ROTC experiences

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Military retiree family. I'd prefer to pay for college and not have my kids owe anything and go in as officers. Its a lot during college.

Fair enough but my kid loves the program, is fine with 4 years of military commitment, and ROTC is saving us $400k.

Plus this guarantees they'll have an entry level job when they graduate. Which in 2026+ is far from a given for new grads.

The job may not be worth anything if it’s not in. Their wanted career field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC1 rising junior at ivy (RD) on AFROTC scholarship. Immediately after being awarded the scholarship schools that were on the kids top 5 list started to reach out and asked to ED. DC1 enjoys AFROTC and time management is very important. DC1 has been offered research positions at different base last year and this year. DC1 is off to field training in a few days.

DC2 will be attending ivy (ED) on NROTC scholarship in the fall. scholarship was awarded on the Dec board after ED decisions, so not sure if it helped.

Good luck!

Thank you for sharing this! Are your DCs at the same Ivy? Can you share which school? Which schools were on the top 5 list?

[Anonymous]

As the military transitions from professional and non-political to Trumpified, expect any ROTC bump to shrink.

[Anonymous]

AFROTC spends most of their 4-yr scholarship dollars on 2 groups of majors:

- BS Nursing students
- Engineering & Computer science.

Exceptions exist obviously. Time management skills are important because there is a lot of extra work.

Also, upperclass students need to keep grades up. I know of one case where NROTC called a rising senior up for duty as an enlisted person because they got a very low grade in a requires course for their degree.

AFROTC students can request commissioning in the USSF, but Space Force picks who they want. Because USSF is the smallest military service, not many get picked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As the military transitions from professional and non-political to Trumpified, expect any ROTC bump to shrink.

Nah. Anyone starting ROTC even this fall will not be commissioned until after Trump is out of office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As the military transitions from professional and non-political to Trumpified, expect any ROTC bump to shrink.

Nah. Anyone starting ROTC even this fall will not be commissioned until after Trump is out of office.

But they’re applying now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this must vary widely by program and school but if anyone has ROTC experience to share, especially at a T20 school (nothing is for sure but some of these are target schools for my kid) I would be grateful. Basically, I'm wondering if your child (or you) felt happy and satisfied with the decision to do ROTC.

why would the ROTC experience be different at a "Top 20" School? Please advise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for starting this topic. My rising junior is also seriously considering ROTC. His older sibling is at one of the HYPMS which also has a great ROTC program. For admissions (assuming he gets the scholarship), does ROTC provide any sort of boost at all?

I know how hard it is to be admitted so really trying to manage expectations.

So thinking about ROTC for an admissions boost????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for starting this topic. My rising junior is also seriously considering ROTC. His older sibling is at one of the HYPMS which also has a great ROTC program. For admissions (assuming he gets the scholarship), does ROTC provide any sort of boost at all?

I know how hard it is to be admitted so really trying to manage expectations.

So thinking about ROTC for an admissions boost????

No, you need to reread the post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid at a T20 has ROTC friends -- those friends reported applying for ROTC in part due to the admissions bump. Not sure the bump is real, but current students perceive it to be so.

The bump is real.

[Anonymous]

2 kids did ROTC (different services) at different Ivies and 3rd st a well-regarded public (same service as one of the others)

Experience was varied with time commitments and culture. All had a very good experience.

Would have your kid reach out to visit the ROTC units at the most desired school. On-campus and cross campus are different.

Definitely have application in for the first board. If your kid needs to switch the school the scholarship was awarded to, that was not a problem for my kids.

Possibly it gave them a bump? Can’t say as all had the stats for the schools they were admitted too.

And they all have jobs at graduation, which is not always the case.

Look at serviceacademyforums for more info.

Best of luck!!

[Anonymous]

For those wanting a military career or reserve commission there is always Officer Candidate School - OCS - for someone whonalready has a 4-yr college degree already completed.

In a very small number of cases, there also are some direct commissioning programs. Every case I happen to know about involved someone with an advanced (MS/PhD) STEM degree in an applicable field being directly commissioned as a reserve intelligence officer. Ballard, who worked at WHOI and later found the Titanic, is one well known example. Another example had a PhD in GeoPhysics. A third example I know about had a PhD in ECE and particular expertise in cyber. I stress that direct commissioning into a reserve officer position is really uncommon, but it does exist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid at a T20 has ROTC friends -- those friends reported applying for ROTC in part due to the admissions bump. Not sure the bump is real, but current students perceive it to be so.

The bump is real.

The admissions bump might be very real -- but it really depends on the specific university. An admissions bump does not exist at all universities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Military retiree family. I'd prefer to pay for college and not have my kids owe anything and go in as officers. Its a lot during college.

Yeah, if you are against ROTC and military commitments during college (service academies, VMI, Citadel, A&M, etc) then your kid is highly unlikely to become a military officer

Unless your kid does law school or med school, there is only one other path to becoming an officer, OTS, and the selection odds for that is highly competitive.

You can't just walk in to a recruiter and sign up as an officer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for starting this topic. My rising junior is also seriously considering ROTC. His older sibling is at one of the HYPMS which also has a great ROTC program. For admissions (assuming he gets the scholarship), does ROTC provide any sort of boost at all?

I know how hard it is to be admitted so really trying to manage expectations.

I'm OP and clearly I am in the process of learning about this, so I defer to any corrections on this, but my understanding is that you apply to the college's ROTC once you've been admitted to the school. You can also apply for national ROTC scholarships but they make it clear that listing the colleges you're interested in as part of that application in no way guarantees admission.

Ok, thank you. From our very early understanding, it sounds like (if sibling's college is first choice), that he should apply REA while simultaneously planning for the first ROTC board which happens in October. Then the board decision will come out just a few weeks before the REA decision, and hopefully if it's a yes, then DC will update his application that he received the ROTC scholarship. I don't know what happens after that point... but hoping that the ROTC scholarship will give a small boost?

Don't count on getting in the first round. It's a very small percentage that do.

It is almost impossible to get an rotc scholarship as a freshman for Air Force and Space Force.

If your kid wants a freshman rotc scholarship, they will most likely need to do army or navy.