January 4, 2011 AROTC Board

Ohio2015Parent said:

I'd still keep that state school open until May 1

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I rarely disagree with anything Ohio2015Parent says, but I would keep that state school open all the way until September. This means pay the deposit to the state school on May 1, so that you have somewhere to turn in the event that your DS breaks his leg during the summer.

This may not be fair dealings with the state school, but if you truly can't afford the other school without a scholarship and your DS is DoDMERB DQ'd during the summer, you have no backup plan, and your DS will sit on the couch for at least one semester.

I am certain that some folks don't agree with this approach and view it as dirty pool. However, I'm a bit over-hyper about not having backup plans in place.

Thanks for the immediate responses - I need to learn my patience from all of you, and learn to do a much better job at masking my anxiety!
DEFINITELY holding on the the State school acceptance - was out thought exactly about staying healthy and keeping bones intact. Food for thought re keeping it until Sept 1, it certainly is our only other option w/o scholarship funds.
I check everyday for the good news regarding the Jan Board. You have all been asked to maintain your sanity in the mist of an emotional senior year. I admire all of you and will continue to check the forum, praying for good news in the very near future. You all deserve a medal yourselves!

Since this whole budget thing has been reported and with all the speculation about it hugely impacting the scholarships, do you think the results are going to be pushed back even futher, due to the March 4th vote? or are we still looking to hear from CC before March 1st?

Break a leg

patentesq said:

This means pay the deposit to the state school on May 1, so that you have somewhere to turn in the event that your DS breaks his leg during the summer.

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So suppose DS does break a leg, what are the possible scenarios?

Marie said:

Since this whole budget thing has been reported and with all the speculation about it hugely impacting the scholarships, do you think the results are going to be pushed back even futher, due to the March 4th vote? or are we still looking to hear from CC before March 1st?

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No one knows, Marie. And we are 100% it is budget-related (although conventional wisdom is shaping in that direction). We may see a few "dings" and a few "sure things" happen by March 1, and the others will get rolled over to the March 8 board. But that theory is no greater basis in fact than any other theory.

One thing I can confidently say, though, is that we will all find out by the time our DS/DDs graduate in 2015!!

paradoxer said:

So suppose DS does break a leg, what are the possible scenarios?

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That's really a question for Mr. Mullen (but I don't think he takes hypotheticals!!). My guess is that if your DS is injured, you will have to get a thumbs up from DoDMERB that the wound has healed properly before you can contract. Perhaps the example of a broken leg is not a good one, because it's a straight-forward question. But other medical issues can come up that are not so straight forward.

This would be a good question for clarksonarmy or Marist College ROTC, who I hope will chime in here.

Sorry to post so much (I will back off so as not to monopolize this thread), but there is one thing that I think we should all remember. As anxious as we all might be about word on scholarships, I think we should all take a hard look at this article that was posted today about the current budget stalemate and how it will affect the military: http://thehill.com/news-by-subject/...d-marines-would-not-get-some-missiles-rockets. Reading this was a sobering reminder for me on the important things that are going on. The leaders of our military were in the halls of Congress late very last night, as the article indicates. They are there now as well, I'm sure.

As the report indicates, our deployed troops are watching the budget battle as we are right now and wondering whether they will receive ammunition to carry on their fight in Afghanistan! Without adequate resources, they die. So for our troops deployed overseas, this budget battle could very well be a matter of life and death. And if our brave Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors, and Marines are sitting right now overseas worrying about that, we know the present situation must be very serious!

(the bickering you will see among the posters at the bottom of this article probably reflects some of the same bickering that is going on in the halls of Congress over the budget).

We are truly blessed as we sit on our computers reading these posts. This will eventually get resolved.

Budget

CSPAN2 has had coverage today of ADM Mullen and the specific cuts he is projecting up to 2015..interesting stuff.

patentesq said:

I rarely disagree with anything Ohio2015Parent says, but I would keep that state school open all the way until September. This means pay the deposit to the state school on May 1, so that you have somewhere to turn in the event that your DS breaks his leg during the summer.

This may not be fair dealings with the state school, but if you truly can't afford the other school without a scholarship and your DS is DoDMERB DQ'd during the summer, you have no backup plan, and your DS will sit on the couch for at least one semester.

I am certain that some folks don't agree with this approach and view it as dirty pool. However, I'm a bit over-hyper about not having backup plans in place.

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Thanks for pointing out the until fall - I always hesitate to tell people to spend money not knowing their situations. IF a school thinks its dirty pool, they will get over it, covering our own is all we can do.

Another great link to read - thanks - I pray the powers that be in DC do not allow our service members in the field to worry too much longer. Yes, our situation is not great, theirs must be mind numbing - God bless them and keep them safe and focused on their missions.

Ohio2015Parent said:

Thanks for pointing out the until fall - I always hesitate to tell people to spend money not knowing their situations. IF a school thinks its dirty pool, they will get over it, covering our own is all we can do.

Another great link to read - thanks - I pray the powers that be in DC do not allow our service members in the field to worry too much longer. Yes, our situation is not great, theirs must be mind numbing - God bless them and keep them safe and focused on their missions.

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I haven't read every releated post so I may be off the beaten path but I can tell you that as we awaited a waiver last Spring, we paid admission fees to (2) other schools and later non-refundable housing fees to one of them as we narrowed down our choices.

Bottom line is it may cost you some money but keep all your options open.

I just want to preface this by saying I am not disagreeing with any of the previous posts or trying to contradict anyone. I was just wondering about a couple things.

If the current budget mess has been the main reason for the Army to delay posting the results for the Jan. 4th board, why is it that the AFROTC and NROTC have made scholarship offers. Last night a friend of my son received a phone call from his state liaison, he told him that the class of 2015 has been filled and he would not be getting an appointment. Are the academies immune to the budget mess, I would assume they are since they have to have a freshman class for next year.

Son's friend is now waiting to hear the results from the Jan. 4th board with everyone else.

I would imagine now that West Point is full CC will not have to deal with giving scholarships and having them declined due to a SA appointment.

I would think the delay has more to do with the relocation of cadet command a couple of months ago TBH. The 1st board only awarded 400 scholarships. If they offered 1,000-1,200 now they would still be well under any budget cut.

FloridaDad said:

I would think the delay has more to do with the relocation of cadet command a couple of months ago TBH. The 1st board only awarded 400 scholarships. If they offered 1,000-1,200 now they would still be well under any budget cut.

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Oh Boy, you just rekindled that debate again. Just kidding

Yesterday, my NJROTC unit had our Annual Military Inspection. The inspecting officer informed us that we would not be getting much money anytime soon because of the budget problems. He said that the Army is still giving out money because they have "a different interpretation of the rules". I realize that is JROTC and not ROTC scholarships, but that phrase makes me think that there is probably some other confounding factor in this mess.

Jcleppe said:

Oh Boy, you just rekindled that debate again. Just kidding

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Bring on more debate...it only ups our posts and view totals....

Kidding aside, I doubt the delay can be attributed soley to the move - did it make things more difficult for the CC staff, absolutely, but the budget situation seems a lot more likely. DoD may be the source of funding, but probably the SAs, NROTC, AFROTC have different funding/accounting set ups within the individual branches. So many other things are different about the AF/Navy process it would not surprise me at all. SAs will get their funding no matter what. As the debate on this thread has also pointed out, really the WHY isn't that big of a deal -- other than a government shut down would create chaos for everyone.

JROTC and ROTC, Apples and Oranges.

A government shutdown would have zero impact on any scholarships awarded now. No checks will be cut for several months and they can easily rescind the scholarships later.

Moving 60-70% of your staff to a new location has a massive impact on your processes. Maybe they moved the deadline for deliverables by seven days in December because they realized they would be pushed for time between the 2nd and 3rd boards.

Jcleppe said:

If the current budget mess has been the main reason for the Army to delay posting the results for the Jan. 4th board, why is it that the AFROTC and NROTC have made scholarship offers.

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My guess is that some of the scholarships at AFROTC and NROTC were pre-approved before folks in those services slammed on the brakes. Each of the services has a different approach to budgeting and are advised differently by the lawyers in that service. The AF and Navy could conclude that the top 10 candidates or so are worth grabbing now (before another service grabs them), and they can deal with any over-estimates by shifting money from another program if they have to. I suspect the Army is taking a more conservative approach. Of course, if the government shuts down, no branch of service is authorized to commit to new contracts (i.e., new scholarships)

Jcleppe said:

Are the academies immune to the budget mess, I would assume they are since they have to have a freshman class for next year.

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The Air Force Academy has announced major reductions to the class of 2015. Reports on the USAFA board on SAF are that they are also cutting current cadets. USNA is making it easier for cadets to be disenrolled. No word from USMA yet about what is going on. Yesterday, I posted the link to the President's budget. All academies are forecasting reduced enrollment in that budget. The good news is that USMA did not shut down even during the Civil War.

Jcleppe said:

I would imagine now that West Point is full CC will not have to deal with giving scholarships and having them declined due to a SA appointment.

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If the USMA class is full (no official word on that yet), I would expect the USMA admissions office to put pressure on the appointees to accept or decline earlier than the May 1 deadline, so they will know how many additional offers to extend. However, with the delay from CC (which I believe IS budget-related) no one will want to decline because they haven't yet heard from AROTC. As such, USMA can receive a much higher acceptance rate than in previous years.

FloridaDad said:

A government shutdown would have zero impact on any scholarships awarded now. No checks will be cut for several months and they can easily rescind the scholarships later.

Moving 60-70% of your staff to a new location has a massive impact on your processes. Maybe they moved the deadline for deliverables by seven days in December because they realized they would be pushed for time between the 2nd and 3rd boards.

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I can easily agree that the deadline was moved up to help with the moving. I can easily agree that a delay of 1-2 weeks would have been attributed to the move, however, the on going delay and multiple signs pointing to the budget issues cannot be ignored.

I am very glad they are not spending money they are not sure will be there. I can imagine no worse situation than "rescinding" a cadets scholarship for no other reason than faulty accounting by CC and/or Army.

There can be hours of debate... have a good night guys(and ladies)-I'm out for a date with my DH

FloridaDad said:

Moving 60-70% of your staff to a new location has a massive impact on your processes. Maybe they moved the deadline for deliverables by seven days in December because they realized they would be pushed for time between the 2nd and 3rd boards.

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If the move is to blame, why didn't CC plan to conduct such a disruptive move until the summer? Poor planning? Also, why are the ROOs advising the ROTC candidates that the delay is budget-related?

Can we now discredit the supposed "weather delay" explanation?