> I mean bottom of the rung, E1. You can do 2 years of community college and enter a couple of ranks higher.

But...you can't. At least, not that would show up at Basic. The higher grade you get for sufficient vo/tech or collegiate study prior to enlistment is applied after graduating from Basic. AFAIK,that's true even for the programs where you enlist with guaranteed OCS after Basic, you still are an E-1 when you go to Basic though you are administratively promoted to E-5 at OCS.

Sure you can if what is meant by “a couple ranks higher” means a couple enlisted ranks. This can occur before leaving for basic.

You can be guaranteed E3 out of boot camp with enlistment incentives and each platoon generally has at least one merit promotion E3 (aka ‘honor grad’)

Right, and all the programs I referred to are also guaranteed promotion after Basic as well. But you'll still be an E-1 in Basic and so if you are looking at some outstanding scores on something posted for E-1s in Basic, well, it's possible those E-1s are people who enlisted with a guarantee of higher grade on successful completion of Basic, not starting at the bottom except insofar as everyone enlisting starts at the bottom in Basic.

It's potentially different for each branch, but the Navy advertises higher rank prior to completion of basic:

"The Navy provides opportunities for you to advance to pay-grades E-2 or E-3 while you wait to leave for boot camp."[1]

My limited understanding is you are paid the higher rank salary while in training but cannot wear the rank until graduation.

[1]https://www.navycs.com/navy-advanced-paygrade.html

TIL:

Apparently the navy considers scouting to be roughly equivalent to an AA.

"Scouting Provide evidence of successful completion of Eagle Scout or the Girl Scout Gold Award requirements and you are entitled to be enlisted in pay-grade E-3."

But again, some people want to be doing not leading! And not everyone wants or is suited to go to college!

If rank was the only factor, that’s a bad choice considering you can fairly easily make that same rank in less time by simply enlisting.

Community college is a lot more pleasant than military sevice.

Sure, but the statement seemed to allude that the incentive was gaining rank, not taking the easiest route.

>You can do 2 years of community college and enter a couple of ranks higher.

Point being, if your goal is to maximize rank the fastest, it doesn't make sense to go to community college for two years. If two people consider enlisting at the same time but one defers to community college, that deferment will likely mean they are lower rank/seniority than the person who joined without any additional school.[1] Both will still have the same enlistment term, but the non-deferring person would be considered senior because they also have more time in service and time in grade.

If the intent is to go to school to qualify for a commission, that's a different matter.

[1] e.g., Person1 joins immediately, Person2 joins two years after community college. Person1 is at least an E3 in most cases and likely and E4 (rare cases E5) plus two years time in service and more time in grade when Person2 joins. Person2 comes in at an E3 with zero days time in service/time in grade. (Time in service/grade are applicable to gaining the next rank on a scoring system). Meaning Person1 is more competitive for the next rank, with all other things equal

The most 'pleasant' option is sitting at home and doing nothing. Most people aren't optimising for 'pleasant'.