Hi - my husband graduates in December and is considering his options. How competitive is it really?

While I don't have hard numbers for you I can give you a decent answer. Top Gun went to a top 10 law school but he also knows JAG's that went to 4th tier law schools. They take a range of candidates. The Air Force JAG Core is more competitive than the Army's. Once you interview, that specific board may pass you up but you have the option to tell them that you would like to be considered again. We have a friend that was passed up his first time and applied again a few months later(maybe it was a year) without doing anything different or adding to his resume and he was accepted the second go around. It does happen. Also, this year was more competitive because the JAG Core had more applicants than it has had in previous years. Our guess is likely because of the weak economy. Seeing that the economy is still weak and law firms continue to lay off and hire less new attorney's straight out of law school, I wouldn't be surprised if the number of applicants is even higher next year.

I hope this helps. The good thing is you can always interview and if they say no then you don't have to worry about it and if they say yes you can still come back and say never mind I found something better. I just wouldn't plan on trying to work for them down the road if you rejected them once before. You can always pull out up until the point that they offer you an assignment (where you'll move and be stationed).