GFRD info please.

DS is a contracted MSII. He is gathering information on the GFRD option for his MSIII year. In looking at this site and on the web there is very little information available. Can anybody offer some up to date and relevent information? DS is leaning towards reserve at this point so taking AD off the table is not a negative at this point. Thanks for your help.

Is your DS on a ROTC Scholarship now?

Really the way I interpret them is essentially they are like any ROTC scholarship other than you have to do SMP drill and active duty is not an option. You are reqd to serve 8 yrs after you commission.

http://busn.uco.edu/armyrotc/guaranteed-reserve-forces-duty-scholarship

There are several variations of them according to the website above.

To expand a little, I believe they only pay up to $10,000 per year and you use your states TA money to also.

I know my son (ECP cadet) has to file for state's TA program (which covers in state tuition) after he commissions then will get up to 10k per year to use for room and board.

DS is a contracted cadet ,4 year winner and contracted first semester of his freshman year. I did see where the tuition cap looks to be $10,000 per year which is about half of what he is getting from AROTC now. Foutunatly money is not an issue. Not sure it would be advantagous for him to switch from AROTC to GFRD. We are under the impression GFRD service obligation starts as soon as he joins a guard unit. Just trying to weigh the pluses and minuses for now. Thanks.

If it were me I think I would recommend staying with the scholarship in hand. That way, just in case something happens or minds change the option of active duty is still there. He can always choose guard when he accesses his MSIV year.

The service obligation is the same. With National Guard it starts after you report to your guard unit, the SMP time does not count. With active duty it starts when you go to BOLC which could be an unspecified time after graduation.

DS is an MSIV this year so btwn his ROTC commitments, his guard drill once a month, and his academics, his weeks are pretty full and does not leave much time for anything.

Also, if his school is not in his home state, the guard unit he drills with may not be as receptive to an SMP cadet they know is going to leave when he graduates. To some I'm sure it doesn't matter. But just something else to consider.

Best of luck to your son.

I'm going to concur with the above post.

Service obligation will be the 8 years after he graduates and reports to his unit, the time he serves during college will not count towards that obligation. He will earn some TIS as far as his pay is concerned but that's it.

Keeping his current scholarship seems like a good idea, as stated above your son would still have the opportunity for Active Duty should he change his mind, he can select Reserve/NG if he chooses.

Since the current scholarship pays for all his tuition with no limit and he would not have the extra time thrown in his schedule for weekend drills, it would be my advice if I were giving it to my son to stay with the current scholarship.

The NG recruiters do a nice job of laying out their program to get cadets to switch, but your son is in a pretty good situation right now. Having a scholarship and the contract in place that allows for all options when he graduates is not a bad thing to have these days.

$10K is incorrect...a GRFD scholarship is the same as a line scholarship. If your son wants to convert his line scholarship to a GRFD scholarship he is doing two things:
1. He is taking Active Duty off the table. There is absolutely, positively no way he will have active duty as an option when he assesses.
2. He will be required to start drilling in the Guard or Reserves.

There are two instances when I try to sell a GRFD to my Cadets. One is when they don't have a scholarship, and the only way they will get one is GRFD. I make absolutely sure that they know they are trading active duty for getting college paid for.

The other instances is if the Cadet is sure he doesn't want active duty, and he/she has a burning desire to begin drilling now. Personally I don't think there is a good reason to do that, but there are people out there that are telling these Cadets they will be better officers and they will be making more money, and they will retire earlier if they SMP/GRFD. I'm not saying those things won't happen, but I don't think the return on investment is equal to the cost in time spent not focusing on academic success.

I see where that $10K thing is...That is the cap on Room and Board if you choose to use your scholarship for R&B instead of tuition and fees. At a school where R&B is more than tuition this is common and there is a cap. At a school like Clarkson a GRFD scholarship pays the $40K+.

Clarkson, outstanding information!!! This is excatly what I was looking for. Thank you very much.

sheriff3 said:

Clarkson, outstanding information!!! This is excatly what I was looking for. Thank you very much.

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