Anybody get a Air Force ROTC scholarship...

I've received confirmation today that my application is set to meet the January board, and that I may send in an updated resume to be included with it (which I'm going to send today).
 
My son had his interview this afternoon. The Capt. said she is recommending him for a scholarship! :yay: She also said that she would get her report in right away so that his app could possibly go to the board at the end of this month.

Good luck to you too Eagle1.
 
Sounds as though a lot of us are waiting for the January Air Force board to give us good news. Good luck everyone!:thumb:
 
question on amounts awarded

From reading this, I see that quite a few have already received scholarships, and tier 1 scholarships at very expensive schools. Congratulations. I am wondering if they award those first and then go down the line so that those of us waiting still can expect less? I am just thinking that there is no incentive to commit to a program that will only award you about 10G a year and expect you to give them 5 years of your life afterwards. So is this the case? I realize the AF is the tightest of the bunch, but its what my son had wanted. :(
 
PVHS said:
I am just thinking that there is no incentive to commit to a program that will only award you about 10G a year and expect you to give them 5 years of your life afterwards. :(
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This issue has been discussed in my house a few times. I will try to give you some insight into our thought process.

1. Although a few other people have also mentioned that there is a five year commitment from AFROTC, the standard commitment is actually four years:
http://afrotc.com/careers/service-commitment/
Of course some training AFTER ROTC can increase your active military commitment, the basic term is 4 active & 4 inactive reserve.

2. I've seen the $9000 amount quoted a few times on this board (and others). I'm not sure where it comes from. The actual quote is as follows:
"type 7 – Pays college tuition up to the equivalent of the in-state rate and $900 per year for books."
http://afrotc.com/scholarships/high-school/scholarship-types/
As far as I can determine the Type 7 Scholarship only limits you in two ways:
A. You cannot attend a private college
B. If you attend an out-of-state public college, that university must lower the tuition which you are required to pay to the same amount as those in-state students pay.
I have confirmed with the AFROTC PMS at my state college that a Type 7 will cover the 18K tuition at this school. I've also spoken with an AFROTC rep at a state school in another state that a Type 7 would cover the tuition at that school (because his school would reduce the tuition to an in-state rate for ROTC scholarship winners).

My daughter's top choice of schools was an out-of-state private that a Type 7 would not cover. In addition, there is very strong evidence that the AF (regardless of how well qualified) only gives Type 7 scholarships to HS seniors that want to be nurses.

OK. She knows that she can take a full (tuition) ride from either the Navy or the Army (she has received scholarships from both), but she really wants to be an AF Nurse. Similar to most other students that are considering each of the ROTC programs she has to make a choice. Do you want to be an AF officer badly enough to take your second or third choice schools? Are you willing to join a different military branch just to attend your top choice school? Are you willing to go into debt (pay the first years tuition) and convert your Type 7 into a Type 2 to go to your top choice school?

Her choice is that she is willing to go into debt and pay the first years tuition (fortunately she has a lot of merit scholarship $ to help) to be an Air Force Nurse....if she gets a Type 7. Of course she has to first receive an Air Force scholarship...but she is leaving those little details to her staff (her mother and I) and the AF.

I don't know which is the right choice for your son. I will say that committing to 4 years of active duty to a military branch that isn't what you want is IMHO worse than taking on some debt or going to your second choice school.

Good Luck to both of you.
 
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Nursing

My mom spends alot of time surfing this site with me, and she has strong feelings about you daughters choices for her nursing degree. My mom has been a nurse for 29 yrs and graduated from a diploma program (not around anymore). Here is her advice. Important to check the pass rate for nursing boards for all schools considered. The only things that will matter at the end of her 4 years of college are that she has a 4yr nursing degree and that she commissions for the branch her heart tells her is where she belongs. What college her degree comes from will not matter to any service branch or influence where she works as a nurse. After her 4 yrs is over, if she chooses to go civilian she will have 4 yrs of great experience that will get her a good job anywhere she wants to go. After 4 yrs of working, no employer will care too much about what college she attended. It would not be worth the financial debt to worry about a private, expensive OOS college.
And mom says thanks for wanting to serve and for wanting to help. Nursing needs lots of newbies!
Where did you find the info that Type 7 couldnt be private? I cant believe the state schools in PA cost 18k- ouch!
 
bulldog31 said:
Where did you find the info that Type 7 couldnt be private?
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The only information I have is from the link in my previous post and speaking with AFROTC reps at different schools. If you find out anything different please be sure to share it with the rest of us.
bulldog31 said:
I cant believe the state schools in PA cost 18k- ouch!
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http://www.ir.pitt.edu/tuition/pghpafirst.htm
http://tuition.psu.edu/Rates2008-09/UniversityPark.asp
I rounded up to include nursing fees, but as you can see it is close. Of course there are others that are less expensive.

My wife is also a nurse BSN/MSN, as is her sister a BSN/MSN, and there has been ongoing heated "discussions" at almost every family gathering about your mothers (and many others) opinion. The bottom line is that the portion of her college expense (room & board) that we (her parents) pay is about the same cost whether she goes to a private school or state school. So the question for us becomes, how much debt is too much for our daughter to assume just to go to her top choice school. To use a real world example, my daughter's top choice private school costs about 36K in tuition and 11k in room & board. Pitt cost almost the same for room and board. So the cost to us (her parents is about the same).

Now for the tuition:
Pitt's tuition would be covered completely by a Type 7 AF scholarship.

Her # 1 choice has offered her a $20K scholarship that will lower the tuition to $16K (that my daughter would need to pay). If she wants to attend her #1 choice school and if she gets a Type 7, she can convert it to a three year Type 2 and will still need to pay $8k per semester ($16k plus books, fees & labs and nursing uniforms for the first year). A lot of debt. However the 2nd, 3rd & 4th years would be completely covered and she would not incur any additional debt.

The problem comes if she doesn't get selected for a Type 7 at all and still wants to attend her #1 choice college. Fortunately she still has two possibilities:

The first can be awarded during the first semester of the first year. Supposedly the AF has been offering Type 1 scholarships of this type in each of the past four years to freshman nurses. Evidently they are not getting enough nurses either applying for an AFROTC scholarship, or not enough taking Type 7s. Or I suppose both circumstances might exist.
http://afrotc.com/scholarships/in-college/programs/

The second is awarded after the first year is complete and is also a Type 1. The benefit to this one is that she has already been told by the AFROTC PMS that if she enrolls in AFROTC during her freshman year, that he will approve this scholarship and it does not require her to go before the AF board.
http://www.afrotc.com/admissions/professional-programs/nursing/

Fortunately my daughter will know whether she is medically qualified within a week when she takes her DoDMERB for the Navy and Army scholarships. The results are supposed to be valid for a year so she'll know at least if she is medically qualified.

OK....finally the end. The worse case scenario is that she has to finance the first year of school ($16K plus books ect) and doesn't receive any scholarship until the one that is approved by her detachment PMS. Is it worth it for her to assume less than $20K (worse case) in debt to attend her first choice private school? To her it is. From our perspective, zero debt would be preferable but having some "investment" in her future is not an all bad proposition.

Please thank your mom for her input and be sure to tell her that we can use all the suggestions / advice she wants to share.
 
He's in

My son obtained a type one scholarship any major,,, and was accepted to Johns Hopkins,,, it's a great year
 
Congratulations officeroso to you and your son!!! :thumb:
John Hopkins is a top notch university. What is he going to study?
 
Johns Hopkins and A.F.R.O.T.C.

aglages said:
Congratulations officeroso to you and your son!!! :thumb:
John Hopkins is a top notch university. What is he going to study?
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thank you.. he plans to study Neurology, but must commute cross town to College Park for his R.O.T.C.
 
Neurology? Wow! I don't think I've ever talked to anyone who has majored in Neurology. Is he planning on eventually attending medical school or are there career opportunities for undergrads with a degree in Neurology?

My daughter is also looking at commuting cross-town to an AFROTC Detachment (if she receives a AF scholarship). It is an hour each direction but according to the PMS she only has to commute once per week in the late afternoon. How much / often will your son need to make the trip to UM?
 
crosstown commute

Neuroscience is the prefered major and he plans on medical school. He will commute once a week for his class (A.F.R.O.T.C.) and as a track and cross country runner, they might waive the p.e. time.
 
Congrats to your son. Our DS is at CP so if he needs any info regarding the det or AAS feel free to PM us. The only thing that will be hard on him is PT days because that will be a long day. Johns Hopkin is a beautiful campus (our DS did a summer program there his JR yr in HS).

Have him work out a lot so he can pass his PT with high scores. I don't know the exact scores, but our DS until now (his spring semester Soph yr) has never had to do PT with the det because of his scores. He now has to do it because he was so fit he was chosen to be the PT leader for the det.

All ROTC cadets take a PFA at the start of ea semester, so be sure that you continue working out. You don't want to show up and fail the test the 1st semester.
 
Spoke w/AFROTC headquarters this morning. They said the 2nd board concluded last week and that results should be released on February 12. Has anyone heard anything already?
 
Nothing yet

No, DD hasn't heard anything. Just checked her status after the 9 am update. I imagine they need a lot more time, but hope springs eternal for an earlier decision!
 
Haven't heard anything, but each day closer to the release date is wearing on me...

Good luck to everyone who's applying!
 
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