AROTC Scholarship Criticize Credentials Please

[Jcc123]

Keep in mind, too, Rupre, that just because you took an AP class and scored well on the exam does not mean you are obligated to use it for credit in college. You are welcome to retake any class you wish.

My son used 29 hours of AP credit, which made him an academic freshman at his school and therefore eligible for a 4 year scholarship. He got basically all of his core classes out of the way using his AP credit, and was able to jump straight into his major classes. This came in handy when he decided to change his major half way through his sophomore year. He's still on track to graduate on time and has only 14-ish hours most semesters. He will graduate with 156 hours of credit.

 

[Pima]

Rupre,

As Maybry stated most colleges will not allow more than 60 to transfer over.

Look at your projected course curriculum for your major. Chances are you will have to take all of their courses because your AP classes may not match up, still leaving you graduating in 4 yrs.

What is more common now regarding APs on the college level is it just validates a class. IOTW, instead of taking Eng 101, you will take 201.

Look at taking APs a different way, not from the ROTC scholarship, but from a college scholarship. Many ROTC scholarship recipients get a nice merit scholarship too, which can be used conjointly in many cases.

Our DS went to college with both AFROTC and college merit. His ROTC scholarship paid his tuition, his college merit paid for R & B. Even though he had enough credits to enter as a freshman, HQ AFROTC knew from the school that he would not be able to graduate with his major in less than 4 yrs.
~~~~ Hence why you should talk to your intended college and CC. They may do exactly what happened for our DS, awarded a 4 yr. because the college said, yep, his major he can't graduate before 4 yrs.
~~~~ Like I and others have stated when you show up in June for orientation and registration, those higher level courses will be taken up by incoming sophs.

Plus, the way it works is you must have pre-req ABC to take DEF. However, pre-req ABC is only offered in the fall, and DEF is the spring. If you validate ABC, you still have to wait until spring. Your are no further ahead than any other kid.

College is a business, they want your money. The other thing taking APs does for you is it may allow you to carry less credits each semester. Instead of taking 15, 18 or up to 21 depending on your major, you can reduce it. Again, that is how it worked at our kids colleges. They were able to work their schedule so when they had the hardest classes for their major, they took less credits that semester to make their life easier.

Plus, again if you want to do ROTC, never mind the scholarship part, you need to ask if you enter as a rising jr. can you commission via AROTC with only 2 yrs in the program? Like I said, that would be a NO for AFROTC, and I am pretty sure it is a NO for NROTC too. It may be a YES for AROTC because I know several AFROTC cadets that left and switched to AROTC as rising jrs. However, it may have been a YES because they had 2 yrs AFROTC under their belt.

 

[Packer]

Few things here:
The 69 credits will all count because of the transfer sheet shown on the university's website. I scored high enough on all of the tests and it shows what classes you will be credited. Whether or not they will count towards a major is another story.

Okay, so basically a lot of you are saying that I can't receive a scholarship because I did TOO well in school. Doesn't sound very fair that my chances for a scholarship are thrown away because I tried harder than 90% of other high schoolers. Couldn't I work out a deal where I attend for three years and earn a double major or something? Doesn't make much sense to deny the smart kids scholarships because they over achieved in high school.

I think you got it right. You will likely end up with a whole bunch of elective credits. Many of those credits are not going to do you much good in actually meeting your degree requirements. As previously mentioned most of those are going to be 100 level and maybe a few 200 level classes. You will likely still have 4 years of work to complete your degree. Also as previously mentioned you don't have to accept any or all of thaose credits. Depending on your major it may be wise not to accept some of them.

 

[kinnem]

+1 to Packer. A major is normally structured so that it will take 4 years regardless of how many credits you come in with. It some cases one might be able to do it in three but I doubt very much it can be done in less than that, if for no other reason than upperclassmen will have filled required classes for the major before OP has a chance to sign up for it.

 

[Rupre07]

Thank you for all the responses everyone, you guys have all helped. I'm talkinge with the assistant professor of military science at a local university about what my current options are.

 

[Jcleppe]

Few things here:
The 69 credits will all count because of the transfer sheet shown on the university's website. I scored high enough on all of the tests and it shows what classes you will be credited. Whether or not they will count towards a major is another story.

Okay, so basically a lot of you are saying that I can't receive a scholarship because I did TOO well in school. Doesn't sound very fair that my chances for a scholarship are thrown away because I tried harder than 90% of other high schoolers. Couldn't I work out a deal where I attend for three years and earn a double major or something? Doesn't make much sense to deny the smart kids scholarships because they over achieved in high school.

It's not an issue of doing to well in high school, the issue is the transfer of too many credits. Many students have AP credits, they just don't elect to take them all. For most all the AP credits would not transfer for their major anyway. Some elect to take the credits for some of the GenEd classes to free up some of the load while still being listed as a freshman.

Believe me, "Smart" kids are not denied scholarships, they're just smart enough not to transfer all their credits to a university.

Don't hang your hat too high on those AP classes, far too many find that when they are able to skip pass classes, they struggle in the upper level class. That entry level physics class is probably not taught the same as the AP physics you took in high school, skip that class and you can be caught like a deer in the headlights when you start out in the next level class.

You have great stats for high school, but don't be surprised when you get to college and find that you are now just average, especially among other scholarship cadets.

 

[goaliedad]

Thank you for all the responses everyone, you guys have all helped. I'm talkinge with the assistant professor of military science at a local university about what my current options are.

A good move as far as ROTC issues are concerned. He won't be able to advise you on which/how your 65 credits will be applied, so he probably won't be able to give you a definitive answer as to your standing. Your academic issues will be answered by an adviser from the college/department of your degree major.

Not only do universities have policies on which AP/IB/Community College credits are used for credit towards degree or placement, individual departments may also have policies that also affect this situation.

For example your, APUSH may be granted credit and general ed requirement satisfaction for the college of engineering towards their degree, the history department may only acknowledge the university credit hours, but not give any credit towards a history degree - requirement satisfaction OR placement.

These are nuances that your PMS will probably not know. The only people with an authoritative answer will be the advising staff within the college/department of your intended major.

One other thought - Now that you've gotten credit (but no grade point help) for your "easy" classes taken in HS, GPA management will become that much harder as you balance out differential equations, organic chemistry, and other killer classes, without the benefit of having an easy history class A grade to help you out. You may get the scholarship, but keeping it when you are taking killer classes where > 50% of the class gets C's, competing against other similarly talented student will definitely make your task at hand that much more challenging.

BTW, the Army only adds the equivalent of 1 OML point (out of about 100) to you for having a difficult (STEM) major. GPA is a major component of your AD selection and branching choices at the end. So even if you keep the scholarship, be mindful that the damage to your GPA can affect your options after ROTC.

Hint... This ROTC stuff is a lot more complicated than it looks and there are a lot of very smart people just like you trying to compete for the same opportunities.

 

[kinnem]

Thank you for all the responses everyone, you guys have all helped. I'm talkinge with the assistant professor of military science at a local university about what my current options are.

That's a great idea. I'm sure they can give you some guidance. As others pointed out your academic counselor can help with which credits transfer, how quickly you can complete your major, etc etc. I thought I'd point out that, in my opinion, you don't have to solve that aspect now. I would expect that you will meet with an academic counselor during freshman orientation when you first sign up for classes for freshman year. I would think this part of the issue could be addressed then. The main thing to be aware of now is the need to attend for 4 years.

 

[Bill1899]

College credits - I thought I had a bunch of college credits as well based upon info provided by my high school, even had a transtricpt from my State University for so called "college" classes taken in High School. Very surprised when I actually got to college and they wouldn't accept any of them. Most good schools have a policy where they will only give credit for classes that were: (1) taken on a college campus, (2) taught by a prof. employed by the college and (3) taken along with other matriculated college students.

Carefully read the rules of the college you want to attend before you assume you have real college credits.

On your other question - My academic stats were slightly lower than yours and your friends. I did have more athletics, varsity letter, etc. I received a 3 year scholarship to an expensive private university. Very, very few 4 years were given out last year.

 

[USMCGrunt]

I may just get my tuition paid for by FAFSA and do OCS.

Rupre07: I wanted to go back to your original post and make a comment regarding the above quote.

I just want to make sure you know that the FAFSA is just the government form used to calculate your EFC (Expected Family Contribution) and determine your eligibility for student financial aid (including the Pell Grant, Federal student loans and Federal Work-Study). The school uses this data to build a set of options to pay for school including scholarships, grants, loans, etc. The FAFSA, in and of itself, will not pay your tuition.

In an effort to be brief, I am not being thorough. Just wanted to make sure you understand the contrary to your quoted statement, you can not use the "FAFSA" to pay your tuition.

 

[cajuncarrier]

Very, very few 4 years were given out last year.

DS's college gave out 8 - 4 yr scholarships for the incoming freshman class this year. If I remember correctly from another thread on this forum, it was stated that around 1200 - 4yr were offered. I wish we could find out the exact amount and not just take an educated guess as to the correct total. And how many were actually accepted.

And I think this was AROTC. Please someone correct me if I am wrong. I wouldn't want to pass out incorrect info.