WinterHater,
Love the name by the way, I'm in Seattle, you can only imagine.
There are several ways to participate in AROTC:
Scholarship Cadet
SMP
GRFD National Guard Scholarship
Green to Gold
LTC
Walk on
We all know about the scholarship program, The SMP program is through either the Army Reserve or National Guard, GRFD is a scholarship through the National Guard that requires you to serve 8 years in the National Guard. Green to Gold is a program that allows enlisted personell to apply for the schoarship and attend college and ROTC. LTC is where a student does not participate in ROTC their freshman or sophmore year, they attend LTC ( a summer training program after their sophmore year to catch them up.) They then join AROTC as a MS3 and start receiving their stipend. And then there are the Walk On's, these are students who are not on scholarship, SMP, GRFD, or any other program. They are students that just sign up for the MS classes.
There is no difference between any of the programs as far as training and oppertunities. If your son is a SMP, GRFD, or Green to Gold he would be able to receive slots for summer training along with the scholarship cadets. The walk ons would not be given slots for summer school until they contract which would be the beginning of their junior year, there are slots for schools during the summer they attend LDAC so the oppertunity is still there.
During all this a walk on has the possibility to receive a 2 or 3 year scholarship, they are not given out as much as they used to be a few years ago though.
A walk on is not required to attend PT, Labs, or even FTX if they don't want to. Of course if they don't they would not have a chance in *&$% of receiving and scholarship and would not be considered for contracting.
At the school my son attends the walk ons are not issued uniforms or gear for them to be responsible for.
Now here is where I will be honest. I asked the same question tomy son a while back when my younger son was applying for his scholarship this year. His answer was this. They really do not spend much time worring about the walk ons, it was more that they tolerated them. This was because most of them lasted just one semester and then left, they didn't come to PT, and skipped labs. They would only come to FTX if it didn't conflict with a big weekend party. Basiclly there was not a lot of respect for them as a whole.
Now that being said, he also said that every now and then there would be a walk on that attended everything, worked their rear end off, had AFPT scores higher the half the scholarship cadets, and never missed a FTX or training lab. He said the cadre went out of their way to try and secure a scholarship for these cadets, if none were available they were a lock to be contracted their junior year.
2 years ago the Cadet Battalion Comander was a non scholarship cadet who started as a walk on.
So when others say they look around and can not tell who are and are not scholarship cadets it is true for the most part because they are usually in one of the other catagories besides walk on.
I guess my point is this, while a walk on cadet does not have the same status and respect in the eyes of other cadets, if they work hard, and show committment to the program they will quickly earn the respect of their peers.
All the other posts are correct about one thing, it will make no difference at all in their Army career no matter how the gold bars are pinned on.
If by some chance your son does not receive a scholarship look at all the options available and get as much information you can, SMP is a good alternative albeit a little confusing to sort out at first.
Oh and one more thing. My son said that the walk on's that excelled were always the one's that had just missed out on a scholarship, he said they all had the same drive to succeed.
Good luck to your son, if a commission is his goal he will find a way to get it, the good ones always do.
Clarksonarmy is the foremost expert here on all things AROTC, his advise should superceed any ramblings that miss the mark on my part.