The preparatory course at the heart of the recent surge in Army recruitment numbers will tighten its standards, although it was unclear if that meant it will produce fewer future soldiers.

Potential new recruits will now only be able to attend the Army Future Soldier Preparatory Course to either meet the service’s physical or academic standards, not both, Task & Purpose has confirmed.

The Future Soldier Preparatory Course is a 90-day program that takes potential recruits who need to improve academically and physically before reporting for traditional basic training. Previously, the course allowed potential recruits to work on both physical fitness and improving their test scores to meet the Army’s enlistment minimums.

Stars and Stripes first reported on the change after interviewing Brig. Gen. Sara Dudley, commander of Army Recruiting Division at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Task & Purpose confirmed the changes Monday.

No information was immediately available about whether the changes to the preparatory course could mean that fewer recruits will go through it. The Army could not provide an official comment for this story due to the ongoing federal government shutdown.

The move comes after graduates of the course — who would not have previously been eligible to enlist — played a major role in the Army surpassing its fiscal year 2025 recruiting goal four months early. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll told lawmakers in June that the service expected to begin the current fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1, with 25,000 soldiers in the Delayed Entry Program. 

Since it first began in August 2022, the Future Soldier Preparatory Course has become a major factor in the Army’s recruiting success. About 13,200 recruits joined the Army through the course in fiscal year 2024, about 24% of the 55,000 soldiers who enlisted that year.

Final numbers for this fiscal year were not available but appear on track for a similiar total over the sumer. As of May 30, a total of 10,465 soldiers had moved from the Future Soldier Preparatory Course to Initial Entry Training this fiscal year, Army spokesman Maj. Christopher Robinson told Task & Purpose in June.

More Americans have been having an increasingly difficult time meeting military standards for enlistment over the past decade, Taren Sylvester, who researches military and veterans issues for the Center for a New American Security think tank in Washington, D.C, told Task & Purpose in February.

“That includes both in the physical aspect, meeting the physical requirements and height and weight requirements, and also in the educational aspects – not so far as degrees, but in test scores,” Sylvester said. “And so, the Army, specifically with prep course, has been focused on both meeting physical requirements and meeting the testing requirements, which I think has done a lot to help people who want to serve be able to.”

The Navy has established a similar program. The Future Sailor Preparatory Course offers an academic track to help potential recruits with their math, reading, and test-taking skills, and a physical fitness track that focuses on exercise, nutrition, and life skills.

A total of 1,921 recruits went through the physical fitness track and 3,451 went through the academic track in fiscal year 2024, of which 90% of those recruits graduated from boot camp, according to the Navy.

The Air Force has no plans to establish its own preparatory course, said Brig. Gen. Jeffrey W. Nelson, commander of the Air Force Accessions Center and the Air Force Recruiting Service at Joint Base San Antonio in Texas.

“We’ve met our goal for [fiscal year] 25 early,” Nelson told Task & Purpose in a Sept. 22 interview. “We’re on a good path for 2026. And so, we don’t, at this point, feel the need for that sort of program across all recruits.”

Marine Maj. Gen. William Bowers, who led Marine Corps Recruiting Command at the time, was blunt when asked by reporters in October 2024 if the Corps planned to stand up its own version of Army and Navy’s preparatory courses.

“In the Marine Corps, we are not looking at starting a special program for future Marines,” Bowers said. “We have the delayed entry program that’s working very well for us.”

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