Andzgirl.
You can hold onto that scholarship until I day. Many do. Typically what happens is if the student has both an appointment and a scholarship for the same service branch, I.e. AFA and AFROTC, the ALO does the presentation and acknowledges both. It is uncommon to have someone hold a ROTC scholarship to one branch and an appointment to another. I am sure it occurs, just saying in all of my time here I have never seen it discussed. On the other hand I would say that on this site the holding on until I day is always a topic of discussion, and my guess would be 50-50 on the amount that hold onto it. Main reason is many of these kids are athletes, Break a bone playing LAX, Track, Tennis,Baseball, softball in May, and they maybe on the cusp for I day, since the SAs will do a physical upon arrival. There was a poster here years ago. DS fell off the bus before taking the oath. He was a medical tutnback that afternoon. His folks paid the safety net deposit, and he attended college in ROTC for a yr. On a ROTC scholarship. Came back the next summer.
Ahha! Thank you for pointing that out to me! But to clarify, accepting an offer then is not the same as enrolling…they wouldn't be enrolled until I-Day, right?