AROTC scholarship question

My son will be a senior next year and is applying for a 4yr AROTC scholarship. There are two leadership/club positions he will not know if he was selected for until the start of the school year. He wants to have his application completed as early as possible, but also wants to include this info that he won't find out about until mid August.

I assume the application has to be complete before the interview is scheduled. How long does this process take? He really wants to meet the deadline for the first board and is concerned about waiting until mid to late August to finish his application. Can the application be updated after the interview? Also, does the physical assessment have to be done before the interview or just before the board meets?

He has a 3.9 GPA, lettered in several varsity sports, top 5% of his class, but only has a 28 ACT and is weak on leadership positions outside of sports. It would really be good if he could include these two positions that he will find out about once school starts.

Thanks

First off, deadline for the first board is one October
http://goldenknightbattalion.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/fall-2012-spring-2013-scholarship-board-dates/
He can do one of two things, he can wait until August to complete the application, and ensure he gets those two leadership positions in the application or he can state in the additional SAL achievement block on the application that he expects to be chosen president of the chess club in the fall. He can also go back in and change his SAL achievement block and personal statement any time before the board. You/he should also take a look at the PMS interview sheet.
http://goldenknightbattalion.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/the-interview/
If he can already check the 20 point block for leadership then I recommend he finishes up his application and gets his interview done. Again, he can always go back in and add to the narrative before the board sees his file, and the PMS can annotate that he expects additional leadership positions in the fall.
Too easy

Last year my son completed his application in late August, did the interview in mid September and was reviewed and selected by the first board in early October. I think he has plenty of time to wait and see what leadership positions he gets. He can update his application up until it is boarded but the process is a bit informal and it is difficult to get confirmation that the updates were added to his file. Good luck!

^^ great advice as usual, Clarksonguy.

kodiakisland said:

28 ACT and is weak on leadership positions outside of sports.

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28 ACT is fine.

As for Leadership "outside of sports", I don't get the impression that matters. The Board is looking for Leadership... will soldiers willingly follow your DS's lead? If they follow his lead in Varsity Sports, what difference does it make if he has a leadership position on the School Newspaper or student government. Leadership doesn't have to be shown again and again if it is already demonstrated as a Varsity Team Captain. After all, which group of students is most like soldiers in the field... newspaper writers, students in general, or varsity sports athletes?
In the MFE (what used to be called "Combat Arms"branches (Infantry, Artillery, Air Defense Artillery, Armor, Aviation, some Engineering, Chemical -- just going by memory.. there might be one more MFE branch), then: Varsity Athletes. For Intelligence, having led newspaper writers is most relevant. For Transportation, Quartermaster, etc. having led students in general is most relevant. However, the selection process is highly biased toward who has demonstrated Leadership that would matter to the typical MFE branch soldiers, which is Varsity Athletics.

My son actually did his interview before he had started the application, the interview was done by the PMS at the school his older brother was attending ROTC. The PMS just held the interview until the application was submitted. Wait until your son finds out if he was elected to any position and then just make sure everything is submitted a week before the deadline just to give the application time to process.

Thanks for the info. He is definitely at 20 on the leadership block and maybe 40 even without the positions for next school year.

My wife and I were both direct commission so the ROTC is new for us even though we have over 30 years in combined. I'm sure I'll have a few more questions as we go through the process.

We have talked to the PMS at his school of choice already, and he was not much help. He basically said he had only one scholarship cadet and didn't know much about the process. He kept trying to push the SMP national guard on us, which my son has no interest in. He is really hoping for active duty.

SMP does not preclude him from going active, so keep that in mind. Although GPA is important to ensure you get active, and SMP may be a distraction. PMS with only one scholarship and doesn't seem to care...I'd be checking out the #2 school on my list.

I don't think the SMP would be a bad thing in and of itself, but he just tried to push that route over the scholarship. It felt like we were talking to a national guard recruiter. His school will be paid for whether he gets the scholarship or not, so the money is not the issue.

kodiakisland said:

I don't think the SMP would be a bad thing in and of itself, but he just tried to push that route over the scholarship. It felt like we were talking to a national guard recruiter. His school will be paid for whether he gets the scholarship or not, so the money is not the issue.

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With the finance part being covered, it sounds like the scholarship application is more about the quest for active duty than anything else.

The question here is if School #1 is a 1-scholarship institution (sounds like a higher cost private) and the PMS is not showing the love (perhaps has another applicant already interviewed?), where do you rank the school on your list?

This is where your visit to School #2 is critical in your process. If the schools are close enough in your son's mind (these things may change with visits), it may be worth your while to put School #2 at the top of your list as IIRC, in recent years the PMS has a veto power over scholarship offers if they think you are unlikely to accept. It could help solidify the School #2 offer.

Then there is the possibility of options without a scholarship. This past year, it was noted that the higher priced privates were only getting 1 scholarship. If both top choice schools fall in this category, you may be looking at a SMP or walk-on situation. It does not require SMP to get a commission (the presumed goal here), so perhaps a pure walk-on may be better. Ultimately, all units have commissioning targets above the number of scholarships available, so selecting a school where your son will do well in all aspects (Scholar Athlete Leader) becomes critical. Don't let the current PMS' attitude towards scholarships and SMP put you off about that unit. S/he should be there for your son's first couple of years, but probably won't be the person doing the PMS scoring for commissioning. Ultimately, it will be your son's performance that gets him the commission.

School #1 is two hours away and school #2 is 20 minutes away. They are in different battalions if that makes any difference. School #1 is one of six schools in its battalion and not the battalion headquarters. School #2 is one of three schools in its battalion and is the battalion headquarters. Should that have any affect on the decision? School #2 is twice the size of school #1, but #1 has a nuclear engineering program he is interested in and a nuclear reactor within 10 miles that works with the program.

Whether he gets the scholarship or not, he will still do ROTC and persue an active duty commission. He wants the scholarship because he has worked hard in school and is committed to becoming an officer. It won't be the end of the world if he doesn't get it, but he will be quite disappointed. I'm also excited for him as it brings back memories of my early army days. (not as a cadet, but as a young person excited about doing what I really enjoyed)

We will visit school #2 in a few weeks to see if he has a strong feeling toward their program.

One more thing. I am new to this site and have read a lot of threads, but can't figure out some common abbreviations. DD, DS, MS, etc. I know its son or daughter, but what are the full meanings?
Thanks

First off, getting a scholarship and becoming an Active Duty Army Officer are not one and the same. Plenty of scholarship winners don't make the cut for active duty each year, so don't think getting the scholarship is a lock on AD.
Secondly, School number one may not allocate scholarships to the partner school your son is looking at, hence trying to steer you away from the scholarship.

Acronyms

kodiakisland said:

One more thing. I am new to this site and have read a lot of threads, but can't figure out some common abbreviations. DD, DS, MS, etc. I know its son or daughter, but what are the full meanings?
Thanks

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In the Community Information and Feedback forum below, there is a sticky thread that contains the meanings of more acronyms than you ever thought you wanted to know. Here's a link:

http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/showthread.php?t=11568

If as I do you tend to forget its existence, you can use the google or even guess your way through to the meaning. Despite the high living standards there, I still wonder why so many young people want to spend their summers at the Norwegian Association of Street Sweepers.