How would I fair getting a AFROTC scholarship?

Bitterguy

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I am a junior in high school I am in college bound courses (remedial-pssa-no prefix-college bound- honors -ap) with a 3.65, will be more around 3.75~3.8 ish once i fix up my english grade. I am a yellow belt green stripe in tae kwon-do, I am a cadet airman in civil airpatrol and I am in my school's concert and marching band and I am planning to have a leadership position come next marching season. I have well surpassed the amount of credits needed to pass I just need the credits for my core classes, most of these coming from computer/engineering classes. I received my H-pin last year and plan on taking at least one AP course and calculus my senior year and I have had a couple teachers saying that they would be willing to write me recomendation letters to colleges. I also scored a 76 on my ASVABS

I was wondering where that would put me as far as chance of getting an AFROTC scholarship

(edit: if forgot to metion but my current computer class, programming the web, is a college in highschool class)
 
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A huge indicator will be your ACT/SAT scores. ASVAB carries no weight. Any athletics and PFT scores?
 
I did cross country last year and track for 2 years, I was decent at best. Im not sure what a pft is, I can still run a 6:30 mile do 40 push ups and 50 sit ups though
 
I did cross country last year and track for 2 years, I was decent at best. Im not sure what a pft is, I can still run a 6:30 mile do 40 push ups and 50 sit ups though

Physical Fitness Testing. Mile time is decent, AFROTC tests 1.5 mile run though. Work on getting push ups up and sit ups up. Start practicing for ACT AND SAT. You want a score in the 30's or around 2000 respectively.
 
Physical Fitness Testing. Mile time is decent, AFROTC tests 1.5 mile run though. Work on getting push ups up and sit ups up. Start practicing for ACT AND SAT. You want a score in the 30's or around 2000 respectively.

1.5 miles is a warm up to me, I don't run to often in the winter but my last run, o tracked it with an app, and I ran 5.5 miles 230' cumulative gain at and average of a 9 mine mile throughout
 
1.5 miles is a warm up to me, I don't run to often in the winter but my last run, o tracked it with an app, and I ran 5.5 miles 230' cumulative gain at and average of a 9 mine mile throughout

I believe the time you want to aim for for the 1.5 is between 9 and 10 for the whole run. I'm not completely sure what the max scores are but the higher your PFT score is the better. I would look it up.

Again all this is moot if you don't perform well on your tests. A 100 PFT with a 22 ACT will not get you the scholarship but a 33 ACT and 89 PFT probably would. Focus on those tests and you will put yourself in a good position.
 
I agree with what has been said.

Unfortunately, you have missed the ability to take the PSAT. You always want to take it for 2 reasons.
1. It gets you accustomed to the test
2. If you score in the 95% you are eligible to become a National Merit Semi-Finalist. This looks good on your resume. Colleges take note at that, especially when it comes to doling out merit packages.
~~~ Remember AFROTC will only pay tuition, and 95% of those scholarships are limited to no more than 18K. It makes going OOS or private a challenge.

Additionally, AFROTC does not superscore SAT or ACT. It is the best sitting. It is still advisable to take both exams and frequently, but just be aware it is best sitting.

As has been stated 30 is where you want to be to feel comfortable. I would say for SAT you want to be 1300, especially if you intend to go non-tech. They do not include your writing portion, or at least they didn't in the yrs past.

Academically, what concerns me is it appears you have no honors or APs. They will look at not only the cgpa, but the rigor of your curriculum. The sealed transcripts will include a school profile, and this will tell them if you had the ability to take Honors or APs. Some schools don't allow APs until SR. yr., if that is your case, you will be fine.

As far as ECs. AFROTC only looks at everything through your jr. yr in HS. Any position you have as a SR. will not be included. Some kids can find ways to get around it because they hold elections or appointments in the spring of the school yr for the next fall. For ex: you can say you were selected April of your JR. yr to be XYZ.

CAP works in your favor.

TKD is not considered a sport per se unless you are on a competition team. It is still a great EC, but staying with track will help in the points. The reason why this occurs is because they can't really tell the rigor of TKD, do you do it for fun, 2X a week, etc? Our DS did TKD, and they accepted as a sport since he competed on the state and national level.

The other reason to stick with track is they are looking for your commitment level. Do you stick with it, or do you give up because you were not the shining star. AFROTC is a commitment, and the best predictor of the future regarding a person is their past.

The fact is nobody here sits on the board. Nobody here will not the quality or the size of the application pool next yr. We can only show you where we see weaknesses and strengths in your profile with the limited amount of info you desire to share.

If you want to be chanced, the only chance I will give you is you have 0% chance if you don't apply. Every yr there are candidates that posters will say you look great, and others that are let down politely, yet a few short months later the let down ones get the scholarship and the look great doesn't. If the let down ones never applied, they would have lost the chance for a scholarship.

Finally, one big factor is your DoDMERB exam. Get those records in order now. Many kids get DQ'd and in today's climate, waivers are not as easy to come by as they were 5 yrs ago. It is silly things that they never thought would impact them, such as vision, allergies (food), or medication given over an extended period. I would say at least 2 or 3 every yr have had an inhaler prescribed when they were 14 or older, never used it, but it is still on their records with annotation of asthma...when it was just a bronchial infection, but to DoDMERB your doc said it was asthma, and now they will take that path.

Good luck.
 
I have taken the psat, my school has not given us our scores yet. Unfortunately I do not feel as if I am competition level as of now. My parents made me make a decision between school sports and tkd because between that and band my schedule was overloaded as far as it could go as to why I don't do school sports any more
 
Bitter,

I would suggest that as a jr. this spring you do your college tours AND make an appointment to visit the dets. at the college.

You will get a better handle on your scholarship chances that way.

I am not going to lie, my worry for you was not EC, athletics or cgpa. My concern is you have no honors or APs. That concerns me if your peers at your school have 5 AP/IB courses and you don't have 1 honor course.

I don't know your school program. What is your class rank?

Again, it comes down to if you want a better answer regarding chances, we need to have more facts. Currently, we don't know the following:

Major
Class rank
SAT
Hooks?

You could have a great shot, if your desired major is considers critical manning...i.e nursing. You could be on the cusp if your major is non-tech with a 190 PSAT. You could be totally out if you rank top 30% at your HS and only 25% go Public 4 yrs, 0% to Ivy.

Point is lots of things are taken into the equation.

The more you give, the better we can assist.
 
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My major would be Computer Science
I dont know my class rank because frankly I might as well not even have a guidance councilor at this point due to her not being available a majority of the time.
Haven't taken the SATs yet and my school doesnt give back psat scores until december
I am not sure what you mean by hooks.

Honors and AP are available to all grades but it wasnt until my first programming course half-way through last year(when it was first available to me) that I got the motivation to improve my grades, which I can do I am one of those ace the test never do the homework kind guys, which is why i am trying to improve them this year
 
So why are there ASVABS if SAT/ACT are more looked at? I daughter scored pretty high on the ASVABS (without preparation), average on SAT/ACT, carries an over 4.0 GPA, plays sports, in various clubs and activities, President of the Student Council. etc. So now I am hearing since she did not score extremely high on the SAT/ACT, she won't be considered for full scholarships? Is that true? What a shame if that is the case.
 
So why are there ASVABS if SAT/ACT are more looked at? I daughter scored pretty high on the ASVABS (without preparation), average on SAT/ACT, carries an over 4.0 GPA, plays sports, in various clubs and activities, President of the Student Council. etc. So now I am hearing since she did not score extremely high on the SAT/ACT, she won't be considered for full scholarships? Is that true? What a shame if that is the case.

The ASVAB is a measurement for enlisted military qualification. It is used only for those who are trying to become an enlisted member of one of the service branches.

AFROTC is a commissioned officer program, so the ASVAB score is not relevant.

Stealth_81
 
Remember that even if you do not get a national scholarship they give our in-college scholarships too. So don't give up.
 
So right now you're pretty average in all areas. Competition for these scholarships is very stiff and you'll be going up against 4.0 GPA class presidents and captains of sports teams. With that being said, you don't need to be someone like that to get a scholarship. I sure wasn't.

Unfortunately, a lot of chances to improve things for the 4-year scholarship have already passed. Here's what you can do for now:

Seek out increased leadership roles in Civil Air Patrol or band. Membership by itself doesn't mean a whole lot, but if you can find a way to be a color guard commander or element leader or flight sergeant that will go a long way. A big part of the process is your interview, so if you can tell the interviewer more than just "I showed up to meetings once a week and wore my uniform all pretty" you'll be in a good spot. Highlight how you led projects and mentored and developed others.

Yes, athletics don't OFFICIALLY count after Junior year, but if your interviewer can see you're a good athlete even if you don't have a varsity letter that factors into their assessment of you. I didn't letter in a sport until senior year when I joined the cross country and track teams, but at my interview, I was able to tell the officer I was running races on varsity and would most likely letter at the end of the year. Even if you don't letter, a sport will improve your fitness so you can do well on the PFA. A solid PFA score (95+) can even make up for a lack of sports experience.

Take a competitive course load. I had a pretty mediocre GPA but took classes that showed I could handle college coursework.

Get a good SAT or ACT score. As mentioned above, ASVAB doesn't mean anything for ROTC. Solid test scores help set you apart.

You're lucky since Computer Science is an in-demand scholarship major. Really highlight your passion for technology and computers at the interview.

At the interview, emphasize that you want to join ROTC regardless of whether or not you earn a scholarship. The interviewer wants to see a dedicated future officer. ROTC is an investment, not a charity.

Finally, as everyone else said, plenty of people get in-college scholarships. 7 of my class of 22 came in on scholarship, and by the end of junior year, all 22 of us were on scholarship. Stick with the program and grow as a leader while maintaining a good GPA and it's likely you will pick one up.
 
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