ROTC?

[Anonymous]

My kid is telling me about how students are using ROTC to get into schoosnrbey are unqualified for (and plan on dropping ROTC as soon as possible once admitted).

This feels highly fishy to me? ROTC kids I know benefited from the ROTC commitment but were not huge outliers in terms of stats where they enrolled.

Am I being naive? Is it possible to use ROTC to gain an admission advantage?

[Anonymous]

I don't think this is correct.

[Anonymous]

Former ROTC student and current service academy parent, and my gut feeling is no.

[Anonymous]

I don't think so.

[Anonymous]

False ROTC is an amazing opportunity for the right student. The son of my best friend tried for the Naval Academy and his parents stayed with me while he did the summer program. In the end, he was not accepted (one bad high school grade in band!) but was accepted ROTC at USC (SoCal), free, then flew for the navy and is now a chief pilot for United Airlines. For Virginians, almost all of the great UVA schools have ROTC.

[Anonymous]

It’s one of the biggest hooks you can have for Ivy League, but I don’t think dropping out works that way.

These unethical conniving brats are exactly the kinds of students I expect to get into the ivy league though. Lie, cheat, or steal for status and money. Nice.

[Anonymous]

Totally weird question. Who's to say they are not qualified to attend? ROTC or not, students have to have the credentials still to gain admissions to these Universities.

[Anonymous]

New question: I know a kid in their first year of an ROTC scholarship who is having second thoughts. The parent says if they drop out or ROTC after the first year they don't have to pay back any of the scholarship money. Is that true?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Totally weird question. Who's to say they are not qualified to attend? ROTC or not, students have to have the credentials still to gain admissions to these Universities.

Sorry I wasn't clear. This kid is bragging about using ROTC to get into a university where they are well below the average GPA and have no AP courses, take remedial math etc. And yes, this kid does not seem nice.

I wasn't implying that ROTC kids were unqualified as a whole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:False ROTC is an amazing opportunity for the right student. The son of my best friend tried for the Naval Academy and his parents stayed with me while he did the summer program. In the end, he was not accepted (one bad high school grade in band!) but was accepted ROTC at USC (SoCal), free, then flew for the navy and is now a chief pilot for United Airlines. For Virginians, almost all of the great UVA schools have ROTC.

Do you mean the great VA schools? Yes, they do.

[Anonymous]

And it is a weird question - I told my kidbit sounded incorrect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New question: I know a kid in their first year of an ROTC scholarship who is having second thoughts. The parent says if they drop out or ROTC after the first year they don't have to pay back any of the scholarship money. Is that true?

Yes, true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Totally weird question. Who's to say they are not qualified to attend? ROTC or not, students have to have the credentials still to gain admissions to these Universities.

Sorry I wasn't clear. This kid is bragging about using ROTC to get into a university where they are well below the average GPA and have no AP courses, take remedial math etc. And yes, this kid does not seem nice.

I wasn't implying that ROTC kids were unqualified as a whole.

Utterly false . . military family here.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it can help admissions. By how much, hard to say. It is guaranteed tuition payed to the school and they like that. But you do have to still have a competitive application to that school.

[Anonymous]

You can leave any service academy (West Point, Naval Academy, etc) or ROTC before the second year begins and there is no service commitment or payback. My child is at a top30 university and has had a half dozen fellow cadets already leave. Their commanding officer is very frank about it: "if you find this isn't your thing, we're not here to force you to do it."
The military's officer recruitment model builds in a large degree of attrition. I would imagine that things will be especially volatile this year and going forward given the political environment--as kids realize they no longer want to serve.