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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My son is in Air Force ROTC. He is a freshman and it has been a good experience for him. Made most of his friends through AFROTC. He is not on scholarship. Students can apply for a (very competitive) scholarship freshman year, but if they don't get that, they can still join (they do get a few perks even without the scholarship, like selecting courses first each semester). Summer after sophomore year, they go through basic training, and if they get through that, they then officially commit to service and receive a scholarship ($18,000 year) for the remaining 2 years of school, plus a small stipend (I can't remember how much but maybe $400 a month?). [b]It is a serious time commitment and playing a sport on top of that would be a really serious time commitment.[/b] My son looked at doing Corps of Cadets at VT and that seemed more extreme than he wanted so he went with ROTC. If your DC does ROTC I'd recommend making sure the detachment is located on campus (one detachment may serve several nearby schools, I think my son's AFROTC detachment has members from 5 colleges, but his campus is the home base, and where most of the activities occur).

My friend's son graduated USMA and is now in a top medical school. It is a great path because the military pays for medical school but be aware that they also only allow so many kids from each graduating class to choose to go to medical school, so the ability to apply is gated in some way.[/quote]

Thanks for the response. Can you say a little more about the time commitment during the school year? I’ve heard mixed things. Relatives told me it’s just a fairly easy class a semester and then obviously time in the summer for boot camp. Is there a lot more than that during the school year? If ds did ROTC, he would not do a D1 school for his sport. He’d go to a D3 school with ROTC.  The sports is a must, so we have to find a way to balance that as ds is dead set on continuing in college (and admittedly that’s an admission hook for him)[/quote]

There is a military science class every semester (I get the impression it's pretty easy, but it is an additional thing to worry about if your DC is in a rigorous major like engineering, and it can mess up the kid's schedule. Like my DS has to push a required course for his major to the Spring because it is in conflict with his military science course). There is PT a couple of times a week, so they need to get up early. DS now gets up early every weekday and works out most mornings that he doesn't have PT just to stay on track. If your kid does a sport though, he would get his additional workouts through practice. There seems to be a fair amount of things they are doing on Saturdays that are several hours of commitment. This past weekend DS was actually in Atlanta (1000 miles from his school) for a ROTC conference. He also will go back to school early Sophomore year because he's been selected to assist with ROTC Orientation before classes begin. The basic training summer after Sophomore year is not that long, but could conflict with desired internships. Of DS's AFROTC friends I only know of one doing a varsity sport (Football) but there could be others. This is at a D3 school. [/quote]

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