ROTC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anecdotally, I'm seeing a surge in ROTC applications. The military, for whatever reasons (economic, political) is seeing a huge spike in recruitment.

+1, at my DC’s T-20 school, the ROTC unit has more than doubled in size this year. The ROTC unit is actively working with the admissions office to recruit more students. I’m guessing the state of the economy is also leading to a big surge in ROTC interest.

You don't know what you're talking about. The number of ROTC scholarship spots at a university is not decided by the university but by the branch of the military. A top20 university can't go out in their own and decide "hey last year we offered 10 spots but this year we'll work with admissions to find 20 kids."

All the spot allocation and matching is done by the military.

You have a serious reading comprehension problem. I never said the university itself can increase the number of spots that are allocated by the military. The spots they had were probably never filled completely mainly due to the low admissions rates. The commanding officer worked with the admissions office to identify promising candidates and probably gave them a bump in admissions. This increased the pool of students who can potentially join this unit. Plus he did a lot of marketing efforts to convince the accepted students with scholarships to join his unit instead of others colleges and service academies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anecdotally, I'm seeing a surge in ROTC applications. The military, for whatever reasons (economic, political) is seeing a huge spike in recruitment.

+1, at my DC’s T-20 school, the ROTC unit has more than doubled in size this year. The ROTC unit is actively working with the admissions office to recruit more students. I’m guessing the state of the economy is also leading to a big surge in ROTC interest.

You don't know what you're talking about. The number of ROTC scholarship spots at a university is not decided by the university but by the branch of the military. A top20 university can't go out in their own and decide "hey last year we offered 10 spots but this year we'll work with admissions to find 20 kids."

All the spot allocation and matching is done by the military.

The ROTC branches at each school have their own scholarship budget and they can absolutely give scholarships to current students or incoming, separate from national rotc scholarship program.

This is not true to my knowledge. they can subsidize room or board but not give their own scholarships. Please show us a website that supports your claim.

They absolutely can. They have their own DOD budget that supports their commissioning goals. It isn’t done through a website so I’m not sure what to tell you. I switched majors in school mid way through my freshman year, and inquired with ROTC about joining. For the rest of my freshman year I worked on my ROTC application (it’s lengthy with lots of components). I ended up getting a 4 yr scholarship from the ROTC dept- which worked out well for me because switching majors and added an extra year anyway. Plenty of other cadets went on to get 3 and 2 scholarships directly from the dept as well. I would say we had probably 4 cadets entering per year (out of maybe 20) that got scholarships straight from high school through the national scholarship application. But at least half, maybe more, of each class were awarded either a 2,3, or 4 yr scholarship at some point during freshman or sophomore year- from money allocated to our rotc dept.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anecdotally, I'm seeing a surge in ROTC applications. The military, for whatever reasons (economic, political) is seeing a huge spike in recruitment.

+1, at my DC’s T-20 school, the ROTC unit has more than doubled in size this year. The ROTC unit is actively working with the admissions office to recruit more students. I’m guessing the state of the economy is also leading to a big surge in ROTC interest.

You don't know what you're talking about. The number of ROTC scholarship spots at a university is not decided by the university but by the branch of the military. A top20 university can't go out in their own and decide "hey last year we offered 10 spots but this year we'll work with admissions to find 20 kids."

All the spot allocation and matching is done by the military.

The ROTC branches at each school have their own scholarship budget and they can absolutely give scholarships to current students or incoming, separate from national rotc scholarship program.

This is not true to my knowledge. they can subsidize room or board but not give their own scholarships. Please show us a website that supports your claim.

They absolutely can. They have their own DOD budget that supports their commissioning goals. It isn’t done through a website so I’m not sure what to tell you. I switched majors in school mid way through my freshman year, and inquired with ROTC about joining. For the rest of my freshman year I worked on my ROTC application (it’s lengthy with lots of components). I ended up getting a 4 yr scholarship from the ROTC dept- which worked out well for me because switching majors and added an extra year anyway. Plenty of other cadets went on to get 3 and 2 scholarships directly from the dept as well. I would say we had probably 4 cadets entering per year (out of maybe 20) that got scholarships straight from high school through the national scholarship application. But at least half, maybe more, of each class were awarded either a 2,3, or 4 yr scholarship at some point during freshman or sophomore year- from money allocated to our rotc dept.

I don't think this is currently an option. I know cadets who have been doing ROTC without scholarship for the last two years (top grades, etc at big programs) who have inquired extensively about scholarship money to no avail.

Also, cadets have been told that the Army only wants to commission 1500 second lieutenants going forward which is a pretty big decrease and programs will be starting to cut cadets in the later years of the program. The army currently has a significant glut of officers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I don't think this is currently an option. I know cadets who have been doing ROTC without scholarship for the last two years (top grades, etc at big programs) who have inquired extensively about scholarship money to no avail.

Also, cadets have been told that the Army only wants to commission 1500 second lieutenants going forward which is a pretty big decrease and programs will be starting to cut cadets in the later years of the program. The army currently has a significant glut of officers.

Not sure if additive to this conversation, but confirming this is accurate. There were cadets in my program that went through all 4 years with no scholarship because they wanted it badly enough but the money wasn't there for them.

The second part is also accurate, happened my senior year in college. My branch was actively culling prospective commissions, as to the point above, maybe that's why there weren't giving money. At the time they were offering to "cross train" (i.e., go through basic/field/summer training) to commission into a different branch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anecdotally, I'm seeing a surge in ROTC applications. The military, for whatever reasons (economic, political) is seeing a huge spike in recruitment.

+1, at my DC’s T-20 school, the ROTC unit has more than doubled in size this year. The ROTC unit is actively working with the admissions office to recruit more students. I’m guessing the state of the economy is also leading to a big surge in ROTC interest.

You don't know what you're talking about. The number of ROTC scholarship spots at a university is not decided by the university but by the branch of the military. A top20 university can't go out in their own and decide "hey last year we offered 10 spots but this year we'll work with admissions to find 20 kids."

All the spot allocation and matching is done by the military.

Stop talking about things you know nothing about.

You're the one who is making stuff up. I have two ROTC cadets.

Awww, Mommy thinks she knows stuff. Cute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You're disgusting. I have massive issues with the National Guard being used for policing, but these kids aren't joining the Guard. Sorry your life is so worthless you have to bash kids who are only intent on serving others. Even if they're only doing it so you won't have to.

Served for 20 years. I’d never encourage my kids to join now. Have a nice day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You're disgusting. I have massive issues with the National Guard being used for policing, but these kids aren't joining the Guard. Sorry your life is so worthless you have to bash kids who are only intent on serving others. Even if they're only doing it so you won't have to.

Served for 20 years. I’d never encourage my kids to join now. Have a nice day.

Serving doesn't make your life worthy of anything, especially respect.

[Anonymous]

I think ROTC can help, but maybe not at all schools. My kid was in ROTC and has friends at different schools that were in ROTC. At least one of those kids was definitely accepted to a school he would not have been admitted to absent the “hook” of ROTC. His stats did not justify it and his mom told me at the time they were shocked. The other kids I know all ended up at schools where they would have been in the mix anyway.

[Anonymous]

Oh people -- things have changed a lot recently and most certainly since any DCUMer was in ROTC.

ALL ROTC schlarships have been cut. Army has cut the most and has the largest program. It is has been subject to news stories and threads here. The scholarships are extremely competitve. Yes, they used to hand them out like crazy but now budgets are tight/cut and they have the pick of candidates so you better be extremely strong. I have one doing ROTC at a T20 school with a 3 yr scholarship. The entire MS1 is 10 kids and 1 has a 4 year national scholarship, 1 has a national 3 year scholarship (mine). They have PT and training 4 times a week at 5:30 am. You are allowed to miss 2 morning sessions a semster. If you miss more than that you are out of program completely. The kids without scholarships are hoping to be in the program for a year and then get a scholarship. There are MSIIs who don't have scholarships yet.

Mine has been sick and still out there at 5:30 am for PT. It is a huge commitment and we get to pay full tuition!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You're disgusting. I have massive issues with the National Guard being used for policing, but these kids aren't joining the Guard. Sorry your life is so worthless you have to bash kids who are only intent on serving others. Even if they're only doing it so you won't have to.

Served for 20 years. I’d never encourage my kids to join now. Have a nice day.

Serving doesn't make your life worthy of anything, especially respect.

DP

It sort of does.

I don't have to defer to his opinions but I have to respect the service and I certainly can't say he is bashing kids while hiding behind them.

I personally disagree and I think we need good honorable men and women in the military now more than ever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh people -- things have changed a lot recently and most certainly since any DCUMer was in ROTC.

ALL ROTC schlarships have been cut. Army has cut the most and has the largest program. It is has been subject to news stories and threads here. The scholarships are extremely competitve. Yes, they used to hand them out like crazy but now budgets are tight/cut and they have the pick of candidates so you better be extremely strong. I have one doing ROTC at a T20 school with a 3 yr scholarship. The entire MS1 is 10 kids and 1 has a 4 year national scholarship, 1 has a national 3 year scholarship (mine). They have PT and training 4 times a week at 5:30 am. You are allowed to miss 2 morning sessions a semster. If you miss more than that you are out of program completely. The kids without scholarships are hoping to be in the program for a year and then get a scholarship. There are MSIIs who don't have scholarships yet.

Mine has been sick and still out there at 5:30 am for PT. It is a huge commitment and we get to pay full tuition!

Well, sounds like you won't have to next year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh people -- things have changed a lot recently and most certainly since any DCUMer was in ROTC.

ALL ROTC schlarships have been cut. Army has cut the most and has the largest program. It is has been subject to news stories and threads here. The scholarships are extremely competitve. Yes, they used to hand them out like crazy but now budgets are tight/cut and they have the pick of candidates so you better be extremely strong. I have one doing ROTC at a T20 school with a 3 yr scholarship. The entire MS1 is 10 kids and 1 has a 4 year national scholarship, 1 has a national 3 year scholarship (mine). They have PT and training 4 times a week at 5:30 am. You are allowed to miss 2 morning sessions a semster. If you miss more than that you are out of program completely. The kids without scholarships are hoping to be in the program for a year and then get a scholarship. There are MSIIs who don't have scholarships yet.

Mine has been sick and still out there at 5:30 am for PT. It is a huge commitment and we get to pay full tuition!

Good for your kid! Mine has a 4 year scholarship at another top school. It's a big commitment, they are always exhausted but it's getting easier with time. A number of kids have already dropped out.

It's a difficult environment right now--I don't know any college kid who wants to be in a military that might one day be asked to practice on their fellow citizens in urban areas or to do ICE work. At my child's university there is also frequent anti-ROTC chalk graffiti on the sidewalks. Not a big deal but a bummer for a 18 year old cadet to see on their own campus.

[Anonymous]

I have a kid that has a 4 year Army ROTC scholarship at a top 20 college.

These scholarships are incredibly difficult to get. My kid also received a Congressional Nomination as he was considering West Point. You can't BS your way through this process. There is no one in ROTC at MIT, Duke, Princeton, Vanderbilt, Cornell, Notre Dame and similar schools with on campus programs that floated through the application process on a lark.

It's not just the academics and the public service. It's the fitness tests. 98 percent of American 18 year olds have zero shot at a ROTC scholarship.

And it's only gotten more difficult over the past year or two. The Army has a glut of young officers presently, so they aren't offering many ROTC scholarships at all now.

So this is a roundabout way of saying, no, some lardass can't simply check a ROTC box, get a magical boost in admissions at T20 colleges, cash a $70,000 check, and walk away 8 months later like it's some clever scam. That's not the real world. That's the pretend world of high schoolers who don't know better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh people -- things have changed a lot recently and most certainly since any DCUMer was in ROTC.

ALL ROTC schlarships have been cut. Army has cut the most and has the largest program. It is has been subject to news stories and threads here. The scholarships are extremely competitve. Yes, they used to hand them out like crazy but now budgets are tight/cut and they have the pick of candidates so you better be extremely strong. I have one doing ROTC at a T20 school with a 3 yr scholarship. The entire MS1 is 10 kids and 1 has a 4 year national scholarship, 1 has a national 3 year scholarship (mine). They have PT and training 4 times a week at 5:30 am. You are allowed to miss 2 morning sessions a semster. If you miss more than that you are out of program completely. The kids without scholarships are hoping to be in the program for a year and then get a scholarship. There are MSIIs who don't have scholarships yet.

Mine has been sick and still out there at 5:30 am for PT. It is a huge commitment and we get to pay full tuition!

Good for your kid! Mine has a 4 year scholarship at another top school. It's a big commitment, they are always exhausted but it's getting easier with time. A number of kids have already dropped out.

It's a difficult environment right now--I don't know any college kid who wants to be in a military that might one day be asked to practice on their fellow citizens in urban areas or to do ICE work. At my child's university there is also frequent anti-ROTC chalk graffiti on the sidewalks. Not a big deal but a bummer for a 18 year old cadet to see on their own campus.

I am sorry to hear about the chalk. Mine hasn't seen any but the kids and roommates have been fine with it. I hope it stays that way.

[Anonymous]

Does this actually give you an edge for being accepted by the school, or do you have to be accepted by the school first, and the scholarship comes later, after you've been accepted using the same admissions criteria as everyone else? Anyone know?