if the language ability is maintained and increased. And one other thing to consider - recruit more dedicated linguists and allow them to spend more of their careers outside of the intelligence community.

Which brings up the problem of retention....