Air Force ROTC-Chances of making it to Field Training and Backup plan

Hey I'm a Air Force ROTC cadet. I am a 100 now and worried about field training. With budgets slightly rising should I be worried? I am a non-tech major, 3.4 GPA, a near perfect SAT score, 100 PFA.

I am really worried about "Commander's Ranking" since it is 50 percent of overall ranking, how is it even ranked?

Also if I don't make it, I want to do a Service Academy or OCS/OTS.(either Army or Air Force)

What is the chances of going into Service Academy with that GPA/PFA/SAT from college?
What are my chances getting into the OCS/OTS?

Do you know the percentage rates of going in?

1. SAT scores
If I am correct, HQ AFROTC is slowly going back to their old style, giving the AFOQT to 200s and using that as part of the selection.
~ Someone will correct me on that. Just putting it out there that the AFOQT cannot be taken more than once within a 180 day span. If it is true than you might want to study for it during the summer.
~~ My DS did not study for it... his detachment gave it in September to all 200/250s and contracted 100s. His lowest score out of all the portions were an 89. He compared it to the ACT, (he had 33 best sitting composite). He also had@100 flight hours, so the pilot and nav sections were easy for him.

2. Budget constraints
What needs to be understood is that although sequestration will exist for many more years. AF has publicly stated they only need to trim 3k personnel out of 315k currently serving.
~ They trimmed the SFT budget already by taking it from 28 days to 23 days. That was huge because by reducing it by 5 days the cadets were not TDY and would not get the same amount of pay that the cadets that did 28 days did....per diem is not cheap, especially when you have thousands going.

3. Commanders ranking
There is an exact formula. I can't recall it off the top of my mind, but it is somewhere here in the bowels....look back @2 years ago. Top 1%, 5, 10, 20, etc. Than they look at the size of the unit and do their magic..,voila they have a score.
~ Your CoC should have told you at your end of semester review where you are standing within the unit. Do you have a job in the unit right now? That should give you some insight.

4. Are you wanting rated?
~ LY only 17% of nontech that wanted nonrated were selected.

5. CGPA
~ Your cgpa is on par for nontechs, BUT the only breakdown I have seen for LY is 3.3/3.4 non-tech. I have not seen what the avg. cgpa for nontech/nonrated was for selection.
~~ LY was the 1st year they did the SIGN NOW rated as a 200/250. Prior to that it was not in the equation.

6.OCS and SA.
~ If you want the SA talk to the cadre now, because you can get one more nomination besides the MOCs and VP....you can get a ROTC nom.
~ Are you contracted?
~~ If so, talk to the cadre about what happens if not selected and not appointed. HQ could disenroll you if not selected for SFT. The paperwork from what I have been told is different for contracted cadets. In essence, being disenrolled as a scholarship cadet may make it very hard to be picked up on the OCS board.
~~~~ Think about it from their view...you were scholarship, which is masked for EA/SFT and didn't make the cut, why give you a 2nd chance over the unknown?

7. Selection rate.
2010 selection rate was 55%. Not sure about 11. 12 and 13 had a 90% selection. (HQ later on went and gave those year groups the option to walk or go Guard/Reserve as 400s because they screwed up) 14 was back to @ 60% overall and I believe they sent about 500 less to Maxwell.
~ The point is that it is a year by year thing. LYs numbers is for LYs year group. Use it to look and learn, but not as a hard and fast rule.
~~ Bullet commissioned in 87. In 1993 , they did the RIF. 95% of ROTC commissioned officers in the 86 year group were given the option of walking with a nice paycheck, many were given walking papers. 87 year group was not touched to that level.

Just saying that just because LY was a bloodletting, don't assume it will be true for your year group.

JMPO the AF is bulemic. They gorge and then purge....repeat. Look at the class of 13 and 14...90%+ SFT and then went Oh crap! They than purged.

Also it is important to understand how pinning on works. It is the trickle down effect. It is a ratio. X amount of Flag officers to Field grad. X amount of Field grade to Company grade. X amount of Company grade to the incoming pipeline (USAFA/ROTC/OCS)

Sorry for the long post, but I hope you now see that the picture is much larger than you ever imagined when you posed the questions.

Thanks for the response. No I am non-contracted. Only scholarship cadets in my School are technically "contracted". That and those who pasted Field Training.

On Commander's Ranking, how does the ranking go? Is it, This guy is number 1, this guy is number 2 in the whole Detatchment, then compare Detatchment it to entire nation? Or is it a score national wide?

And do you know how hard is it to go OCS/OTS and SA? What are the selection rates? Is my performance good enough?

Pima pretty much covered everything you need to know, I'll try to expand, as I'm a 200 competing right now, as well as a service academy applicant.
For Commander's Ranking, its based within the Det, and you're ranked from 1-whatever, and essentially based on this ranking you are assigned points which combine with SAT/ACT, PFA and AFOQT.
-Depending on the size of your det, your commander may or may not ever actually see you one on one. I'm at a fairly large det, and so our rankings are based on wing positions, cGPA, PFA score and feedback from our flight commanders.
-Also depending on your det, they may cut cadets even before competing for EA as ours did. Started at 80 this year, 50 this semester, and now 30 after cutting 20 more.
For standardized tests, the procedure, is everyone takes the AFOQT and they compare your Academic composite score with your ACT/SAT and use whatever coverts to the highest SAT math/reading equivalent.
I wouldn't put too much emphasis on national selection rates, because you may be in a very competitive det and have much higher selection rates than nationally. Your cadre would know and should tell you next year to give you an idea.
- I know for this year there are more EA's than last year, whereas your year there might be less.
Essentially control what you can (cGPA, PFA, activeness in your det, AFOQT, SAT/ACT) and let the chips fall where they may.
- Your stats seem quite good, but as a non-tech your best bet is to go rated, I'm a tech, 3.6 cGPA, 97 PFA, 1520 SAT and I'm still worried!

Is there any accurate way to predict the Field training package acceptance rates? I know a friend who has a 3.0 non-tech 2 years ago and made it. What is the process of funding and how much the air force needs?

I'm sure you can look at your stats, compare them to stats of the POC in your det and get an idea of where you stand, but nothing is guaranteed since the number of EA's can change every year, so essentially excel in every area you can directly control and hope for the best. Now I'm no expert in how the Air Force decides how many 2nd Lt's they need, but they have an idea of approximately how many will graduate from the academy each year, and then based on that and how many they predict they need two years down the road, they allot a specific # of EA slots. This makes up the majority of new officers every year, and then they give leftover's to OTS.

AH2299 said:

Is there any accurate way to predict the Field training package acceptance rates? I know a friend who has a 3.0 non-tech 2 years ago and made it. What is the process of funding and how much the air force needs?

Click to expand...

Two years ago they had a rate of 90%+ selected for SFT. LY it was 55%. Two years ago they had @2300 attend last year it was under 1600.

As UMD stated it can change every year mainly due to the AF predicting how many they will need to commission in that year group to make manpower numbers.

The POCs that I would talk to about their cgpas and AFOQT scores would be the 300s because they were in the hard hit year group. At least that way you will know the numbers if they continue to stay at 55%.

I'm also a nontech looking for an EA this semester and I can tell you what I know...

GPA last year for nontech was 3.48 and FA score was 97. These numbers came down from cadre just 3 weeks ago. If your FA score and SAT scores are that good then there is a high probability that your commander's ranking is up there too. As you probably know the selection process tends to be cyclical. Last year they cut back hard and now I am hoping they realize that and select more. They have already extended FT to 27 days from the prior 23 and that means we will all be paid! At the end of the day nobody knows what will happen. Control what you can control.

Is there any way to control Commander's ranking? I have heard some things.
-Participation
-The Colonel constantly seeing you(we only have 26 100s)
-You job in Det.(how does that work?)
-Flight Commander's opinion of you
-Classroom instructor's opinion of you
-Classroom grade
-Inspection grades
-Flight ranking
-What job you want in AF
-Your popularity among Cadets
-Leadership
Correct?

AH2299 said:

Is there any way to control Commander's ranking? I have heard some things.
-Participation
-The Colonel constantly seeing you(we only have 26 100s)
-You job in Det.(how does that work?)
-Flight Commander's opinion of you
-Classroom instructor's opinion of you
-Classroom grade
-Inspection grades
-Flight ranking
-What job you want in AF
-Your popularity among Cadets
-Leadership
Correct?

Click to expand...

Yes definitely. You need to talk to the Commander and see what he/she wants to see or prefers.

Our Commander weighs GPA higher than everything else. Some of the things you listed may be in part of the ranking but ultimately it depends on how large your det is.

Our Commander doesn't really emphasize too much on "ROTC majoring", he had a job while he was in ROTC back in college and he knows that some cadets may not be able to participate as much as others.

The Commander definitely knowing your name is a plus, but like I mentioned before it all depends on how large your det is.

With the detachment job, it all depends on the initiative and how you make yourself known. You can be a snacko for the detachment but you make sure you be the best snacko and try to get your name out there.

Popularity among cadets may depend. It all depends on how your det is run, but if you're overall liked by your peers then there shouldnt be anything negative said about you. Thus, you will have a pretty good reputation. I'm not saying that an O5 weighs heavily on this but don't try to be the "back stabbing" cadet or "selfish" cadet that only cares about him/herself.
You'd be surprised how that goes a long way.

I would like to add that it all depends on the detachment. If you are in a small one like the one I am in (12 in my class) the commander will get plenty of face time with you. It is quite clear who wants to be here and push themselves vs. the person who is just getting by. The want to be there is what can set you apart from your other classmates.

The AS2s in my det just got their EA slot results. Over 90 percent made it. Even a non-tech with a 2.7 made it suprisingly. I heard it was due to the budget rise and the lack of academy cadets(so extra slots). Was it due to the Government budget last year or the one this year? I believe this year in January the military budget increased greatly, how would it effect the EA slots next year during my Sophmore year?

Nobody knows anything about the EA slots next year, its all hear say and all you can go by is the last few years stats. As for my opinion on CC ranking just do what you can, stay involved and volunteer. Take note that more then likely your PFA/GPA are counted as well. Think big picture.