Hi. Thanks to all of you who contribute to this forum. My son is a rising 11th grade student. His goal is to attend college for engineering and be in either AFROTC or AROTC. I've helped many kids with college planning, but this is my first time looking at ROTC.
My son had many personal issues in 9th grade resulting in dismissal grades. His grades in 10th grade were greatly improved, but not a 4.0. Conservatively, his stats after 11th grade will be:
GPA 3.0-3.3 - includes honors & AP courses
ACT - expected to be 30 or above based upon ACT taken in 7th grade
SAT - expected to be 1330-1450 (M/V only) based upon last year PSAT and 7th grade SAT
He has already Varsity lettered in 2 sports
Civil Air Patrol member for 4 years and counting (attained Billy Mitchell Award last year)
works part time
multiple school clubs related to STEM and Debate
PT - not sure of his current times, but he is actively working to improve daily.
likely a candidate for Boys State as his school sends boys each year and those with ROTC aspirations tend to be selected first.
His intended major is some type of engineering (materials, environmental or mechanical at this stage). His brother is current college junior as a Mechanical Engineering major, so he has a very solid view of the reality of this major.
All and all, he is a good candidate for ROTC, but the GPA will be a huge hurdle for a scholarship.
He is child 2 of 3 and finances are a huge concern for college.
Since he wants Engineering, we feel any ABET school will provide the academic background, regardless of US News rankings.
There are private schools that may provide good merit scholarship, but he would need to cast a wide net. If ROTC were not a factor, I'd be encouraging him to apply to 10-12 schools. Throwing ROTC into the mix seems to make this a bad idea.
Is he competitive for ROTC scholarship before college begins?
Should the college list be narrowed to 6 schools?
Is it acceptable to ask ROOs at visits the number of students who receive scholarships once in college? I would think this would be easier to get at some schools vs. others.
Is there an average number of scholarships that are "held back" for those who begin the ROTC program without scholarship?
We realize he must choose a state school for ROTC scholarship application. We are PA residences and frankly, without ROTC, there are private and out of state schools that are less money than our state options. Also, many of the private schools are smaller and apt to overlook his overall GPA 9 -11 and instead focus on his rising GPA and GPA in the beginning of grade 12 (which we know ROTC does not review)
Any advice is great;y appreciated as I am very overwhelmed in the direction to led him. Our house rule is to not look in depth/fall in love with any college until parents can determine if it is a school we can realistically afford. We are very mindful of our debt ratio so that child #3 is not shut-out of loans.
Thank you.
My son had many personal issues in 9th grade resulting in dismissal grades. His grades in 10th grade were greatly improved, but not a 4.0. Conservatively, his stats after 11th grade will be:
GPA 3.0-3.3 - includes honors & AP courses
ACT - expected to be 30 or above based upon ACT taken in 7th grade
SAT - expected to be 1330-1450 (M/V only) based upon last year PSAT and 7th grade SAT
He has already Varsity lettered in 2 sports
Civil Air Patrol member for 4 years and counting (attained Billy Mitchell Award last year)
works part time
multiple school clubs related to STEM and Debate
PT - not sure of his current times, but he is actively working to improve daily.
likely a candidate for Boys State as his school sends boys each year and those with ROTC aspirations tend to be selected first.
His intended major is some type of engineering (materials, environmental or mechanical at this stage). His brother is current college junior as a Mechanical Engineering major, so he has a very solid view of the reality of this major.
All and all, he is a good candidate for ROTC, but the GPA will be a huge hurdle for a scholarship.
He is child 2 of 3 and finances are a huge concern for college.
Since he wants Engineering, we feel any ABET school will provide the academic background, regardless of US News rankings.
There are private schools that may provide good merit scholarship, but he would need to cast a wide net. If ROTC were not a factor, I'd be encouraging him to apply to 10-12 schools. Throwing ROTC into the mix seems to make this a bad idea.
Is he competitive for ROTC scholarship before college begins?
Should the college list be narrowed to 6 schools?
Is it acceptable to ask ROOs at visits the number of students who receive scholarships once in college? I would think this would be easier to get at some schools vs. others.
Is there an average number of scholarships that are "held back" for those who begin the ROTC program without scholarship?
We realize he must choose a state school for ROTC scholarship application. We are PA residences and frankly, without ROTC, there are private and out of state schools that are less money than our state options. Also, many of the private schools are smaller and apt to overlook his overall GPA 9 -11 and instead focus on his rising GPA and GPA in the beginning of grade 12 (which we know ROTC does not review)
Any advice is great;y appreciated as I am very overwhelmed in the direction to led him. Our house rule is to not look in depth/fall in love with any college until parents can determine if it is a school we can realistically afford. We are very mindful of our debt ratio so that child #3 is not shut-out of loans.
Thank you.