What Thompson recalls is what I recall, because I recall our DS hitting the overall submit button, and it sent him back to a page that he thought he had completed. He missed a pull down tab at the top of the page, so it wouldn't allow him to submit until he selected from the tab. When he did that, I recall he got an overall page, and as Thompson said, certain items now were locked.
There was no homepage per se like the AFA, where it showed what he submitted, instead, he would enter his user name and password, and if he tried to change it, he would get a message of error occurred, not allowed to do this. He also knew quickly that he was a candidate because he had a DoDMERB account by July. Now, due to budget constraints, DoDMERB is held off until they are either deemed a competitive candidate or awarded a scholarship.
If in 2 weeks you are still concerned, I would contact the det. of the college that is closest to you which he is applying to, and ask for an informal interview when you do the typical fall campus visits.
We did this for our DS. We scheduled a time for him to meet with the cadre with his number 2 choice as a rising sr. Bullet went with him, spent 10 minutes with the CoC, and politely removed himself. Bullet and DS had decided to meet at the student union 1 hr later. We also asked if some POCs (300/400's) could meet with him. DS talked to the CoC for @30 mins. He than met 3 POC's and for 30 mins. they played Xbox in the cadet lounge while discussing the det.
This was the best thing we could have done for him. Colleges and dets have their own personalities. He could see himself in the det. He had the ability to walk the campus as a kid and how it would feel the next yr. Let's be honest, a herd of kids and parents are a herd of kids and parents, it doesn't give them a feel of what life will be like a yr from now by themselves. It gave him time to think. Nobody asking questions, just think of what was said and to digest it.
The other reason why to excuse yourself...this will be their life, and some parents tend to ask a lot of questions, or boast about their child. For AFROTC, scholarship or not SFT is huge and the CoC's rec is the big weight.
That being said, don't take an AFROTC scholarship to a school if you do not have a back up plan on how to pay for it after their sophomore yr.
SFT selection is what the ADAF calls "masked" when it comes to scholarships. IOTW, the SFT board does not know which cadet is scholarship and which cadet is not.
I have seen cadets at our DS's school that were not selected for SFT, and were left scrambling for the money come the beginning of their jr. yr. I have seen posters here that for one reason or another were dis-enrolled 2-3 months prior to graduation and handed a bill. Largest one I know of for ROTC was Gojira's DS....143K. (18 months ago NROTC).
At our DS's det, which is considered large for AFROTC, he entered with @100 cadets freshman yr. Commissioned with 26. Won the best large AFROTC det in the nation the yr he graduated (2012). That seemed to get them noticed by this yrs incoming cadets. They expect 200+ freshman cadets in Aug. That is going to make getting a top CoC rec even harder for SFT.
Just my 0.01864 cents. Like I keep saying the devil is in the details, and it all starts with the submit button. Sorry I took it off track, but in some cases, you do have control over everything. If you are going for a school visit in Aug/Sept, you will be able to get more insight than any of us here can give. Even informal meet and greets will help him when the formal interview occurs. He will be comfortable with that one on one, and questions they may ask.
Higher interview score the better they will do with the board.