Campus Scholarship?

Just curious -
I have read on several threads in the past few days something referred to as a "Campus Scholarship". What is that exactly, and is it completely outside the rhelm of Cadet Command? Why would such a scholarship be awarded in that manner?

There are national scholarships awarded by Cadet Command. Some schools also have a few campus scholarships. They decide who gets them.

I'm still not clear on this and what's the difference. My son applied for the 4-year scholarship last year and received the official 'sorry you didn't get it' letter the day he shipped out for basic training for the Reserves in June (plan B.) We then received a phone call the last week of July from the PMS at the in-state school he enrolled in for ROTC (and eventually SMP) that he got a 3-year Advanced Designee scholarship. The letter that followed came from the college, not Cadet Command. When fall came and my son was at the first day of ROTC he went up to the PMS and thanked him for the scholarship. He was told 'I didn't do it, it was from Cadet Command.' So was it a national or campus scholarship? We still really don't know.

The OC Josh said:

There are national scholarships awarded by Cadet Command. Some schools also have a few campus scholarships. They decide who gets them.

Click to expand...

As a HS senior, the applicant does need to have his/her national scholarship application in.

Campus scholarships are every bit like national scholarships (full tuition, DoDMERB requirements, 4-year or 3-year-AD, etc.), except that they are good only at the offering campus (cannot be transferred).

As to how many there are and which schools have them (or don't), that information is not available. I wouldn't bring up the subject with a ROO or PMS unless they are taking a particular shining to you. And even then, if they are r eally liking you and they have them, they will probably volunteer that information.

bdaMom said:

I'm still not clear on this and what's the difference. My son applied for the 4-year scholarship last year and received the official 'sorry you didn't get it' letter the day he shipped out for basic training for the Reserves in June (plan B.) We then received a phone call the last week of July from the PMS at the in-state school he enrolled in for ROTC (and eventually SMP) that he got a 3-year Advanced Designee scholarship. The letter that followed came from the college, not Cadet Command. When fall came and my son was at the first day of ROTC he went up to the PMS and thanked him for the scholarship. He was told 'I didn't do it, it was from Cadet Command.' So was it a national or campus scholarship? We still really don't know.

Click to expand...

I'm going to contractict my previous post with regards to the type of scholarship (4-year / 3-year AD). I believe with all 3-year AD scholarships they are not transferrable (i.e. you do 1 year at X school and the 3 years are only good at X school).

My guess is that with the lateness of his offer that there were some 3-year AD scholarships that didn't get accepted in the last board (or traded for by students wishing to change schools) which were made available to schools to nominate candidates perhaps. So it could have been one of their own that got traded in (without a corresponding taker) or declined late in the game (not admitted, changed mind, or took a WP slot?). At that point in the process, I imagine they were looking for people who were eligible and potentially coming to a particular school where they had a scholarship available.

I could believe this happens at some schools each year and your son happened to be the lucky recipient. He worked hard to make sure his interest was known to that unit. Sometimes you make your own luck.

Starting to believe the "campus scholarship" may be an urban legend...

S emailed PMS last week of his #1 school to let them know is college ED application was complete and is committed to join that BN. Also to let the PMS know that he confirmed with CC that his ROTC application package was complete and ready for the first board. S indicated that he hopes to arrive next fall with the 4 year ROTC scholarship or a BN "campus scholarship."

PMS response was essentially = outstanding that you are 100% committed to this school/BN, you are one of our strongest candidates. However, there are only the CC awarded 4 year or 3 year AD scholarships available, no campus based scholarships.

Perhaps some schools have these campus scholarships, but the PMS at this school was unaware of any autonomy by any BN to award a "campus" scholarship. All 4 year and 3 year AD are decided upon by the board at CC - at least according to one PMS. Certainly each PMS has their top applicant or a rank order of applicants, but in the end is it solely CC who determines final awards for applicants to a specific school (per this particular PMS).

goaliedad said:

I could believe this happens at some schools each year and your son happened to be the lucky recipient. He worked hard to make sure his interest was known to that unit. Sometimes you make your own luck.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, it makes sense. My son did stay in contact with this school throughout the scholarship wait. They were helpful in talking with us about SMP and we let them know when he put Plan B in motion by joining the Reserves. So we felt they knew he was committed and it must have played a role in receiving the scholarship. I think it just goes to show you to stay on your course and maybe you'll take a different path than expected, but you'll still reach your goal one way or the other

every PMS I talked to said s/he had a campus scholarship. Two of them even said, I get 20% of the total quota for my battalion for campus scholarship I get to decide who to give to in the fall.

It may be just a sampling error: as in, all the battalions my son was interested in happened to have campus scholarships while this is not the case everywhere.

In the hay day of ample AROTC scholarships (the class of 2012), one battalion reported that they had 28 national scholarship (4 years) and then they were able to give out 12 additional campus scholarships. Of course, last time I checked, for the class of 2014 (the lean year), they only gave out 18 national scholarship - as for the campus scholarship, I did not follow up to learn how many they gave in the fall.

Educateme - if the information you received from those particular PMS/BNs is accurate (which I do not doubt), then this is yet another example why posting more guidance and information regarding the various types of scholarships on the Army ROTC webpage would assist all applicants and level the playing field.

However, one would think/hope that a candidate who is highly competative and commits to an ED at a particular university will then likely be at the top of the list for a "campus" scholarship (should the PMS have those allotted).

Or...for the game theorists out there - maybe early decision is not a good strategy. Maybe the PMS sees an ED and knows the student made a binding commitment to a particular school and feels the applicant will enroll in ROTC even without the scholarship (then competing for a 3 year or go for the SMP option).

Plenty of "what-ifs" or wargaming strategy to consider, but I have to believe the bottom line comes down to the overall strength of the particular applicant's package and how that stacks up against the competition. Which is the way it should be, at least from my perspective.

Maybe the PMS sees an ED and knows the student made a binding commitment to a particular school and feels the applicant will enroll in ROTC even without the scholarship (then competing for a 3 year or go for the SMP option).

Click to expand...

I am a cynic when it comes to organizational behavior (not personal behavior) in a large bureaucracy of any kind. Even so, I would not go as far as to believe that PMS will behave this way. I believe vast, vast, and vast majority of them are upstanding folks with the right and fair orientation. Yes, playing a bit of Tufts Syndrome is understandable and perhaps unavoidable under the current system, but doing what you describe above takes a bit more dark Machiavellian streak, and I doubt that's what's going on.

If anything, in your situation, I would encourage my son to let the PMS know that he is so committed to the school/battalion combination that he is doing an ED application, and stay in touch with the PMS all throughout the season if he does not get the scholarship in Nov after the first board.

As much as I am all for smart strategy (within the ethical boundary), I am all for full disclosure when push comes to shove. That's how I always operated in my professional field with much more at stake. Being a full time Machiavelli takes way too much energy from every other domain of my life.

Just my two cents. This and another $2.04 will give you a Starbucks regular Venti at my local Barnes and Noble store.

Ok help me out here.. I am naive with the NROTC applkication. I have it all completed and am trying to get an appointment with my coordinator before submittiing. I contacted my first school of choice to see if they still had openings in their program. I know zero about any of the programs. This university has the major I want and the NROTC website looked amazing. Please help me understand the recruiting officers email. "My recommendation to maximize the scholarship and ensure you use it, however, is to put another school that tends to be more competitive with NROTC applicants as your number one choice. THis will ensure you can use the NROTC scholarship at a school on your list. As, I mentioned we do not exceed the quota because our school is quite small comparatively speaking. Therefore, if you go here, we can easily move your scholarship over." I have no idea what schools are what. I know Texas A&M has a good program and thats about it. I just put down schools that I liked and fit my major. Please help.

Please keep in mind that the following is my opinion. What I believe the RO at the NROTC unit meant in his email is that if you are awarded a NROTC scholarship at a more competitive school and THEN decide instead to use it (transfer the scholarship) at his school...there shouldn't be a problem. If that is the case then I believe he is saying to look at your list of potential colleges/NROTC units and put the most competitive (difficult to get admitted / expensive?) at the top of the list. If you are awarded a NROTC scholarship to that school and either don't get admitted, or decide to go to his unit then you shouldn't have much difficulty transferring the scholarship to his unit. If you are absolutely sure that his unit/college is your number one choice and you are extremely confident you can get admitted into that college...I see nothing wrong with listing it first and not worrying about whether you need to transfer the scholarship. But you need to be certain that the college will admit you, otherwise follow the RO's advice and keep your options open.

While TAMU is an excellent SMC, it also has a Corps of Cadets which is a somewhat different ROTC lifestyle than a "normal" ROTC experience. If you are going to list them first you should make sure that a CoC experience is what you really want.

Of course if I have misunderstood what the RO meant or what you are asking, then you should disregard everything after the word opinion in the first sentence. Actually that might be good advice for most of my posts.

Good Luck!

I agree with ag. TAMU is one of only a handful in the nation that have cadet corps. Life for a mid is different than if you went to OSU. I know at VT the only students guaranteed housing for all 4 yrs are the CoCs. They actually also have their own dorm too. CoC universities are much closer to an SA life than the traditional ROTC cadet/mid at the traditional university.

You need to ask yourself what type of ROTC life do you want. Do you want to go to places like TAMU, Cit, VMI or VT, where they have a corp? Do you want to go to schools where they just have a det? The lifestyle will be polar opposites. At the CoC schools you will not only be doing the ROTC stuff, but then you will also be doing CoC things on top of that and your school work, which leaves less time for being the traditional student.

I know many students who opted either route, for some they loved it, for some they regretted it. The ones that regretted their option always had the same reasons. If they regretted the CoC it was because it was too much of a military program, they felt they missed out on just being a student. For the traditional ROTC cadets their regret was they felt that they didn't get that camaraderie and there wasn't enough military aspect in their college program.

It is great you know you want to be in the Navy when you graduate, but the question to you right now is what level of the Navy do you want in your life before you graduate?

dpt135 said:

"My recommendation to maximize the scholarship and ensure you use it, however, is to put another school that tends to be more competitive with NROTC applicants as your number one choice. THis will ensure you can use the NROTC scholarship at a school on your list. As, I mentioned we do not exceed the quota because our school is quite small comparatively speaking. Therefore, if you go here, we can easily move your scholarship over."

Click to expand...

It sounds like he wants you to put a bigger unit/match school as your number one choice because you will have a better chance of acceptance at the school and if you are accepted at his university then you could still transfer.

If his university is a "reach" school for you, this is excellent advice. Think about it like this: Say he is at the Harvard unit. He believes you will get the scholarship but he doesn't think you will be accepted at Harvard (or any of the other schools served by the unit). So he wants you to make a "match" school with a lot of slots your number 1 choice. This is good advice because the transfer process is late in the year and very chancy, imho. If you get the scholarship but are not accepted to your #1 school you have to apply to transfer the scholarship and if the transfer is not approved, you will not receive the scholarship.

But on the upside, he's giving you a fallback position so that if you do get accepted to his university, he believes you will be able to transfer. If you want to post the schools you are interested in applying to, we can give you our insight into the universities and units. Good luck!

I definitely would love the military lifestyle. I am also a candidate for USNA and USMMA. Those would be a higher priority. So I would enjoy a military college experience or a more tradtional one also. The school I spoke with was Duke. They have an undergraduate degree in military history. With reason, the officer there is probably concerned about my admitttance to Duke. I also put UNC, Texas A&M, Univ of Ok, and don't have a 5th choice. Trying to find something. Of course, with history being aTier3, the NROTC thing might not work unless I decide on another major. Thoughts on this now with the added info. Thanks again.

Which universities have cadet corps? Where is this information listed? I have a meeting with my NROTC coordinator on Monday,maybe he can help me out some too.

The Senior Military colleges are :
Texas A&M
Virginia Tech
The Citadel
Virginia Military Institute
Norwich University
North Georgia College and State University

Just_A_Mom said:

The Senior Military colleges are :
Texas A&M
Virginia Tech
The Citadel
Virginia Military Institute
Norwich University
North Georgia College and State University

Click to expand...

In addition to the Military Colleges above, The State Maritime Colleges also all have a Regiment of Cadets: Mass Maritime requires all students to be members of the Regiment, NY Maritime- (Ft Schuyler) is about 80% in the regiment, Maine Maritime is >50% in the regiment as are Cal and Texas Maritime which is located at Texas A&M Galveston (The Sea Aggies).

Thank you

dpt135 said:

I definitely would love the military lifestyle. I am also a candidate for USNA and USMMA. Those would be a higher priority. So I would enjoy a military college experience or a more tradtional one also. The school I spoke with was Duke. They have an undergraduate degree in military history. With reason, the officer there is probably concerned about my admitttance to Duke. I also put UNC, Texas A&M, Univ of Ok, and don't have a 5th choice. Trying to find something. Of course, with history being aTier3, the NROTC thing might not work unless I decide on another major. Thoughts on this now with the added info. Thanks again.

Click to expand...

Tier 3 major and little chance of getting into Duke...my guess is that you would not get the NROTC scholarship either. I don't know your stats but Tier 3 majors getting scholarships is very rare for NROTC. The Captain who heads up my son's unit told us at Orientation last year that the kids who joined NROTC in that unit without a scholarship (college programmers) for the most part had better stats and were more qualified than the group with scholarships...simply because they chose to ask for a Tier 3 major. If you want an NROTC scholarship, my recommendation is pick a Tier 1 or Tier 2 major.