Thanks for the help guys. I've been studying pretty hard, even every night over spring break, so I'm hoping hard work really does pay off.
GoalieDad, thanks for the advice. I wouldn't say I'm necessary insecure about myself, just concerned about getting this scholarship and getting a commission. It's really the only way I can pay for college, so I'm trying to make sure all my bases are covered and control what I can control.
OK, we are making progress here on understanding the objective. You are trying to combine lemons (your financial situation of needing a scholarship) with sugar (the ROTC scholarship) to make some lemonade (a career in the military). Some people here have plenty of sugar, others not so much.
Here is where you original question about how your score of 29 isn't really the question to be asking. As you may have noticed others have mentioned that they have gotten scholarships with scores less than 29. So you now know you can get a scholarship with a 29.
However, this does not say that everyone with a 29 will get a scholarship. Why you may ask? Beyond the rest of the application (which on paper you look good) there is also the pesky issue of what schools you list on your application.
AROTC Scholarships are granted in limited numbers to various battalions (which may have 1 or many schools). The number of scholarships available to a school primarily are related to their commissioning targets (how many 2nd lieutenants they want in 4 years from X school) and more importantly these days how much the school costs.
If you read through threads going back in time (I read a full year's worth of threads before I made my first post 4 years ago), you will notice that the awards this year (conveniently there is a popular thread with the data from members here on SAF) tend to be more 3 yr awards for the higher cost privates and OOS publics and more 4 yr awards for in-state publics where Uncle Sam can spend 1/3 to 1/2 as much per year. We also tend to have a more sophisticated than average audience here (note the lack of data about 2nd tier public schools, which also award scholarships - my daughter goes to one and is on a 4-yr campus scholarship).
Beyond this, for that fixed number of scholarships available to any given campus, there are an unknown scholarship applicants with unknown stats who are also applying. Cadet Command awards scholarships from the top of the list (as the applicants are scored on a formula that nobody here knows exactly) both overall (October awards are very sparse and are centered on very high scorers) and by the school. If you are the top applicant at a school with 1 scholarship, you will likely get it. If you are the 2nd in line, you hope the first guy got in in an earlier board and chose a different school (if they were given a choice - which is not guaranteed).
So not only do you need a high overall ACT score, but one (when combined with the rest of your application), but you need one that is higher than the other applicants.
And since I've come on the board, there has been a large reduction in the number of overall scholarships (not to mention more of them being 3-yr). I would say at most schools less than 1/4 of the cadets are on a national scholarship. Others are SMP. Many are walk-ons as freshmen.
So how do you find out whether you are competitive for a national scholarship at the school(s) you are interested in? You get in contact with the ROO (recruiting operations officer) and in finding out about the unit (have a variety of questions to ask) mention that you are applying for a scholarship and ask what type of GPA/ACT scores this year's recipients had. Many will give you an idea. Past performance is no guarantee of future returns of course, but it is guaranteed not to get any easier.
By and large, scholarship recipients are in the top quarter of their entering class at any school. So if you choose schools where you are in the top 10% (perhaps apply to an honors program), I'd bet that you are more likely to be the top candidate.
Taking that back to your 29 ACT. While it may be good nationally, it may not be top quarter at top publics (Berkeley, Michigan, UVA). If your state flagship isn't in the top 25 publics, your 29 may well be in the top quarter.
SMCs are a different animal all together. You will find that the spread of ACT scores and GPAs are greater, and a large majority of the applicants are applying for the scholarship, so the competition is even more fierce. I'd say you need to be in the top 10% of the applicant pool to stand a chance at a scholarship. Once again, do your research.
I think this should give you something to consider for a while...