Adjustments to Accessions Points?

[QA1517]

DS is an ECP cadet which means he is an MSIII his freshman year at a Military Junior College.

He wanted to participate in athletics which would award him oml points. He quickly figured out that with his class load and ROTC load (which is what he wanted to be his main focus) that the athletics and oml points were not as important to him as his gpa and dropped them. Instead he tried out for and was selected for the color guard and has participated on some on campus activities which have qualified as EC's which go towards the oml points.

 

[1RIR]

My DS is in the same boat with athletics. Playing intramural soccer with others who are less skillful at 10:30pm on a school night, plus risking an avoidable injury was just too much. Points from Color/Drill and other ROTC events equaled intermural points, and no visits to the ER for that ACL scan (soccer injury).

 

[Roxymom]

Hey, let's call out for pizza and coke and have us a study party this Saturday night!
Who knew?
And good for him! (unless that's just what they tell the parents )

Whatever works. There is no greater cynic than I and I never went Greek.
I really was surprised how happy he was that he had already started getting tutoring on a regular basis and wished he'd known about it soon.

 

[kinnem]

Whatever works. There is no greater cynic than I and I never went Greek.
I really was surprised how happy he was that he had already started getting tutoring on a regular basis and wished he'd known about it soon.

Truly, good for him! Wish there were more organizations like it on campuses across America.

 

[Jcleppe]

Surprising but academics seems to be the focus of this fraternity. Benefits include tutoring . He chose to pledge there because of the high Gpa AROTC and ROTC role models. Academics is his priority.

Both of my sons joined Fraternities, the same one actually.

There has been a lot of discussion on this board about joining Frats, it all comes down to the individual greek systems at each school. Some schools have terrible reputations in regard to Frats, some have great reputations. A couple of the schools my sons looked at early on had greek systems I would have highly advised against. The system at my son's school is pretty good, sure there are some less then stellar houses and I made sure the boys did their research before pledging.

The Frat they chose has a much higher GPA average then the overall school GPA. The house has there own OML so to speak based on GPA, room selections, leadership positions, are among the things that are based on GPA. Mandatory study hall for all freshman, 2 hours a night. Grades are submitted each semester, if they fall below a certain GPA they are on probation, miss that GPA again and they are out of the house. Minimum GPA to live in the house is 3.0, if you have a 3.0, well your going to get the bottom choices on most everything. The average GPA in the house is 3.3.

One thing to remember, while doing color guard may get similar points as outside activities on the OMS score sheet, placement on the battalion OML counts for a lot of points as well. Many battalions will look at various things when placing the cadets on the battalion OML, outside activities count.

Being a member of color guard counts, being the color guard commander counts more. Not every cadet will get the opportunity to be in that type of ROTC leadership role. A Frat can give a cadet an opportunity to have leadership roles that they may not get in ROTC, especially in a larger battalion.

Being in a Fraternity can also give a cadet broader exposure to school and another peer group. Some of my son's best friends from school have been from his Frat. The kids learn that there is life outside the military and it's possible to balance both.

Point is, not all Frats are created equal, it really depends on the school and it's greek system. Fraternities are not for everyone, and not every Frat is a good one.

Sounds like your son found a good fit, he'll have a blast I'm sure.

 

[QA1517]

When grades were reviewed a couple of weeks ago at DS's, there was X-number of failing grades. Those students had mandatory study nights with the instructors twice a week and the cadets were not allowed to leave campus for non-school activities for 3 weeks when grades were reviewed again (even weekends). E-mails went out to all parents of cadets.

DS was not doing good in his chemistry (not failing), his advisor called him in and said he would recommend withdrawing from the class so it wouldn't ruin his otherwise really good gpa. He didn't need it for his major, it was just general ed credits. With credit for LTC he will still finish the semester with 19 hrs and pick up another science next semester

I thought that was pretty awesome for school and staff to initiate the mandatory study.

 

[Jcleppe]

As the Guys and Gals are told by their unit, "You are a student First – academics matter the most". Joining the wrong Frat cost a cadet his 4 year AROTC scholarship on his first week at my DS's school this year, he was the only 4 year awarded for 2013-14. Their GPA score will have the biggest impact on the OML, a factor only they can control. My DS has survived three years at school without joining a frat, he has witnessed many that joined and have fallen by the wayside, and they now swim against the tide for good grades.

Just curious, what caused the cadet to lose his scholarship the first week. My guess is that it had more to do with the cadet making the wrong choices rather then joining the wrong Frat.

I am not naive, I know what can go on at a Frat and I'm sure some of it goes on at my son's house. A cadet just needs to know how to say no sometimes. If a cadet is going to make bad choices, they don't need a Frat to facilitate that choice.

Of course your son's school could be one of those that you just stay clear of the greek system, there are plenty of those out there.

 

[sheriff3]

Since this has morphed into a discussion on frats I'll throw in my .02 cents. DS was considering joining a frat. His mom and I were less than enthused with the idea. One of my favorite movies of all time is Animal House, and that is what I feared he might be headed to. To his credit he made a thoughtful, mature and well-presented case. This particular frat has the highest GPA of any frat on campus, very active in student gov't, lots of community service and would work with him on his ROTC commitments. We told him it was his decision to make. We also told him the cost of $850 per semester was his responsibility and would not come out of his college fund. Last week he texted his mom and I and said he felt for him to be successful in school, excel in AROTC and due to cost (he is frugal like him mom) he would not be joining a frat at this time. Between school, ROTC, intermural sports (intertube water polo?? really??), social activities and general life his schedule seems to be full.

 

[1RIR]

Just curious, what caused the cadet to lose his scholarship the first week. My guess is that it had more to do with the cadet making the wrong choices rather then joining the wrong Frat.

I am not naive, I know what can go on at a Frat and I'm sure some of it goes on at my son's house. A cadet just needs to know how to say no sometimes. If a cadet is going to make bad choices, they don't need a Frat to facilitate that choice.

Of course your son's school could be one of those that you just stay clear of the greek system, there are plenty of those out there.

Two reasons really. The cadet made a bad choice, in friends and frat. His Frat had an all-day event, they did nothing to help him head off a problem, or to stop an event that ended his scholarship. He was 18 and ten days into school, and away from home, and it would seem not worldly wise, his first lesson cost him a $50,000 scholarship. He must have impressed someone at CC to be awarded a 4 year scholarship in these hard times.

 

[txpotato]

We discouraged joining a frat freshman year. However, son had an opportunity to join a hundred plus year old frat that was just starting a chapter on campus. Benefits have included low dues, an officer position, and no funny business during a rush process. He now has friends both in ROTC and out. So far we are very pleased. He really likes that as a "founding father" he gets to help steer the course of the fraternity and decide the kind of young men they recruit.

 

[Roxymom]

"Being in a Fraternity can also give a cadet broader exposure to school and another peer group. Some of my son's best friends from school have been from his Frat. The kids learn that there is life outside the military and it's possible to balance both."

@ jcleppe-Thank you. This sums it up. Up until yesterday we were concerned that he was not looking for any life outside of ROTC or study groups within his challenging major. I knew that he constantly worries about his GPA. At this point he's probably gotten all possible "points" for his battalion activities and is looking at another 3 weeks of all the early-early AM training for Ranger challenge due to the rescheduling.
We were thrilled to listen to him talk about this frat and their academic focus -how he'd opened up to them and sought out another peer group and see him happy that he'd gotten started on tutoring.

Interestingly the frat credo is Scholar -Athlete-Leader......

 

[dunninla]

The average GPA on the national OML was a 3.17. I don't know what the average was for just the AD OML, but the average OMS was around 79 on the national OML. The cutoff was 75.something.

That seems close to the national average GPA recently across a sampling of most top 50 Universities, and a lot more not Top 50.

Elite privates tend to have Ave GPA around 3.4-3.6, and elite Publics about 3.2. Less elite schools maybe 3.0 or 3.1.

I would guess the ave GPA across ROTC is about the same as the ave GPA of all college students who are still in school to graduate. Of course a lot of very low GPAs are no longer in college after being disinvited by the Academic Probation Department, and finding out big time college just isn't for them. And that's about 25% (entering freshmen who don't make it through to graduation.

 

[cjs]

Has anyone else heard of their score dropping? My son has not heard anything nor has anyone else in his group.

 

[goaliedad]

AD slots being cut???

Has anyone else heard of their score dropping? My son has not heard anything nor has anyone else in his group.

My daughter says that EVERYONE's score nationwide was adjusted per her cadre. It sounds to me like they are re-centering the scoring system.

Also mentioned was a reduction in the number of AD slots (300-500?). That is the more worrisome issue for those in the bottom quartile.

Anyone else hear this?

 

[cjs]

My daughter says that EVERYONE's score nationwide was adjusted per her cadre. It sounds to me like they are re-centering the scoring system.

Also mentioned was a reduction in the number of AD slots (300-500?). That is the more worrisome issue for those in the bottom quartile.

Anyone else hear this?

Thanks. I wonder why they adjusted them.

 

[Jcleppe]

It's odd that cadre's have been able to tell cadets that scores have been adjusted but haven't been able to give a real explanation as to why or how.

If every cadet's score went down the same I could see it as a simple adjustment, it seems from posts here that's not the case.

The Military has alway been pretty straight and forward about score, check the box, get the points. I would love to see what boxes CC un-checks for each cadet to drop that many points.

One other issue, with CC just now letting it out that scores have been changed, coupled with the Gov. shutdown, I will bet the Brooklyn Bridge that Branch notification will not be on time (Nov. 12th). CC was never on time even when things hadn't changed.

Best of luck to you all, Hang in there.

 

[goaliedad]

It's odd that cadre's have been able to tell cadets that scores have been adjusted but haven't been able to give a real explanation as to why or how.

If every cadet's score went down the same I could see it as a simple adjustment, it seems from posts here that's not the case.

The Military has alway been pretty straight and forward about score, check the box, get the points. I would love to see what boxes CC un-checks for each cadet to drop that many points.

One other issue, with CC just now letting it out that scores have been changed, coupled with the Gov. shutdown, I will bet the Brooklyn Bridge that Branch notification will not be on time (Nov. 12th). CC was never on time even when things hadn't changed.

Best of luck to you all, Hang in there.

Cadet Command works in mysterious ways...

 

[Bayonet6]

It's is frustrating that Cadre has no ideal why everyone's OMS was cut by 10 points. Every Cadet in my BN went down by 10 and I talked to 3 Cadets from other BNs that said all of their scores went down by 10. However like someone said before it's not an issue if it's nationwide and the same amount we had a guy with a 4.0, E @ LDAC with 15 dim E's 300 on all APFTs, Recondo, Top 5 in PLT, Ranked #1 in BN had a 101.5 OMS that went to a 91.5. Also we we're briefed there would be a huge cut in Active Duty Allocations. All we can do is wait it out.

 

[Jcleppe]

It's is frustrating that Cadre has no ideal why everyone's OMS was cut by 10 points. Every Cadet in my BN went down by 10 and I talked to 3 Cadets from other BNs that said all of their scores went down by 10. However like someone said before it's not an issue if it's nationwide and the same amount we had a guy with a 4.0, E @ LDAC with 15 dim E's 300 on all APFTs, Recondo, Top 5 in PLT, Ranked #1 in BN had a 101.5 OMS that went to a 91.5. Also we we're briefed there would be a huge cut in Active Duty Allocations. All we can do is wait it out.

Would love to see which part of that equation they took 10 points away from.

 

[AscoreD]

The way the accessions points dropped was explained to me is that Cadet Command wanted to base the scores off of a 100 point scale rather than 101.5 (or whatever it is), thus everyone's scores (in the whole nation) had to be dropped. Cutoff this year will be lower in years prior, but it is all relative because there are less points to gather. It equates all out in the end. Also, my PMS told us that they will be cutting between 300-500 AD slots this year.