Questions Regarding ROTC Army

Freedom125

5-Year Member
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I am training for the ROTC Army APFT in the Fall when I return to school (UW-La Crosse). I will be a sophomore at college and just starting ROTC Army. I yesterday I did the APFT test by myself just to see what I could do. I got a 60 on the push-ups (I suck at these :frown:), 100 on the running, and 74 on the sit ups (scores not reps). That would be a total score of 234. Is that good for a first time try? Obviously I would like a 300 but what is enough to pass? I have heard 300, 280, 250, 240 or even low like 220.

Also about the height and weight, and medical requirements. I weight 140 and I am 5'7. Is that good to get into the Army? I don't have allergies, glasses, no surgery (wisdom teeth only), no broken bones, I have had one very low level concussion (the doctors said concussion to be safe but they weren't sure if I actually had one..I don't think it went on my medical records), I am on top of all my vaccines, and I have had not problems medically or physically. I have a 2.8 GPA and got all my difficult classes out of the way already so it will definitely jump up. The two summer classes I am in now I have A's in so I should be at a 3.1 by the Fall :smile: Oh I'm 20 years old and a Geography B.S Education major. Will I get contracted?

Another question is how does one go about contracting with the Army ROTC? I have made the decision to contract but how do I go about it? Do I just email or walk into the ROTC office and say I want to contract?

Thanks!
 
I am training for the ROTC Army APFT in the Fall when I return to school (UW-La Crosse). I will be a sophomore at college and just starting ROTC Army. I yesterday I did the APFT test by myself just to see what I could do. I got a 60 on the push-ups (I suck at these :frown:), 100 on the running, and 74 on the sit ups (scores not reps). That would be a total score of 234. Is that good for a first time try? Obviously I would like a 300 but what is enough to pass? I have heard 300, 280, 250, 240 or even low like 220.

Also about the height and weight, and medical requirements. I weight 140 and I am 5'7. Is that good to get into the Army? I don't have allergies, glasses, no surgery (wisdom teeth only), no broken bones, I have had one very low level concussion (the doctors said concussion to be safe but they weren't sure if I actually had one..I don't think it went on my medical records), I am on top of all my vaccines, and I have had not problems medically or physically. I have a 2.8 GPA and got all my difficult classes out of the way already so it will definitely jump up. The two summer classes I am in now I have A's in so I should be at a 3.1 by the Fall :smile: Oh I'm 20 years old and a Geography B.S Education major. Will I get contracted?

Another question is how does one go about contracting with the Army ROTC? I have made the decision to contract but how do I go about it? Do I just email or walk into the ROTC office and say I want to contract?

Thanks!

You contract when you either:
1. Are awarded a scholarship and successfully pass the APFT or
2. Are approved for the Advanced Course when you are a rising junior.
Have you been in contact with the unit to make them aware you want to participate as a college programmer?
I won't venture to say what's a passing score for the PFT but I do know you must perform everything with the correct form or it doesn't count. So you might do a slew of pushups that aren't counted if the form is not correct. In any case keep working. You have plenty of time to improve your scores.

This or other pages like it might be worth a look: http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/fitnessevalandassessment/a/Army-Physical-Fitness-Test.htm
 
I am training for the ROTC Army APFT in the Fall when I return to school (UW-La Crosse). I will be a sophomore at college and just starting ROTC Army. I yesterday I did the APFT test by myself just to see what I could do. I got a 60 on the push-ups (I suck at these :frown:), 100 on the running, and 74 on the sit ups (scores not reps). That would be a total score of 234. Is that good for a first time try? Obviously I would like a 300 but what is enough to pass? I have heard 300, 280, 250, 240 or even low like 220.

Also about the height and weight, and medical requirements. I weight 140 and I am 5'7. Is that good to get into the Army? I don't have allergies, glasses, no surgery (wisdom teeth only), no broken bones, I have had one very low level concussion (the doctors said concussion to be safe but they weren't sure if I actually had one..I don't think it went on my medical records), I am on top of all my vaccines, and I have had not problems medically or physically. I have a 2.8 GPA and got all my difficult classes out of the way already so it will definitely jump up. The two summer classes I am in now I have A's in so I should be at a 3.1 by the Fall :smile: Oh I'm 20 years old and a Geography B.S Education major. Will I get contracted?

Another question is how does one go about contracting with the Army ROTC? I have made the decision to contract but how do I go about it? Do I just email or walk into the ROTC office and say I want to contract?

Thanks!

OK, to start out, keep working out, try and get your numbers up for both PU and SU's. One thing you need to make sure is that you are doing these to Army regulations. Many new cadets think they can do a lot of PU and SU's only to find when they that their first official APFT half of them don't count, happens all the time. Make sure you can do quite a bit more then the minimums so you pass the first time. If you can start out with a 240, 80 in each category, you would be doing great.

As far as the height/weight, are you male or female?

Your GPA is good enough to enroll in ROTC, you will want to work to get it up if you want to compete for Active Duty and get a Branch you like.

Now for Contracting. Unless you are on scholarship or have been in the SMP program for your freshman year, you will not Contract when you start your sophomore year. You will simply enroll in ROTC as a non-scholarship cadet. During the year you will be evaluated and put on a Battalion OLM (Order of Merit List) at the end of your sophomore year, if the battalion has slots available, and you make the cut, the battalion will allow you to enroll in the Advanced Course that starts Junior year. If you do this you would then be contracted the beginning of your junior year providing yo meet all the requirement for GPA, ROTC, and you pass the APFT.

There's the short of it, I'm sure you'll have more questions. Look on line, talk with your new battalion and do some more research, you should be able to find out everything you need. Also look through the old threads on this forum, there is a wealth of information here.
 
I yesterday I did the APFT test by myself just to see what I could do. I got a 60 on the push-ups (I suck at these :frown:), 100 on the running, and 74 on the sit ups (scores not reps). That would be a total score of 234. Is that good for a first time try? Obviously I would like a 300 but what is enough to pass? I have heard 300, 280, 250, 240 or even low like 220.
You need 60 minimum in each event - that is considered a passing grade. So, in essence you need a minimum of 180 for a passing APFT grade. I do not know the details for all of the other questions you asked; but I do know that if you want a scholarship (and contract) at least, a good way to make a good first impression, and to have a competitive chance at a scholarship - you need to get a minimum of 270 points on the APFT; 300+ is even better.

Since you are at summer session, I would recommend going over to the Battalion some day and introducing yourself to the Professor of Military Science (if available), but more likely the Recruiting Operations Officer and/or Scholarship Enrollment Officer. The latter are the very least who you will want to inform of your desired interest in the Army/contracting.

Good Luck
 
I am a male.

Yes, I went and talked with the guy in charge of the ROTC at my school. He just told me to sign up for classes, which I did so I am fully approved and enrolled in ROTC here. He also talked about contacting in the future and seemed excited about my Geography major. (My school is big in Biology or Exercise Science so they get a lot of Bio and Exercise Science majors). How difficult is it to get approved for Advance Courses and make the open slots? My school has a 10,000 student body and very few in the ROTC (there are 17 students enrolled/contracted with ROTC in classes greater than 201 for this Fall Semester and 22 students total if you count the 100 level class, which is made up of 5 students) so does that make it easy to join?

Thanks for the helpful replies!
 
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In terms of how difficult it will be to contract as an MSIII in the advanced course, it depends on how many slots have been allocated to your school for both scholarship and non-scholarship cadets for the year you are supposed to graduate. The cadre at my school have always been upfront with cadets trying to contract about how many slots are available. Is it correct that you are an MSII now? You must have completed a minimum number of lower division ROTC units or attended Leader's Training Course (LTC) in order to contract at the beginning of your III year. I think at this point it's too late to attend LTC this year, so ask your Recruiting Officer if you have the appropriate prerequisites to contract as well as if any slots are available. If there is an OML for slots, then work on your PT, which is something that you can make improvements in during the summer.
 
I think he said he will be an MSII cadet this fall.
 
I am a male.

Yes, I went and talked with the guy in charge of the ROTC at my school. He just told me to sign up for classes, which I did so I am fully approved and enrolled in ROTC here. He also talked about contacting in the future and seemed excited about my Geography major. (My school is big in Biology or Exercise Science so they get a lot of Bio and Exercise Science majors). How difficult is it to get approved for Advance Courses and make the open slots? My school has a 10,000 student body and very few in the ROTC (there are 17 students enrolled/contracted with ROTC in classes greater than 201 for this Fall Semester and 22 students total if you count the 100 level class, which is made up of 5 students) so does that make it easy to join?

Thanks for the helpful replies!

You will have a much greater chance of moving on to the Advanced Course and contracting in the smaller battalion. Just keep your grades up, participate in everything, maintain a good APFT and you should be fine.

As far as your height/weight, your fine. The Min. is 121lbs, the Max. is 165lbs.
 
In terms of how difficult it will be to contract as an MSIII in the advanced course, it depends on how many slots have been allocated to your school for both scholarship and non-scholarship cadets for the year you are supposed to graduate. The cadre at my school have always been upfront with cadets trying to contract about how many slots are available. Is it correct that you are an MSII now? You must have completed a minimum number of lower division ROTC units or attended Leader's Training Course (LTC) in order to contract at the beginning of your III year. I think at this point it's too late to attend LTC this year, so ask your Recruiting Officer if you have the appropriate prerequisites to contract as well as if any slots are available. If there is an OML for slots, then work on your PT, which is something that you can make improvements in during the summer.

The recruit has for taking MS 101 and MS 201 this Fall and then MS 102 and MS 202 the up coming spring. He then said I will have taken all the prerequisites by the end of my Sophomore year and will be eligible for contracting at the beginning of my junior year.

I will be both a MSI and MSII this Fall. he said lots of people have done it at my school. I am one of 4 that are doing it this way.
 
The recruit has for taking MS 101 and MS 201 this Fall and then MS 102 and MS 202 the up coming spring. He then said I will have taken all the prerequisites by the end of my Sophomore year and will be eligible for contracting at the beginning of my junior year.

I will be both a MSI and MSII this Fall. he said lots of people have done it at my school. I am one of 4 that are doing it this way.

Sounds like your set. Best of luck to you.
 
You will have a much greater chance of moving on to the Advanced Course and contracting in the smaller battalion. Just keep your grades up, participate in everything, maintain a good APFT and you should be fine.

As far as your height/weight, your fine. The Min. is 121lbs, the Max. is 165lbs.

Thanks! Yeah I was looking at the class schedules online for MSIII and MSIV and there is room for 30 cadets this up coming school year. The school only has 7 cadets that are MSIII and no cadets that are MSIV. 8 cadets were comissioned this spring.
 
FYI; in 2011, the average GPA was 3.26 to get active duty,
I expect it will be even more selective by the time you are getting ready to commission...
study hard, Good luck!
 
If 3.26 is the average then the math would say the the minimum was 2.52.

If you are floating around the lower end then you better have a 300+ APFT, and get an E at LDAC along with Top 5 and Recondo. Even then in the current climate of the Army I wouldn't count on Active Duty.

I have all the confidence Freedom125, that you will do much better then that. Stay Excited.
 
FYI; in 2011, the average GPA was 3.26 to get active duty,
I expect it will be even more selective by the time you are getting ready to commission...
study hard, Good luck!

I am an education major so GPA isn't a big worry for me....my academic advisor said I will definitely graduate with a 3.5 or higher if I study and put effort in and don't party too much or slack off. The officer of the year at my school got a 287 on the APFT and had a 3.4 GPA in Archeology, which seems low from what I have seen online.

I really want active duty. I will definitely be studying my butt off and working hard in the ROTC classes, labs, and patrols, and working out regularly for the APFT tests. Both my great grandfathers and my grandfathers served in the Army and my dad served in the Air Force. I want to carry on the legacy! :smile::smile:
 
Haha well I didn't pick this major because I wanted it easy. I also didn't want the low income with it (only $35,000 a year) but income never really mattered with me anyway. I picked it because I love geography but geography jobs are hard to come by unless you do Geography Education or major in Political Science. I picked education, hence I am a education major but I take almost all my classes under the College of Health and Science since they are almost entirely geography classes.
 
Haha well I didn't pick this major because I wanted it easy. I also didn't want the low income with it (only $35,000 a year) but income never really mattered with me anyway. I picked it because I love geography but geography jobs are hard to come by unless you do Geography Education or major in Political Science. I picked education, hence I am a education major but I take almost all my classes under the College of Health and Science since they are almost entirely geography classes.

If you've go the chops for it, I recommend getting as much GIS (geographic information systems) education as you can get at UWRF if you are studying Geography. ArcGIS is a very employable (and can be quite lucrative) software skill. Not sure if the Army uses it or not.

Lots of graduate work in all kinds of disciplines use ArcGIS to record data for spatially organized data (readings and observations taken at various locations).

Lots of city/county governments use it for tracking parcel information - anything from ownership records to zoning/utility/political mapping.

BTW, you should be fine with your stats as long as their numbers for commissioning are OK. Cadets come and go during their first 2 years and most at schools like yours are not full from the get-go.

Be a go-getter. Help out where ever you can. It isn't just the numbers.
 
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