ROTC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

I also helps admissions to know that the kids with scholarships have already been vetted through a lengthy application and interview process and have to have demonstrated leadership. BTW to the OP - you have to have good academics to even get a full tuition scholarship. It’s a very competitive process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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?

I don't think this is remotely true. A 4 year ROTC scholarship is absurdly difficult to get now - it's like getting into West Point or the Ivy League. And the students with those ROTC scholarships are highly recruited by the better schools - MIT, Princeton, Duke, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame and a few other colleges with big programs. And to even be considered for these scholarships is so much work - academics, athletics, character.

There are far easier ways to get into a good school.

[Anonymous]

Yes, kids are faking it but they have wasted a year doing so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I also helps admissions to know that the kids with scholarships have already been vetted through a lengthy application and interview process and have to have demonstrated leadership. BTW to the OP - you have to have good academics to even get a full tuition scholarship. It’s a very competitive process.

This year the Army awarded 660 scholarships out of 12k candidates so about a 5% rate and getting matched to an Ivy school is a further step. The whole process is more in depth than a college app.

[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.

ROTC scholarships have changed a lot in recent years. In the 90s? Yes, this was possible. Fake it till you make it to get the scholarship, use the power of the scholarship to get into a school that may not have otherwise accepted you, and drop ROTC without commitment after the first year.

Now, you have to target your school when you apply for your ROTC scholarship. So, if you are targeting a prestigious, well-regarded ROTC school, the competition is going to be much greater than you might think. If you are a top 1% kid targeting a T10 through ROTC, you're really going to have to sell yourself as a willing, participating, contributing member of the battalion and someone who truly desires to be an officer after graduation.
TLDR: those schools have plenty of ROTC applicants so you need to be sincere with your desire to serve.

[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?

It was true in my case long ago. Rules might have changed, not sure.

The weird thing to me is that even though I dropped ROTC just before the start of my 3rd semester, they still paid for my first _4_ semesters.

More broadly, even for 4-year full ROTC scholarship students, way back then, there was no actual military service obligation if one dropped before the end of 4th semester. Again, rules might differ now.

[Anonymous]

AFROTC targets the vast majority of their 4-year full scholarship $$ at Nursing, AerospaceE, EE, ComputerE, Cybersecurity, Math, and CS. The scholarship is tied explicitly to the major, so changing from AeroE to English nearly always means the scholarship goes away. Also, if a AFROTC scholarship student is offered - and accepts - a pilot or nav training slot long before graduation, then usually they have to give up their AFROTC scholarship.

Other services do things differently.

[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.

Yeah that’s not going to happen. It doesn’t make up for an otherwise unqualified applicant. It just narrows the pool you’re compared to.

For example, a 1560, 4.3 kid with no hook is unlikely to get into say, Yale. Because they just get a lot of applicants with great stats.

But a 1560, 4.3 kid who is ROTC? MUCH better chance. Add URM? Golden ticket.

[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?

You have until September 1st of your Sophomore year to quit ROTC without payback or any obligations to the military. Unfortunately, there are a few ROTC students who know they are not going to join the military and are only doing it to get the first year tuition for free.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

You have until September 1st of your Sophomore year to quit ROTC without payback or any obligations to the military. Unfortunately, there are a few ROTC students who know they are not going to join the military and are only doing it to get the first year tuition for free.

I have not heard of anyone intentionally doing this but I think out of a defense budget of $850 billion the military can probably cover it.

[Anonymous]

Actually no, it's $961 billion.

[Anonymous]

I know of a kid who got into a t-20 school off the waitlist bc a recruiter contacted him in the spring and he accepted the ROTC scholarship then, so didn't go through a lengthy process up front. But was qualified waitlist candidate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Oh, please. Speak for yourself and leave your politics out of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Oh, please. Speak for yourself and leave your politics out of it.

Politics matter. Most kids who join wanted the military, not the Gestapo.

[Anonymous]

There is a minimum SAT/ACT and GPA requirement for the scholarships. For AFROTC I believe it’s 1340 SAT. But the average SAT for the HSSP type 1 was around 1520. And to activate the scholarship kid has to pass the physical fitness test. My DC was awarded 2yrs ago and enjoys AFROTC. Lots of time commitment with some weekends as well.