Most Scholarships 3-Yr This Cycle?

OCDomer

5-Year Member
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My son just got an e-mail from the enrollment & scholarship office at his scholarship school. Key bits:

The 3AD scholarship stands for Advance Designee, which means you have to maintain a 2.5 GPA, take ROTC classes, pass the Army Physical Fitness Test during your Freshmen year. Your Scholarship begins August of your Sophomore year. The number of Army ROTC scholarships have been cut in half and now most ROTC Scholarships are 3ADs.​

Which tells us (1) that our son received a 3-yr scholly and not a 4-yr (we have not received our letter yet so did not know that), and (2) that this will apparently be closer to the norm for this cycle, and (3) that the numbers of schollys are way down for this year.

What is everyone else hearing? Should we be a little disappointed in not receiving a 4-yr award? Or should we just be extremely grateful to have received any award at all?
 
My son just got an e-mail from the enrollment & scholarship office at his scholarship school. Key bits:

The 3AD scholarship stands for Advance Designee, which means you have to maintain a 2.5 GPA, take ROTC classes, pass the Army Physical Fitness Test during your Freshmen year. Your Scholarship begins August of your Sophomore year. The number of Army ROTC scholarships have been cut in half and now most ROTC Scholarships are 3ADs.​

Which tells us (1) that our son received a 3-yr scholly and not a 4-yr (we have not received our letter yet so did not know that), and (2) that this will apparently be closer to the norm for this cycle, and (3) that the numbers of schollys are way down for this year.

What is everyone else hearing? Should we be a little disappointed in not receiving a 4-yr award? Or should we just be extremely grateful to have received any award at all?

Over the past several years 4 year scholarships were given out in greater numbers then previous years due primarily to the need for recruiting new officers during the current conflicts. As you can imagine during the height of these conflicts recruiting was not an easy task, last year was the first time the Army met it's goal in several years.

Scholarships were not the norm for many years rather the exception, it seems that the Military and ROTC will be moving in that direction again.

With the current military and economy situation I would be extremely grateful for the opportunity to receive a 3 year AD scholarship. It will be interesting to see just how many 4 year scholarships are awarded this year, most have expected the majority of scholarships this year will be 3 year AD.

Congratulations to your son, a scholarship of any kind will be rare this year.
 
If I remember correctly, the peak of scholarship giveaway party was held for the class of 2012 when almost everybody who have reasonable qualifications and wanted seems to have gotten it one way or the other. Some decline for the class of 2013.

Noticeable decline for the class of 2014. MUCH decline for the class of 2015.

No, I don't actually have official numbers. It's based on my observation on this site and conversations with/information from various ROTC battalion officers.
 
OP --

Yes, indeed one of the ROOs, a regular contributor, posted about three weeks ago that he had learned that the budget for AROTC scholarships awarded to High School seniors was cut from $15M last year, to $8M this year.

So, yes, you should be very proud of your DS that he was deemed strong enough to be awarded a scholarship to a Private school at a time when full rate tuition Private school scholarships are much, much harder to come by than last year, or especially the year before.

I will venture to say that the Awardees to expensive Privates would be neck/neck competitive with West Point admits this coming year.

Now, here's a provacative situation worthy of discussion: Assuming the projected needs for officers commissioning 4 years from now declines to a number that can be satisfied by West Point, should Cadet Command continue to award scholarships to expensive Private colleges?

I think yes, and here's why: The Army will always need officers who have learned to navigate successfully in a CIVILIAN culture, not exclusively a Military culture. Command structure is weak in the civilian world, and that includes State and Federal govenment. Getting the mission accomplished in the civilian world requires the ability to influence and gain cooperation and loyalty completely outside of rank structure. Additionally, having an ROTC presence on the campuses whose graduates are the future civic, business, and non-profit leaders is critical. Where did our current Commander in Chief attend college? Where will the future POTUS attend college? Will there be an ROTC presence there that may influence their thinking about he military? I would venture to say that many future leaders will never in their lives meet another peer whose goal was to serve their country as an officer, unless they meet an ROTC cadet/mid in uniform on Lab day. And there just might ensue a discussion about why an otherwise intelligent and rational person would make such a sacrificial decision/commitment.

Back on track, congratulations for earning a 3 Yr. AD scholarship. Who knows, you might be one of the very few who is awarded 4 Yr... you won't know until the envelope arrives.
 
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Easier to Transfer a 3-yr AD? Decline and Compete for Battalion-based Scholarship?

Thanks everyone for your feedback. We are grateful. Just a little bewildered. Our son was awarded at a very good private school that was his 5th choice, and CC passed by the public schools higher on his list that would be easier to get into and cheaper for the Army to fund.

We take it as a very good sign that he was awarded for a more expensive private school. But it raises a lot of questions for us:

1. Once the Army has committed to fund a scholly at a private school, how hard is it to transfer to another (even better) private school if DS gets accepted there?

2. If the Army is willing to spend money of the private school, is it easy (or not) to transfer scholly to a (cheaper) public school?

3. Radical hypothetical: If transferring scholly is difficult, what about option of declining scholly, enrolling at preferred school and competing for a 3-yr battalion-based scholly at preferred school? Are battalion-based schollys so rare that it is too much of a gamble? Or does a good, hard-working cadet have a reasonable shot at earning a 3-yr scholly wherever he is?

To answer one poster's question: We saw on website that we had been awarded a scholarship, and contacted the Battalion. They wrote back saying we received 3-yr AD. We don't have letter yet, but it looks like a 4-yr is out of play.

And I agree that ROTC scholly winners will be competitive for West Point. At least I hope so! Our son is interviewing at our Congressman's office on Friday for USMA nomination. I think he is very competitive, although test scores could be a little higher and we are in a competitive district.
 
Thanks everyone for your feedback. We are grateful. Just a little bewildered. Our son was awarded at a very good private school that was his 5th choice, and CC passed by the public schools higher on his list that would be easier to get into and cheaper for the Army to fund.

We take it as a very good sign that he was awarded for a more expensive private school. But it raises a lot of questions for us:

1. Once the Army has committed to fund a scholly at a private school, how hard is it to transfer to another (even better) private school if DS gets accepted there?

2. If the Army is willing to spend money of the private school, is it easy (or not) to transfer scholly to a (cheaper) public school?

3. Radical hypothetical: If transferring scholly is difficult, what about option of declining scholly, enrolling at preferred school and competing for a 3-yr battalion-based scholly at preferred school? Are battalion-based schollys so rare that it is too much of a gamble? Or does a good, hard-working cadet have a reasonable shot at earning a 3-yr scholly wherever he is?

To answer one poster's question: We saw on website that we had been awarded a scholarship, and contacted the Battalion. They wrote back saying we received 3-yr AD. We don't have letter yet, but it looks like a 4-yr is out of play.

And I agree that ROTC scholly winners will be competitive for West Point. At least I hope so! Our son is interviewing at our Congressman's office on Friday for USMA nomination. I think he is very competitive, although test scores could be a little higher and we are in a competitive district.

If you look back at the previous threads there is some good info regarding transfers.

A couple things to keep in mind regarding transfers:

Transferring to a different school that is outside the brigade is difficult

Transferring to a school that is more expensive is almost impossible

Transferring from a more expensive private to a cheaper public that is in the same brigade is probably the best shot.

As far as declining the scholarship and trying to get a campus scholarshipwell, that would be a big risk. As much as the National scholarships are competitive the campus scholarship are even harder, and that's if any are available at all. If your son chose this route he would need to be fully prepared to complete ROTC without a scholarship. Another issue is that ROTC units are now starting to drop cadets that are not contracted in their sophomore year due to smaller Mission Sets, so there is a risk of not being able to complete ROTC if he is not contracted by his sophomore year.

Are the other public schools within the same brigade as the Private he was awarded the scholarship to.

You are correct about one thing...Cadet Command does work in Mysterious Ways.
 
Keep in mind that many of the smaller private schools cover room and board. My son is a sophmore at a private school and everything is covered. If he had gone the state school route we would be paying room and board.
 
Thanks Jcleppe & riroka. This is the type of data we need. The school he has been offered is in the East, the public school we might be looking at is in the West. So, definitely different brigades.

The school we have been offered does cover room & board for scholarship cadets. I have no idea yet how this works for a 3-yr AD. Does the school step up with room & board for 3 AD freshman not yet on scholarship? That would be awesome, but I doubt it.

The toughest thing is we have a really nice option on the table, but it really is a take-it-or-leave-it deal. It would be nice to have at least one more school to choose from so you really feel like you have a choice rather than an offer you can't refuse. We'll probably have to take a trip to visit the school. We saw it a few years ago when looking at schools for our daughter. We liked it a lot then, but it has been a while.
 
I would be VERY careful about scholarship transfer possibilities.

My son is an MS I is an expensive private school. He got the 4 year deal. Later he found out that there were additional scholarship winners who failed to get accepted to the school (the school's admission scene is highly competitive), and the CC did NOT backfill that scholarship slots. Given that there are 60 non-scholarship cadets who are currently participating in the ROTC program in that school, I highly doubt it's because nobody applied the scholarship transfer from somewhere else to this school. I would bet that some of those who wanted the scholarship transfer might have already been holding scholarship to expensive private school already.

A good guess is, this is due to the ever tightening budget landscape.

Others pointed out that if you are moving from an expensive school to a less expensive school, that may work. Maybe. Maybe not. Sometimes, the CC does things in a way so mysterious, I wouldn't bet on what appears to be a rational thing to us, the lay ignoramus.

My two cents is, choose the best school you are offered the scholarship to, and use it. Do not count on scholarship transfer deals. This means one thing: the student had better get admitted to the school where they have the scholarship to.

Last year, there was a parent whose son got the ROTC scholarship offer to Princeton. This parent sounded like s/he is not really familiar with the kind of admission scenes that take place among tippy top ultra competitive schools, and seemed to think that his/her son was going to Princeton at no cost. At a school like that, admissions possibilities are a total crap shoot. My older son (not the ROTC kid) had 4.0 and SAT 2400 and got rejected by Harvard.

In conclusion, if you have scholarship offers to multiple schools, be very careful regarding which school you are picking and reporting to CC. Make sure that you have a very good chance of getting admitted into that school. This means, you may need to play safe a little bit.
 
I would be VERY careful about scholarship transfer possibilities.

My two cents is, choose the best school you are offered the scholarship to, and use it. Do not count on scholarship transfer deals. This means one thing: the student had better get admitted to the school where they have the scholarship to.

Well, in one sense it looks like our choice is pretty easy. It looks like we are only being offered one school. The good news is I believe our son will be a strong candidate for admission there.
 
Totally Agree

I would be VERY careful about scholarship transfer possibilities.

My son is an MS I is an expensive private school. He got the 4 year deal. Later he found out that there were additional scholarship winners who failed to get accepted to the school (the school's admission scene is highly competitive), and the CC did NOT backfill that scholarship slots. Given that there are 60 non-scholarship cadets who are currently participating in the ROTC program in that school, I highly doubt it's because nobody applied the scholarship transfer from somewhere else to this school. I would bet that some of those who wanted the scholarship transfer might have already been holding scholarship to expensive private school already.

A good guess is, this is due to the ever tightening budget landscape.

Others pointed out that if you are moving from an expensive school to a less expensive school, that may work. Maybe. Maybe not. Sometimes, the CC does things in a way so mysterious, I wouldn't bet on what appears to be a rational thing to us, the lay ignoramus.

My two cents is, choose the best school you are offered the scholarship to, and use it. Do not count on scholarship transfer deals. This means one thing: the student had better get admitted to the school where they have the scholarship to.

In conclusion, if you have scholarship offers to multiple schools, be very careful regarding which school you are picking and reporting to CC. Make sure that you have a very good chance of getting admitted into that school. This means, you may need to play safe a little bit.

Even last year the ROO from Marist wrote on this forum a scholarship transfer would be as likely as winning American Idol. I'm guessing it's even more true this year.
 
Not so mysterious, really. Take the Applicant's name, EXACTLY as it appears on the ROTC Application, and sum the number of letters. Odd or Even? The school's name must be the opposite -- (e.g. even + odd, or odd + even) so that the sum of the letters in APplicant's name, and school's name, is always an odd number. :shake:
 
The good news is I believe our son will be a strong candidate for admission there.
You might increase your chances by building a relationship with the ROO and PMS there, in case they have friends in Admissions, and also let Admissions know your son has earned an ROTC Scholarship.
 
"The school we have been offered does cover room & board for scholarship cadets. I have no idea yet how this works for a 3-yr AD. Does the school step up with room & board for 3 AD freshman not yet on scholarship? That would be awesome, but I doubt it."

I also wonder if this is possible, but assumed it wasn't. does anybody know?
 
You might increase your chances by building a relationship with the ROO and PMS there, in case they have friends in Admissions, and also let Admissions know your son has earned an ROTC Scholarship.

Yes, we have been in touch with the ROO by e-mail and he does have a person in admissions he works with. He is saying that if we get our school application in ASAP he can basically "walk it through" admissions. He seems very confident that the scholarship award will carry a LOT of weight with the school. Which is very comforting since we have only been offered the scholarship at one school.
 
What is everyone else hearing? Should we be a little disappointed in not receiving a 4-yr award? Or should we just be extremely grateful to have received any award at all?

According to a memo I received today, the intent is to award 2,000 Army ROTC Scholarships from the anticipated 10,000 + H.S. applications. Half will be 4 yr and half will be 3 yr.
 
We did a transfer last year. It was in Battalion and a state school. Different situation than you but here is what we learned.

First, you MUST send a copy of the acceptance letter from the school you wantthe transfer to go.

We were advised to accpet the original scholarship and then apply for the transfer once the official acceptance letter came from that school.

Be sure to work with the school you are transferring the scholarship to. From our expereince there was not an official notification that we got, however the ROO could look int up somehow or maybe it was an email. It was a little fuzzy from our pwerspective but it did work out.

Good, luck and as others have said, be proud.
 
Thanks everyone for your feedback. We are grateful. Just a little bewildered. Our son was awarded at a very good private school that was his 5th choice, and CC passed by the public schools higher on his list that would be easier to get into and cheaper for the Army to fund.

We take it as a very good sign that he was awarded for a more expensive private school. But it raises a lot of questions for us:

1. Once the Army has committed to fund a scholly at a private school, how hard is it to transfer to another (even better) private school if DS gets accepted there?

2. If the Army is willing to spend money of the private school, is it easy (or not) to transfer scholly to a (cheaper) public school?

3. Radical hypothetical: If transferring scholly is difficult, what about option of declining scholly, enrolling at preferred school and competing for a 3-yr battalion-based scholly at preferred school? Are battalion-based schollys so rare that it is too much of a gamble? Or does a good, hard-working cadet have a reasonable shot at earning a 3-yr scholly wherever he is?

To answer one poster's question: We saw on website that we had been awarded a scholarship, and contacted the Battalion. They wrote back saying we received 3-yr AD. We don't have letter yet, but it looks like a 4-yr is out of play.

And I agree that ROTC scholly winners will be competitive for West Point. At least I hope so! Our son is interviewing at our Congressman's office on Friday for USMA nomination. I think he is very competitive, although test scores could be a little higher and we are in a competitive district.

Letter arrived and it is a 4-year to his #1 choice (private). Feeling fortunate!
 
Who knows, you might be one of the very few who is awarded 4 Yr... you won't know until the envelope arrives.
Wow, the envelope did arrive, and ... nice surprise. But I'm not clear on something -- you say it was to his #1 choice, but a week ago you posted that the Application Status website said it was to his #5 choice. Did he change his mind about his choice order, or did the website have a completely different school listed than the official offer letter?
 
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