Having a 4-year scholarship, you are required to request AD (where non-scholarship cadets can request reserves).
I do not believe that is correct, as already stated by other posters. The ROTC Scholarship Cadet Contract
http://www.missouristate.edu/assets/milcsi/DA597_3_Scholarship_Cadet_Contract.pdf
stiplulates in Section 2.a. "enlist in the Reserve Component of the United States Army".
in Section 4.a ACCEPTANCE OF APPOINTMENT, we find: "...this obligation may be met in a variety of ways as outlined below ..."
then we see that the "ways" are:
A. Active Duty,
B. Army Reserve,
C. (don't get this one) and
D. Army National Guard.
Since I think the CONTRACT is what defines a Cadet's future obligations, and the CONTRACT indicates that Reserves is the primary option, and that further ELECTIVE options include Active Duty, I interpret that to mean that Reserves is the default, and Active Duty is an optional election.
HOWEVER, this is where the Army has the right to throw a curve ball: per Section 4b of that contract, the Army reserves the right to deny an Application by the Cadet into US Army Reserves, or Army National Guard, if "the needs of the Army" don't allow it. This begs the question... if the "needs for the Army" don't allow the cadet to join Reserves or Guard, does that necessarily obligate the Cadet to Active Duty? I don't interpret the Contract that way. I interpret that the Cadet's OBLIGATION under the ROTC Scholarship Cadet Contract is an 8 year Reserves or Guard duty, and if both don't want the Cadet, there is no obligation to Active Duty.
Lastly, section 11 does state that anybody in Reserves or Guard can be called up into Active Duty at a time of War or National Emergency, so there are never any guarantees of anything.
Boy, if I as an experienced adult and business person with an MBA and even one course in Business Law have trouble understanding exactly what this Contract obligates a cadet to, how can we expect 18 or 19 year old cadets to understand its implications?