ROTC College program acceptance?

sh525

5-Year Member
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Sep 6, 2011
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My son has applied for and is patiently waiting for any word on a ROTC scholarship. He is committed to participate, scholarship or not, my question is, is there still an application process for the college program ROTC? He is looking at state schools here in Illinois. Thanks so much in advance for any insight anybody has.
 
My son is in NROTC as a college programmer. I expect it would be the same for Army ROTC. He contacted the unit and they sent him an application. Once his application was reviewed, he was accepted.
 
I am confused.

Is he in College?
He is looking at state schools here in Illinois

What branch is he applying for?

My son has applied for and is patiently waiting for any word on a ROTC scholarship.

No scholarships have been awarded for HS candidates...welcome to the military... hurry up and wait!
 
Im sorry Pima, he is a high school senior. Applying to colleges now. Thanks
 
One:

Nobody has a scholarship in hand, and boards are just starting now.

Two:

What branch?

Three:

Understand AF/NROTC care about intended major. AROTC does not when it comes to awarding scholarships.

If you truly want a chance me answer, even though none of us sit on the boards, you should state stats. 1000 SAT regardless of any branch will probably equate to no chance.
 
NROTC and AROTC are unique.

NROTC 85% of scholarships go Tech (engineer/science majors)

Additionally colleges vary, and their scholarships are tied to the school too. Your DS may have all IS schools, but IS schools vary. Look at VA. UVA and VATECH are not on equal standing, but both have ROTC. So does George Mason. VCU and ODU.

A UVA applicant is not going to apply to VCU or ODU.
 
I think the OP wants to know if there is an application process for joining ROTC without a scholarship. This is called the "College Program," or at least it used to be.

Best advice is contact the unit, as it may vary from school to school. My commission was through AFROTC College Program (did not have a scholarship). I did go to VMI, however, and all cadets have to participate in ROTC. For what it's worth, I just went to the AFROTC Det and filled out paperwork. When I was selected for contracting (the semester before Camp), I had to go for the physical exam and fill out some more stuff. After I returned from Camp, I took the oath and started to get a stipend (became contracted).
 
I get a little confused between the official terms used in AROTC, NROTC and AFROTC, however, having said that:

I don't think Army ROTC actually has a term "college programmer". AROTC has "scholarship cadet" and "non-scholarship cadet". Many scholarship cadets have reported here that they usually don't know, and certainly don't care, who is on AROTC Scholarship and who isn't. Any student on campuses where AROTC classes are offered may enroll in the ROTC classes for MSI, and MSII. MSI and MSII are called "Basic Course". Any student may take these classes without any commitment to the Army.

However, as far as I understand it, nobody may take MSIII or MSIV courses, called "Advanced Course", without "Contracting"... which is signing a contract committing to either: three years Active Duty and five years Individual Ready Reserve duty, or 8 yrs Reserves. For scholarship students, the AD commitment is 4 years, with 4 years IRR.

So, a non-scholarship student interested in ROTC can actually fully participate for 2 school years before having to make the request / decide to Contract.

I do believe that both NROTC and AFROTC call their non-scholarship students "college programmers".

One last thing: The last couple of years have seen Army ROTC graduating classes composed of about 40% scholarship, 60% non-scholarship cadets - (that's a guess from pieces of information from many different sources). That number appears to be quickly on the way to 70% or even 80% non-scholarship cadets who will be Commissioned as 2nd Lieutenants, as fewer Scholarships were offered last year (about 30% fewer), fewer still this year, and into the near future. This is VERY different from the Navy which, as far as I can tell, where fewer than 10% of its commissioned ROTC officers each year were non-scholarship "college programmers".
 
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One:

Nobody has a scholarship in hand, and boards are just starting now.

Two:

What branch?

Three:

Understand AF/NROTC care about intended major. AROTC does not when it comes to awarding scholarships.

If you truly want a chance me answer, even though none of us sit on the boards, you should state stats. 1000 SAT regardless of any branch will probably equate to no chance.


There are exceptions for AROTC such as engineering (branch choice), nursing and ed-delay for pre-X schools. These options could factor into whether or not you receive a scholarship. In general they do not care but they always appreciate the tech majors when chosen and could give you an edge.
 
^ I was going to say the same AG -- The Army appears to be paying more attention now, and going forward, to the ADM (Engineering vs. Hard Sciences vs. "technology" vs. General) the applicant puts on the application.

I was told a scholarship student starting with this current Award season, those entering college Fall 2012 (YG16), will not be able to change ADM without Battalion or possibly Brigade approval.

The whole thing is getting much tighter.
 
Why is the Army becoming more interested in tech majors? This is to my sons advantage but I am curious as to what has changed.
 
Why is the Army becoming more interested in tech majors? This is to my sons advantage but I am curious as to what has changed.

As the army becomes more technologically advanced and adaptive for every type of warfare, innovative minds with a background in science are needed. Emphasis on skill sets needed for cyber warfare, counter terrorism, satellite imagery of the battlefield, future soldier projects and UAV operations have become more imperative to FORSCOM. Will they ever use their engineering, physics or mathematics skills? Probably not, but the thought processes which got them their degree will definitely carry over to their army career. AROTC still accepts and supports a variety of majors but there is something to be said about coming in to a interview wishing to major in Mech Engineering that fires a lot of PMSs up. "Hey this guy wants to be an officer, desires to study in a analytic field and wants to push himself to his limits". Nothing is wrong when other majors as any degree is good enough to commission, but stating that you want to go above and beyond in this scholarship crunch time can only help you. When we had our accessions brief it was apparent that Cadet Command is really pushing these tech majors in the form of grad school incentives and branch choices (computer science/engineering=signal... engineer =engineer etc). With around 1000 cadets in the brief tech majors were asked to raise their hands and only a handful were present. I think the army is trying to take a lesson from the AF/Navy and push to a more diverse group of majors. Comm/poly sci/history/CJ literally made up 70% of the majors there.

I haven't seen any official edict around but when applying to some programs it will definitely give you an edge especially when the PMS was a WP engineering grad.
 
I just hear this last night...

I was at back to school night at DS school and speaking to the Sgt Mjr and he was talking about ROTC scholarships and he told a story of a kid with a 2.5 gpa low/average SAT scores that got an AROTC scholarship to a local college. He said he was stunned. Now I forgot to ask if this was last year or the year before but since I have been reading this forum alot recently I just thought i would share. PS, my DS takes the ACT tomorrow.
 
I was at back to school night at DS school and speaking to the Sgt Mjr and he was talking about ROTC scholarships and he told a story of a kid with a 2.5 gpa low/average SAT scores that got an AROTC scholarship to a local college. He said he was stunned. Now I forgot to ask if this was last year or the year before but since I have been reading this forum alot recently I just thought i would share. PS, my DS takes the ACT tomorrow.

Good luck to your DS tomorrow. Remind him, no cramming -- eat well and sleeping a full 8 hours are your best friend for good scores:thumb:
 
SH525,

Complete the standard ROTC scholarship applications for service/s of choice. Start plan B immediately too because Illinois has some tuition waiver options for National Guard and possibly reservists too. University of Illinois Army ROTC Cadre should be able to discuss the particulars. My daughter found a lot on U of I's website before she received the national scholarship.
 
Thanks everyone, and Thanks AROTC Parent. I will have my son contact them. That is actually his first choice! Thanks again.
 
My son has applied for and is patiently waiting for any word on a ROTC scholarship. He is committed to participate, scholarship or not, my question is, is there still an application process for the college program ROTC? He is looking at state schools here in Illinois. Thanks so much in advance for any insight anybody has.

Congratulations to your son. If this year's selection process is anything like last year's (class fo 2015), he could be in for a long wait! Most didn't find out their fate until nearly April. It's a long wait for those who get the application process completed early. Hang in there and continue to work hard.
 
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