NavyMom24,
While you are correct that Active Duty through traditional Army ROTC is not guaranteed, the chances are a lot higher. Over the past few years 78% +- of the cadets that wanted Active have received Active. The numbers are lower through ECP. The advice you have read on this board comes from cadets that were told they would be able to apply for Active when they signed up and accepted the ECP Scholarship only to be told they would not be released to AD when it came time to commission.
ECP is very fluid, what prospective cadets are told today is not always what happens in two years. Despite doing well and scoring high, many ECP cadets were not allowed to commission Active. With ECP sometimes getting Active is out of the cadets control.
The advice is actually good but could be worded differently, If a cadet wants a "better" chance of receiving Active Duty then traditional Army ROTC is a better path, the system is not as fluid as it is with ECP.
Thanks Jcleppe, I agree, I did not word my statement correctly.
What cadets going into ECP need to know is that you do not get active duty out of the JMC. You either get your grfd control number revoked and
receive the right to compete for active duty (and receive it or not based upon your OML score with all the other cadets graduating in that same year), or your number is not revoked and you are assigned guard/reserves. It used to be this decision was made at the cadets follow on school (when my ds signed his scholarship), which means they were evaluated more closely by that follow up schools PMS.
Today cadets apply to get their control numbers revoked at their JMC before Xmas of their 2nd year (when my ds commissioned, he actually had to do it in April before commissioning, they have advanced it even more). This means the JMC rotc staff has a little over a year to evaluate the cadets. They have to receive approval from the JMC's PMS, cadet command and the secretary of the army. Typically if you receive approval from the first 2 the 3rd one is automatic. But just like at SMC's, the main power lies in the hands of the PMS.
My ds had very respectable stats, went thru air assault, 3.4 gpa, 280 apft, high evaluation scores and leadership scores and several awards. he was approved by cadet command but not by his PMS, therefore the sec. of army did not approve. The pms only approved 5 out of 17 for revoking their grfd number. Of those only 3 were approved by cadet command and the army. Let's just say it was very apparent diversity was involved in those receiving approval from his school.
I do not know if cadets that do not get their numbers revoked but go on to SMC's fall into that "guaranteed active duty" category. DS has some friends in that situation so we will find out in a year or so.
He also had friends from other JMC's that said their PMS stamped everyone approved and let cadet command and the army decide.
Like Jcleppe said, the program is very fluid and things can change and the cadets do not necessarily have time to respond.
And like Navymom said it is possible to attain that goal of active duty and a lot relies on what type of student/cadet you are, however, having had a ds go thru the ECP program, there are a lot of things that are out of their hands and the better shot of attaining a shot of active duty lies somewhere other than thru and ECP scholarship. Kinda like OCS, when they are wanting fewer officers, the first thing they do is cut OCS, the next thing is ECP's, after that traditional rotc numbers.
If the army starts building up again and needing more officers then the chances of obtaining that right to compete for active duty will become greater.
As I stated above the cadets only receive (or not) the right to compete for active duty when they graduate from the JMC. They still have gpa's and OML points and standings to deal with to actually receive active duty. Even if they get their numbers revoked, they could still end up in guard or reserves.