Is ROTC at a top college a path to set wealthy kids up for politics?

[Anonymous]

No OP. It is not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No OP. It is not.

rotc only recently came back to harvard.

i would like to see the ses profile of rotc harvard kids vs the overall student at harvard.

i wouldn't be surprised if it was wealthier.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t cynically assume they are working an “angle.” But yes, if all goes well, the post-military benefits of military service—even desk jockeying—are immense.

[Anonymous]

Mostly poor and lower middle/middle class kids do ROTC OP to help pay for college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t cynically assume they are working an “angle.” But yes, if all goes well, the post-military benefits of military service—even desk jockeying—are immense.

Is this true, because what I've heard is that the ROTC students end up years behind their peers in climbing the corporate ladder what with the mandatory military service. We considered ROTC for DC, so we're not opposed, just had some issues that precluded DC from qualifying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I noticed a few well off families we know have kids in ROTC at top colleges. The kids are studying government, public policy, economics. I know at least one or two of them want to go to law school. What's the angle here? Setting up a late 20s congressional run? Or does ROTC pay for undergrad and law school? Or maybe ROTC helps you get into top law schools.

Wealthy family kids who want to go into POLITICS? what do they do?? Nothing. Whatever they want. Or they go to GWU or Gtown, intern at Brookings/CFR, then Kennedy School or W Wilson grad school.

ROTC? That is awesome and for well-rounded individuals who are strong at academics, athletics, leadership and community. It is a partial scholarship in ugrad and then you owe a 2-4 years of military service. Grad school would be later, hard to do it concurrently, and either way grad school paid by military means you owe more time, tho grad school may be concurrent with service urged time back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No OP. It is not.

rotc only recently came back to harvard.

i would like to see the ses profile of rotc harvard kids vs the overall student at harvard.

i wouldn't be surprised if it was wealthier.

I'd say definitely not, since a truly wealthy person wouldn't need the ROTC scholarship.

For those who go PLC/OCS, though, it wouldn't surprise me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know if this is true. But it’s hearening to hear that children of wealthy parents and who go to elite schools are joining the military. They never really stopped, but the prevailing culture had a view that the military was full of knuckleheads. It’s good to see this turn where serving in the nation’s armed forces is a form of noblesse oblige.

Luckily most of us do not view lower-to-working class young people who depend on ROTC scholarships for college to be “knuckleheads”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No OP. It is not.

rotc only recently came back to harvard.

i would like to see the ses profile of rotc harvard kids vs the overall student at harvard.

i wouldn't be surprised if it was wealthier.

I went to Harvard and I *would* be surprised. Do you realize how wealthy kids there are? The median HHi is probably 400-500K. Conservative guess.

[Anonymous]

The two kids I know who did ROTC when their families could afford to pay truly wanted to serve. Great kid’s, both.

If politics is in their future, it will be because they are great people who want to serve. It will not be because they were plotting a congressional run at 17.