Army ROTC scholarship: awarded to the unit or school?

[hyeonjlee]

I understand that N ROTC scholarship is awarded to the ROTC Unit (they clearly states that). For Army ROTC, their web site info is rather ambiguous.

Is Army ROTC scholarship awarded to the Unit of a particular school? Given that scholarship may be awarded and require confirmation of acceptance well before college admission decision is known, it will be great it is awarded to the unit that has several cross town affiliate schools. For instance, DC area's Hoya Battalion hosted by Georgetown serves George Washington U, American U, and Catholic U: there my son will have a reach, match, and safety all served by a single ROTC unit. If the scholarship is awarded to the unit, not school, it will give us a great deal of flexibility.....

Even if the scholarship is awarded to the school, rather than the unit, if the student does not get accepted into the specified school, but accepted into a different school served by the same unit, wouldn't the transfer a rather a simple matter, since he has already a spot in that unit?

Does anybody know the answer to this question?

 

[CadetMom777]

As far as I have been able to research, the scholarship is for the unit and can be used at any of the branches of the host school. Have you contacted Cadet Command and asked this question? You could also call the Professor of Military Science of a host school and ask them as well.

 

[live4ever]

Interesting question, i never thought of that yet my daughter had applied to both AU AND GU... However she opted for AU. it would make perfect sense though that the student be awarded the scholarship withing the Battalion (unit) and should be able to use at any of the schools covered within that battalion. BTW, this is a great Battalion and DC in a great area to study at. Don't hesitate to contact them, they are very helpful. if you need more info you can PM me.

 

[goaliedad]

I had a meeting today with the AROTC recruiting officer at the local university where I live. Here is what I learned (some of it is more basic):

1) You may have up to 7 schools on your application at any given time.
2) You may update that school list for any subsequent boards (say if you are turned down for ED at one school) if you haven't had your scholarship awarded yet.
3) You may be awarded up to 5 schools to choose from when the board awards it.
4) The schools on the board selection list for your scholarship are determined by:
4a) Unit having available scholarships (a must).
4b) Unit deciding whether or not to accept applicant based upon likelyhood of admission (applicant with 3.0 and 1200 SAT not likely to make it at MIT). Schools will generally accept if there is a reasonable chance of acceptance.
4c) Applicant ordering of schools.
4d) Needs of Cadet Command for balancing scholarship awards between schools. (4c and 4d are blended).
5) You have about 30 days to accept the scholarship to a specific school on the award list.
6) Once accepted, you can transfer the scholarship to any school within that unit once, although there may be an issue if there is a significant difference in tuition (e.g. UMass Amherst scholarship changed to Amherst College is a large increase in scholarship amount that could be subject to a review and decline). I believe this is a unit review.
7) You should also be able to freely transfer the scholarship to any other school on you list subject to the same financial issues. This may be a cadet command review (not entirely sure).
8) You get a potential 2nd chance to transfer the scholarship in April when they send out the confirmation letter, once again subject to availability and other tests.

So you probably don't need to have more than 1 school in a unit on your list of 7 schools, especially if you have a large list of potential schools as it would be redundant with the scholarship transfer rules. However, you should choose your school within the unit wisely considering both your likelyhood of admission and the tuition to optimize your chances of getting a scholarship usable at a school you want. I was also told that most units have plenty of scholarships for applicants who complete their work reasonably early.

I hope this is helpful and not too confusing.

I had an excellent meeting with a fine officer, so if there are any issues it would be with my note taking.