Chances for ROTC scholarship?

A

abby.ruby

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Hi, I am currently a Junior in high school seriously considering applying for the ROTC program.
I do well in school with a 4.3 weighted GPA and am top five in my class rank.
I am involved with many extracurricular activites such as Varsity Volleyball, Varsity Track and Field, National Honor Society, Social Studies Honor Society, French Honor Society, and am the Treasurer of Junior Class.
I have taken one AP exam, AP World History and gotten a 5. I have only taken the PSAT's so far and received a 190.
I have taken the PT test necessary for recruitment and scored 96.
I am currently looking at schools such as University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill, Virginia Tech, George Mason University, University of Delaware, and possibly Penn State and Duke. My possible majors currently include mathematics, physics, neuroscience, biochemistry, etc.
I was wondering what my chances are for a scholarship in AFROTC or AROTC, and what type of scholarship I would apply for.
Also, any advice to further my chances would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
 
You have a fair shot at a scholarship although from what you posted leadership seems a bit weaker than academics. Perhaps you just didn't post some details that reflect on that.

One word on schools. I'm sure you know that you must be accepted to the college where your scholarship is awarded. You don't mention where you live but if you didn't know, many states including Virginia and NC only allow a certain percentage of out of state students. This makes it very competitive for out of state students where they can afford to be extremely selective. It seems to me you must be out of state for at Va Tech or UNC if not both. Just something you ought to be aware of... not saying you cannot get accepted at them. You can do the research to figure out if you're in their ball park.
 
Speaking from an AROTC standpoint, I think your stats so far look very good. The one area where you didn't listed anything is volunteer/community work. There is still time to take care of that. For example, my son's high school wrestling team cleaned up a river canal one year and another year they painted a non-profit church facility. My daughter and (2) of her teammates started a field hockey tournament where the proceeds went to the Susan B Komen 3 day breast cancer walk. She also raised $3000 and walked in the 3 day event. Make sure you have something like that to list when the time comes.
 
What kind of leadership activities would you recommend? I was team captain of Volleyball my Sophomore year and do a lot of tutoring.
And I also forgot to mention my service, I do tutoring almost every Wednesday and lots of service through my church and community.
 
from reading these board and also from having spoken to PMSs, my opinion is that the biggest nonacademic factors are:

#1: Eagle Scout or whatever Girl Scout equivalent is
#2a: Elected captain of a Varsity TEAM sport (i.e. football way more important than cross country); 2b:Boys State or Girls State programs
#3: Working 20 hours per week to support the family, and full time in summer
#4: A part time job or full time summer job that requires managing other employees, and a recommendation from the business owner validating this
#5: Class President, assuming it is not a paper position and involves real hours and real time commitment

A person with good academics (don't have to be Great) and all five of those is an absolute lock for a scholarship in the first Board. Several of them is a lock in one of the Boards, and a couple of them is a very good chance.

Stuff that doesn't matter much is non-leadership club involvement, following others' lead, merely showing up to a lot of stuff vs. being the founder or leader, being a member vs. an officer, etc.

What they are looking for is self starters, leaders, people who demonstrate they can handle school AND time consuming sport or work commitments and keep up their GPA, and showing a leadership commitment to a program/volunteer service/sport over many consecutive years.

And it goes without saying that if the essay portion of the app and the officer interview doesn't really answer WHY the applicant thinks military service is a good fit for them, that's a red flag/
 
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