Two questions

cstewart27

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My son has submitted his application for an Army ROTC scholarship. He still needs to complete a face to face interview and the PT Test. He's been working with the local Army recruiter on the physical fitness.

Apparently, the interview will focus on his abilities as a scholar, athlete and leader. He'll be answering questions about how he's shown leadership in high school, either in sports or clubs.

Our school district is pretty small (<1,300 STUDENTS IN GRADES K-12). They offer a very limited number of activities. He hasn't been in sports since middle school. His athletics activity sheet is blank. A major from one of the school's he is interested in suggested a school club or other activity to assist with some leadership considerations.

He's involved in paintball, x-box, camping, hiking, boating and fishing: none of which are school related. He's also been working providing landscaping services on an as-needed basis.

He attends the local career center in the criminal justice program, which is military based and physical fitness is important. He's been working on his GPA and he earned a 3.231 last year which brought his GPA to 2.737. His ACT score from 2008 was a 22 and he'll be taking the ACT again this fall. If he gets straight A's his senior year, he can get above 3.0 GPA but not higher. We're expecting him to finish at 2.9 GPA

We're looking at paying for a karate type class and he will be volunteering at the local hospital this fall.

The college is strongly encouraging him and telling him it is likely that he'll get a four-year Army ROTC scholarship. Reading the forums, it appears that even top notch students have a challenge.

The major recommended that he delay his interview until late this year after getting involved in community service and a school activity.

1) Is the scholarship even realistic given his current academics and activities?

2) Should we delay or proceed with the interview?
 
My son has submitted his application for an Army ROTC scholarship. He still needs to complete a face to face interview and the PT Test. He's been working with the local Army recruiter on the physical fitness.

Apparently, the interview will focus on his abilities as a scholar, athlete and leader. He'll be answering questions about how he's shown leadership in high school, either in sports or clubs.

Our school district is pretty small (<1,300 STUDENTS IN GRADES K-12). They offer a very limited number of activities. He hasn't been in sports since middle school. His athletics activity sheet is blank. A major from one of the school's he is interested in suggested a school club or other activity to assist with some leadership considerations.

He's involved in paintball, x-box, camping, hiking, boating and fishing: none of which are school related. He's also been working providing landscaping services on an as-needed basis.

He attends the local career center in the criminal justice program, which is military based and physical fitness is important. He's been working on his GPA and he earned a 3.231 last year which brought his GPA to 2.737. His ACT score from 2008 was a 22 and he'll be taking the ACT again this fall. If he gets straight A's his senior year, he can get above 3.0 GPA but not higher. We're expecting him to finish at 2.9 GPA

We're looking at paying for a karate type class and he will be volunteering at the local hospital this fall.

The college is strongly encouraging him and telling him it is likely that he'll get a four-year Army ROTC scholarship. Reading the forums, it appears that even top notch students have a challenge.

The major recommended that he delay his interview until late this year after getting involved in community service and a school activity.

1) Is the scholarship even realistic given his current academics and activities?

2) Should we delay or proceed with the interview?

1) Don't know enough about his academic credentials. Even in a small school district, there are different levels of the various classes. If he was taking the most challenging courses out there, a 2.9 looks a lot better. The transcript tells this information to Cadet Command.

Even considering that his academic credentials are not as high as others you see posting on various forums, his credentials are significantly higher than the minimums. So he is far from out. You need to focus on methods to make the most of his attributes for Cadet Command.

In that light, looking at his ECs, if they are organized activities (like through a community organization or church) you might ask your contact at Cadet Command the best way of documenting his participation (a letter from a responsible adult in the organization?) so that these activities are accurately scored.

Think about it this way, there are even provisions for home-schooled applicants, so you are not in the most difficult to document situation.

2) The timing of the interview should be when he is ready. Unless you have a reason to want to delay the awarding of the scholarship, sooner is better. You can update the application continuously during the school year - if he retakes the ACT, achieves an honor, or other important information (GPA rises?). The application will be rescored and resubmitted to subsequent boards.

In the end, from everything I've heard, he should eventually be awarded a scholarship (based upon past years results). It may not be until next spring. In the mean time, he should focus on being the best candidate (and of course person) he can be and documenting it in his application.
 
Classes

Our high school offers only college prep and special education classes to meet minimum state requirements for the 400 high school students. Given that, his freshman and sophomore classes were all college prep. He has not taken AP class. He went into the Criminal Justice career program last year and will continue this year.
 
2 questions

Please have your child continue with the process. Worst case scenario;

He is not offered a 4 year scholarship.

If that happens - by going through the process - it will give him practice for when he applies for a 3 or 2 year scholarship - and the fact that goes through each of those processes shows his extreme interest in serving our nation as an Army officer.

Good Luck with the process,

Fuji

Roy "Fuji" Fulgueras
Director of Admissions
Massachusetts Maritime Academy
Fuji@maritime.edu
1-800-544-3411
FAX 508-830-5077
http://www.maritime.edu
http://twitter.com/MMAAdmissions
 
cstewart27 -
I agree with Fuji - please don't let your son get discouraged. Please have him continue on with the process.

These are the minimum requirements for an Army ROTC scholarship:
Be a U.S. citizen
Be between the ages of 17 and 26
Have a high school GPA of at least 2.50
Have a high school diploma or equivalent
Score a minimum of 920 on the SAT (math/verbal) or 19 on the ACT (excluding the required writing test scores)
Meet physical standards
Agree to accept a commission and serve in the Army on Active Duty or in a Reserve Component (Army Reserve or Army National Guard)

After the above conditions are met, the Army is looking for Officers and those who will make good Officers. They are looking for those who are leader/scholar/athletes but don't go enrolliing your son in sports just for this. BTW - Paintball looks great.
What you and he need to do is write a simple resume and think about what he has done and how. Accentuate the positive - is he on a paintball team? With whom does he hike and camp? does he have any special accomplishments - winter camping? long distance hikes etc?

What you are seeing on this forum is mostly exceptional students and you are also comparing him with those applying for Navy and AF scholarships which are very limited in number.
The interview will give the PMS an opportunity to meet and assess your son. He can also give honest feedback on possibilites should he not get a 4 year ROTC scholarships.
If the PMS thinks your son has what it takes to be an officer then he will help him find a way.
 
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