re: #502 screaming_eagle

A couple ways to make E-3 even before basic training when I was in were:
1) College credits.
2) Enlist your buddies.

I was a college graduate when I joined the USMC and enlisted with a buddy. I started out an E-2 and even if I had been company guide (I was one of the 4 squad leaders) they would not have promoted me to E-3. I got E-3 a few months later when I graduated from artillery school as company honor man. Things may have changed (this was 1994) and other branches of service may be different), but in the USMC (at that time at least), the most you could enlist as would be an E-2.