When I was in you never had to be an e-5. There are a lot of MOS's that take longer to gain rank than some of the shorter schools. Hell if made 5 in 5 in my MOS you were doing good. So, If you weren't a 5 upon graduation your were promoted to the grade of e-5, per Army regs. But, apparently now it's true you go go right in after boot . You WILL want a 300 on your PT for sure. For me the hardest was always the sit-ups. I USED to run the 2mi in about 11 min and did 127 pu in 2 min but my best sit ups was 90. Still got the PT score card graded by a drill(SGL) for PLDC. Anyways a whole different story now. If you haven't yet you can start warming up by doing 200 of each a day and a 3 to 5 mi run a day. You might as well start that now just to make boot a little easier. Hell if you can do it and got the motivation go for it. There was a time I started the paperwork. I was a PFC then and had just got accepted to AB. Meet a woman and a lot of things changed... Another story needing a lot of beer... It is recommended that you know at least one other language fluently and you can work on another. They have a completely different mission than Rangers, and no you wont get to wear your hair longer. Especially while in uniform.

If you got the brass go for it! Whoora!!

Better be a good swimmer to.