SATs and ACTs - Planning for Next Year

EDelahanty

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The qualifications posted by a number of ROTC candidates indicate they are bright, motivated, athletic kids who just haven't managed to score high on the standard tests.

If you are serious about this process (even if you're not sure about ROTC), you should consider putting in the extra time and effort to boost your scores. Since you've worked hard for years to attain a high class rank and a high GPA, it would be unfortunate to let yourself lag in this other important area.

While there are commercially available courses in SAT/ACT testing, these tend to be expensive and probably aren't necessary. I can't comment on their utility. Some high schools or school districts offer low-cost courses for these tests. Also, Navy JROTC has a free course online which includes tutorials and practice tests at the following link.

http://jrotccollegeprep.com/

Another means of improving your scores is to simply get a practice test book or CD at your local bookstore. These tools are fairly inexpensive (or even free at your town library). Take the practice test in a controlled environment in the allotted time as if you were taking a real test. Check your answers after you finish the entire test; if you get something wrong, figure out why. This is like any any other exercise: you will improve with practice and in this case you will learn something as well.

You can reward yourself with some pushups and a run.

Good luck to all.
 
I would disagree a little bit with that first statement. If you've got the right SAL qualities, I think average test scores may be enough. That being said prepping and getting the best scores possible can't hurt. Here is another free resource for test prep. Someone let me know if they have used this one, and how it helped.

https://www.march2success.com/
 
I would disagree a little bit with that first statement. If you've got the right SAL qualities, I think average test scores may be enough. That being said prepping and getting the best scores possible can't hurt. Here is another free resource for test prep. Someone let me know if they have used this one, and how it helped.

https://www.march2success.com/

My son is a prime example of your statement. His GPA was 3.55 and ACT was 24. Bright kid, not sure why ACT was so average, test anxioty I guess.

His Athletic stats were very good, and his Leadership stats were as the PMS put it, "Off the charts".

I definatly agree that the whole person was taken into account.

Son received the scholarship on the first board to his top 5 schools, all 4 year.

I would agree that an applicant should do all they can to get high test score, my point is that if you are very strong in all other parts of the application don't feel your not competitive and decide not to apply.
 
My son is a prime example of your statement. His GPA was 3.55 and ACT was 24. Bright kid, not sure why ACT was so average, test anxioty I guess.

His Athletic stats were very good, and his Leadership stats were as the PMS put it, "Off the charts".

I definatly agree that the whole person was taken into account.

Son received the scholarship on the first board to his top 5 schools, all 4 year.

I would agree that an applicant should do all they can to get high test score, my point is that if you are very strong in all other parts of the application don't feel your not competitive and decide not to apply.

I agree. Your son stats sound just like my DS and he received 4 year scholarship to all the schools on his list from the first board. I think getting everything in, in time for the first board is a huge advantage to getting the scholarship and choice of schools. :thumb:
 
The quote at the bottom is excerpted from Cadet Command's August 2010 announcement about the Class of 2014 scholarship winners. No doubt it's been posted on these boards already, but its such a great, succinct summary that it's worth re-posting. I'm guessing that competition was even stiffer this year.

It can be tough for a 16 or 17 year-old to judge how you come across as a "whole person" on the Scholar-Athlete-Leader spectrum. If you have an older sibling, friend or family member who has been through the ROTC process, their example and guidance can be a great advantage. Many applicants are not so fortunate, however. Some parents are uninformed, indifferent, motivated by purely financial considerations (college is damned expensive) and, in some instances, even hostile.

Remember that the ROTC scholarship selection process is highly competitive. As an imperfect meritocracy, it benefits from self-correcting provisions, such as enabling you to win a scholarship on campus. Ultimately, it comes down to your own determination and abilities.

********************************************************
From Cadet Command

"ROTC is the largest source of Army officers, commissioning more than 60 percent of new officers each year for the active Army, Army Reserve and Army National Guard. Cadet Command awards its ROTC scholarships on a "whole person" concept and officials look for what they term the "Scholar-Athlete-Leader." They explained this includes a strong academic record, good active mindset with mental and physical toughness, selfless motivation and demonstrated willingness to be involved in and a leader among peers in student or community organizations. It also includes a desire to take on challenges and strive for excellence, they said.

The profile of this year's scholarship winners shows that the average high school grade-point average was 3.5, and the mean college board test score was 1186.

In addition: 39 percent were in the top 5 percent of their classes; 74 percent were in the top 25 percent of their classes; and 96 percent were in the top 50 percent of their classes.

About 12 percent were student-body or senior-class presidents; 34 percent held other class offices; 41 percent were National Honor Society members; 8 percent were club presidents; 28 percent took part in Junior ROTC; 17 percent were involved in Scouting; 77 percent were varsity-letter winners; and 53 percent were varsity team captains."
 
Here are my sons stats: 3.56 GPA, 1280 SAT, Eagle Scout, President of his Junior and Senior Classes, 150 hours of community service at app. time (200 now), 3 Varsity Football letters, 3 Varsity Lacrosse letters (current captain), performed in recent school musical, Rocky Mountain Leadership Conference Attendee, Mayor's 100 Teen, Coast Guard Academy AIM Attendee, Peer Leader for church youth group, Eucharistic Minister 4 years, great PT score, maxed interview, board ready for all 3 boards, DODMERB qualified, accepted to all schools he applied to except USCGA. Sounds like a Scholar Athlete Leader to me. No scholarship.
 
Here are my sons stats: 3.56 GPA, 1280 SAT, Eagle Scout, President of his Junior and Senior Classes, 150 hours of community service at app. time (200 now), 3 Varsity Football letters, 3 Varsity Lacrosse letters (current captain), performed in recent school musical, Rocky Mountain Leadership Conference Attendee, Mayor's 100 Teen, Coast Guard Academy AIM Attendee, Peer Leader for church youth group, Eucharistic Minister 4 years, great PT score, maxed interview, board ready for all 3 boards, DODMERB qualified, accepted to all schools he applied to except USCGA. Sounds like a Scholar Athlete Leader to me. No scholarship.

That certainly does seem odd. He clearly has impressive stats. Did he happen to communicate with the officer who did his interview to see if there was some kind of perceived deficiency which may have led to a poor interview score? Is it possible that there could have been an error or typo in his Cadet Command file? I guess it's probably too late to do anything about it now, but it would be nice to know. If your son decides to participate in ROTC as a non-scholarship cadet, he sounds like the kind of kid who may have a good shot at a campus-based scholarship later...Best of luck

Edit: Sorry, I see when I looked again that he maxed his interview. OK, I'm stumped too...
 
OK, I'm stumped too...

^^^
Me too, he looks a little better on paper then my DS who was awarded a 4 yr in the first round. (Although both were max on all SAL categories.) Only big difference looks like my DS was 'team leader' at Subway 20+ hrs a week.

Were his top choices for schools highly competitive or very expensive?
How were his essays? Not that it matters at this point, but curious how CC
determines what, why and who.

IMHO; With those qualifications, he should be up for a campus scholarship.
 
Here are my sons stats: 3.56 GPA, 1280 SAT, Eagle Scout, President of his Junior and Senior Classes, 150 hours of community service at app. time (200 now), 3 Varsity Football letters, 3 Varsity Lacrosse letters (current captain), performed in recent school musical, Rocky Mountain Leadership Conference Attendee, Mayor's 100 Teen, Coast Guard Academy AIM Attendee, Peer Leader for church youth group, Eucharistic Minister 4 years, great PT score, maxed interview, board ready for all 3 boards, DODMERB qualified, accepted to all schools he applied to except USCGA. Sounds like a Scholar Athlete Leader to me. No scholarship.

As I said once before, sometimes it seems Cadet Command just throws darts at a dartboard.

Your son and my son had very similar stats, I would say that they were probably in the 55% to 65% level of the applicants this year. I would also think that those percentages had the largest amount of applicants in the pool.

This year there were well in excess of 10,000 to 15,000 applicants. It is hard to say what put one applicant over another. There are a couple things that can have an effect on the process, school selection and when the application was ready.

Was your son seen by all 3 boards.

What schools did your son list on his application.

The competition becomes tighter as the boards progress, by the time the last board meets most academy applicants have either received TWE or the BFE. These applicants are still in the pool and there stats are very high.

Schools can make a difference as well. If all the schools listed are very sought after and competitive with a very large number of ROTC applicants, the competition for those scholarships becomes greater. A school that have 300 applicant list their school will be harder then one that has 80 to 100 applicants.

I have a feeling that this year there were thousands of applicants that had stats like our sons, many more then available scholarships. I would not be surprised that there were times the boards just had to flip a coin. From the numbers that ROO's have mentioned only around 2150 scholarship were awarded this year by CC, less then 20%. If there were 5000 applicants with stats like our sons, there may have been only 900 or so awarded.

It sounds like you have an amazing son, he should train hard this summer and be ready to shine when he starts school and ROTC, if in school scholarships are available he can work hard and grab one, he seems like the type of kid that will get what he wants.

Good luck to your son.
 
He applied to Clemson, U of Portland and Co. State U in that order of preference. His essays were great but that is just my opinion! The reason he did not work during high school is because of his many athletic, volunteer and leadership commitments. Frankly, we preferred that he not work until now. Dad is retired Army and mom spent 8 years on active duty. Both parents were ROTC scholarship students. As far as knowing if his packet was somehow incorrect at CC, who knows. He was in contact numerous times with his POC there prior to the first board to make sure they had everything needed. Updated transcripts, SAT scores and other things were sent and received according to them. He is going to his first choice school and will enroll in Army ROTC. He is in contact with the ROO there. I am thankful that he is able to do go to his #1 school and I know that there are many qualified students who needed the scholarship much more than he does but I still can't help but wonder. He is a great kid and will make a wonderful officer someday if that is what he chooses to do. Thank you for your kind words of encouragement and good luck to your children!
 
He applied to Clemson, U of Portland and Co. State U in that order of preference. His essays were great but that is just my opinion! The reason he did not work during high school is because of his many athletic, volunteer and leadership commitments. Frankly, we preferred that he not work until now. Dad is retired Army and mom spent 8 years on active duty. Both parents were ROTC scholarship students. As far as knowing if his packet was somehow incorrect at CC, who knows. He was in contact numerous times with his POC there prior to the first board to make sure they had everything needed. Updated transcripts, SAT scores and other things were sent and received according to them. He is going to his first choice school and will enroll in Army ROTC. He is in contact with the ROO there. I am thankful that he is able to do go to his #1 school and I know that there are many qualified students who needed the scholarship much more than he does but I still can't help but wonder. He is a great kid and will make a wonderful officer someday if that is what he chooses to do. Thank you for your kind words of encouragement and good luck to your children!

My son almost listed U. of Portland. I know U of P is private, were the other schools all out of state, if so this may have been a factor in the decision due to the budget mess we have been in and the future cuts to DoD. Unfortunatly I think overall costs had a lot to do with the final 2 boards.
 
Clemson is OOS public, UP offered him a pretty large merit scholarship which would have made it comparable to in state public and CSU is our in state public university. I have read many different opinions on the school choice being important. Based on the latest results, to me it seems extremely inconsistent. Several people have even posted that they received scholarships to school they did not even apply to. I definitely understand the budget implications but CC seems to be very inconsistent at best when selecting who gets what.

Jcleppe, my son was seen by all 3 boards, according to CC. Schools are listed in my previous post. Again, just mom's opinion, but based on the stats posted by those receiving scholarships on this board and my knowledge of kids here in town who have, I don't think there is any way my son was in the 55-60% range. Granted, this is a small representation of the total!
 
Clemson is OOS public, UP offered him a pretty large merit scholarship which would have made it comparable to in state public and CSU is our in state public university. I have read many different opinions on the school choice being important. Based on the latest results, to me it seems extremely inconsistent. Several people have even posted that they received scholarships to school they did not even apply to. I definitely understand the budget implications but CC seems to be very inconsistent at best when selecting who gets what.

Jcleppe, my son was seen by all 3 boards, according to CC. Schools are listed in my previous post. Again, just mom's opinion, but based on the stats posted by those receiving scholarships on this board and my knowledge of kids here in town who have, I don't think there is any way my son was in the 55-60% range. Granted, this is a small representation of the total!

I may have to eat some crow on this one and agree with you.

When my son filled out his application we felt pretty good about his chances. His older brother received his scholarship back in 2008 with similar stats and had no problem. Then I found this board, I started seeing the kids list their stats and my son began to get a bit worried. So many kids had GPA's higher then 3.7 and test scores in excess of 30 for ACT and 1300 for SAT.

I will have to agree with you that this board is just a small sample of the applicants. After seeing the stats of those that received scholarships, It became clear that there was not really a trend to follow. I have seen posts by some that had much lower GPA and test scores with no athletics get the scholarship and some with outstanding stats not receive one.

Looking back I believe you are correct, our kids were probably much higher on the percenatge level then I suspected.

I wish we could see into the minds of those that made the selections. My son was told by the ROO's at almost every school he applied to that he was a strong candidate but not to expect to be selected the first round or maybe even the second, but not to lose hope. The first board met and we didn't even look at the status page for a while bescause we were sure he would not be selected. I logged into this board in Nov. and saw that offers were being made so I decided to check the status page just to see. We were shocked to see his status change, even the ROO's were surprised. My son is very grateful and understands that he must now earn what was given.

With the schools your son selected I really can't see how he was not awarded the scholarship.

I wish him all the luck at Clemson, it is a wonderful school.

I can offer one tip, of course with your familys Military and ROTC background you probably already know this. Tell your son to train hard this summer, go to ROTC ready to score as high as he can on the PT Test, shoot for that 300+. That will surely make them sit up and notice right from the start.

Also, there were a few applicants that didn't receive offers from CC last year but were notified by their school in the summer that they were being offered an in school scholarship. With the stats your son has I would think he would be toward the top of that list.
 
The profile of this year's scholarship winners shows that the average high school grade-point average was 3.5, and the mean college board test score was 1186.
In addition: 39 percent were in the top 5 percent of their classes; 74 percent were in the top 25 percent of their classes; and 96 percent were in the top 50 percent of their classes.
About 12 percent were student-body or senior-class presidents; 34 percent held other class offices; 41 percent were National Honor Society members; 8 percent were club presidents; 28 percent took part in Junior ROTC; 17 percent were involved in Scouting; 77 percent were varsity-letter winners; and 53 percent were varsity team captains."

So Last year, when scholarships were less competitive,
the Average AROTC Scholarship winner was;

In the top 10% of their Class
Was a Member of the National Honor Society
Had a GPA of 3.5
Had a SAT of 1186 (26 ACT)
Was a Class President or Class officer
Had Varsity letter(s)
Was a Varsity captain(s)

It should be interesting to learn how this years class stacks up.
 
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