Scholarship Moratorium

But, Pima, I thought that the "reserve" commission for ROTC cadets was eliminated YEARS ago? And that as long as you come in to the AD force, that everyone is a "Regular Officer?"
 
SCcandidate2015 said:
But, Pima, I thought that the "reserve" commission for ROTC cadets was eliminated YEARS ago? And that as long as you come in to the AD force, that everyone is a "Regular Officer?"
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You are correct at least as far as the Army is concerned. If you choose AD you are a Regular Officer. There is no longer any difference between any commissioning source in regard to your commission status.

Interesting what Pima wrote, I too thought that when Congress changed commissioning status from reserve to regular it was intended for all the services, not just the Army.
 
Jcleppe said:
You are correct at least as far as the Army is concerned. If you choose AD you are a Regular Officer. There is no longer any difference between any commissioning source in regard to your commission status.

Interesting what Pima wrote, I too thought that when Congress changed commissioning status from reserve to regular it was intended for all the services, not just the Army.
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I am extremely sure that it is for all services.
 
The law was changed for all services- it was not just the Army
 
I thought that too, but last yr I had stated that and was told, No, it was not true, by ALOs and officers. That the SA grads still had the "golden" ticket. In other words, if a RIF came about, ROTC grads go first.

I know that at our DS's college had a couple of graduating officers with AFSC, but never got commissioned (let loose in Mar their sr yr.) Maybe that was where I became confused.

Either way, let's be honest, in these times or any time there will be different doors that open for SA grads compared to ROTC grads.

HOWEVER, as a ROTC wife and Mom, I will also say, that the "ring knocker" will not guarantee you a promotion or career field. It is what you do as an officer that will matter.

FWIW, people who were in Bullet's yr group that were passed over for O4/O5/O6 were a mix of AFA and ROTC grads. The ring didn't save them.

That is always my point. For SA parents/posters do not read into my post that I am flaming the SA, I am not. I am saying that you should never miss an opportunity to shine because you believe that your educational background will be the "be all" to get you in front of someone else. Decades ago that was true. It no longer is. Colin Powell proved that back in the 90s.

The one thing I will state, the cadets/mids that understand the premise that the more you put in, the more you are rewarded; are the successful cadets. The cadets with scholarships who believed they already proved themselves (like SA grads against ROTC) are the ones that lose.

I always get flamed for this, but I will never give on it. If, the only reason you took a scholarship was to pay for college, it is going to be a hard road to hoe. The cadet who didn't get a scholarship has a different motivator (career or IS scholarship); they are going to bring their A game. ROTC instructors and POCs do not sort cadets into piles of scholarship vs non, they sort into leader and non-leader. The ball is in your court in which pile you want.
 
Does this moratorium apply to GRFD and DED ARNG GRFD scholarships? I read through this thread and was wondering if "in school" scholarships referred to the scholarships I was told I could compete for "on-campus."

Thank you.
 
karstenchu said:
Does this moratorium apply to GRFD and DED ARNG GRFD scholarships? I read through this thread and was wondering if "in school" scholarships referred to the scholarships I was told I could compete for "on-campus."

Thank you.
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I believe that the moratorium that has been talked about refers to the scholarships that a cadet would compete for on campus. The ARNG scholarships are a different process.
 
National Guard is State by State, depending on that States needs.
A NG at 110% is not going to be funding scholarships.
 
Jcleppe said:
I believe that the moratorium that has been talked about refers to the scholarships that a cadet would compete for on campus. The ARNG scholarships are a different process.
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That's what I thought I was going for. I was given the option between attending LTC this summer or attending ACCT in the week before the quarter began. I chose to forgo competition for the "national scholarships" and instead chose to "compete for scholarships on-campus." It sounds to me then that there are three pools...a national one, a university/college allocated, and USAR/ARNG. Am I on the right track here? I've talked to three PMS's from three different schools and everyone seemed to explain it to me differently.

Sorry gojack, what are you saying?
 
My BDE has announced that scholarship funding for the Class of 2016 has been reduced from $15 million to $8 million. That works out to less than $211,000 per school in our BDE. The intent is for this money to be used to allocate scholarships from the National Board (HS applicants) to state schools (4 year scholarships) and private schools (AD 3 year scholarships). Any unallocated funds will be used for on campus 2 and 3 year scholarships. The stated desire is to have a larger percentage of Cadets that receive scholarship funding while decreasing the overall funds allocated to scholarships. More scholarships to state schools, less scholarships to private schools. More 2 and 3 year scholarships, less 4 year scholarships.

I believe the other BDEs are following suit but I have not seen their commander's guidance in writing.
 
OUCH...@50% hurts big time.

I smell blood in the water regarding how competitive this yr will be.

Quick question/thought. Will they actually do it in a way like the AFROTC system.

AFROTC has a type 7 given for HS applicants, but it has a stipulation that it will only pay for tuition up to 18K or IS college rates and will not allow you to pay the difference, all or nothing scenario. HOWEVER, you can convert it to a Type 2 for 3 yrs and pay the difference.

That would make a difference for the private colleges, because they would have less 4 yr, than an IS college, but probably more 3 yr than IS colleges.

Type 7 is @ 75% of the scholarships awarded. Only 5% of Type 1 (full ride to any school) are awarded. 20% are Type 2, where they will pay up to 18K for tuition and you can pay the difference.

Sorry if that creates confusion.

Next question.

DO you believe because of this the boards will be running slower, or re-boarding more frequently since the pot of money has shrunk extensively. Or will it now be more important than ever to get the packet in as early as possible?

Final question.
Where do schools like VMI, Citadel, CoC schools fall in this scenario? Do you think that they will get hit as hard, or do you think they are going to "save" them from the budget axe?
 
Pima said:
OUCH...@50% hurts big time.

I smell blood in the water regarding how competitive this yr will be.

Where do schools like VMI, Citadel, CoC schools fall in this scenario? Do you think that they will get hit as hard, or do you think they are going to "save" them from the budget axe?
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The previous post was based on written correspondence from BDE HQ.

This is simply my speculation: The first board will be used to ensure that "Marquee" schools receive their scholarship allocations, ie Ivys,Techs, etc. The second, third, and any supplemental boards will be used to spread the money around as far as possible, and in some cases to fill slots at "Marquee" schools that have been opened up by students that decline the scholarship offer. I believe there will be some limited ability to swap 4 yr state offers for 3 yr private offers as long as both schools are in the same brigade and the total dollar value is similar. There has also been discussion of steering scholarships to schools that offer matching room and board.
 
If I am reading this correctly, it is a trickle down system, so the lower tiered colleges may find they have no scholarships at all?

Wouldn't this create an issue of candidates applying for reach schools and they may win the scholarship, but not acceptance, thus, this pool of money would come down later.

What about the candidates that are using ROTC as Plan B? Many of them will apply to the Marquee schools and hold off to the last minute to accept, wouldn't that mess with the pot, if they are not turning back in until April/May?

Caveat: I am an AF person, and AFA does not talk to AFROTC regarding awarding scholarships, so it is a possibility that the candidate has a scholarship in hand while they await the SA mass mailing. If they don't find out until mid-March/April, the last board has already met, so there is no more hand outs. There is no wait list for scholarships with AFROTC, you get one or you don't.
 
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That will be interesting. I hope that HQ would do a news release of this info, because if they don't it will cause frustration not only for the BNs, but also candidates waiting to hear. That would be disaster from a good will POV for cadets, and poor morale for the ROOs who have to constantly sit there and say I have no answer yet.
 
but, what determines which school is marguee or not. OK, Ivy's - I get that, but that's just a few schools- they are all private, and there are only handful of them. So, I am going to use the term "Ivy level" much more broadly - as in, top caliber, private or public, let's say USNWR top 30 schools or so - that will include top tier public schools like Berkeley, U Michigan, UVA, and a few top tier liberal arts schools also.

BTW: the public school mentioned above all charge out of state tuition that is at the range of private school (like mid to upper 30K/year). So, for all practical purposes, they should be considered private schools for financial perspective for out of state candidates.

I am a bit concerned that my son's battalion's # of scholarship freshmen is less than 50% of the year before due to the fact that the scholarship winners who picked that school failed to gain admission to the school, and they seem NOT to be backfilling that slots. This makes this battalion low in number for the scholarship cadets this year. If this is the case, does it mean that CC will provide less overall support - financially and otherwise - going beyond the reduced scholarship money to this school? If so, won't it affect the level of training, opportunities, and other benefits for my son - such as summer training schools, CULP opportunities, etc, etc?

I can see from CC's perspective why scholarships to the kind of school my son is attending will be the first on the chopping block: the tuition is pushing close to $45K/year, and with that kind of money for one cadet, they can get 5 stellar cadets going to an outstanding in state public school. It's unassailable logic, so I can't blame them.

I told my son yesterday that he is becoming an endangered species (4 year scholarship holder to an exorbitantly priced school!). Truthfully, I don't think he would get it this year if he were to be part of the class of 2016. He caught the last train out of the station. More often than not, it's all about a luck!
 
Pima said:
Final question.
Where do schools like VMI, Citadel, CoC schools fall in this scenario? Do you think that they will get hit as hard, or do you think they are going to "save" them from the budget axe?
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The SMCs have a guarantee of active-duty (assuming candidate meets ROTC criteria and doesn't mess up), and it would take an act of Congress to repeal that status.

(e) Assignment to Active Duty.—

(1) The Secretary of the Army shall ensure that a graduate of a senior military college who desires to serve as a commissioned officer on active duty upon graduation from the college, who is medically and physically qualified for active duty, and who is recommended for such duty by the professor of military science at the college, shall be assigned to active duty.
(2) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit the Secretary of the Army from requiring a member of the program who graduates from a senior military college to serve on active duty.

(f) Senior Military Colleges.—
The senior military colleges are the following:
(1) Texas A&M University.
(2) Norwich University.
(3) The Virginia Military Institute.
(4) The Citadel.
(5) Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
(6) North Georgia College and State University.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/usc_sec_10_00002111---a000-.html
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But SMC cadets have NO guarantee of a scholarship (the reason the stats are higher for SMCs is because there are more cadets). For scholarships, I would expect the same percentage as that reflected nationally at non-SMC ROTC units.

For priorities of who receives an active-duty Army slot, I would expect the Army to follow the following recruiting priorities among contracted, graduating seniors in 2015 (assuming nothing unexpected happens):

Priority 1: West Point.

Priority 2: SMCs.

Priority 3: Distinguished Military Graduates from ROTC units of non-SMC schools (without regard to the "Marquee" status of the school), whether on scholarship or not.

Priority 4: All other ROTC cadets at non-SMC schools.

When priorities 1, 2, and 3 get filled, I expect the remaining ROTC active-duty slots from Priority 4 to be filled based on a national OML list (with perhaps a "bump" on the OML ranking going to graduates of so-called "Marquee" schools and/or 4 and 3-year scholarship students).
 
educateme,

Some Public schools have a deal where if the student is an ROTC scholarship recipient, they will charge them IS regardless if they are OOS.

Thus, top tier publics would be seen for this purpose as IS for any candidate.
 
Patentesq,

You mentioned in your earlier post a "Distinguished Military Grad..." sure, I could google this, but could you explain this term, haven't heard it before. Anyone else feel free to define critera for me too.

Thanks!
 
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