AFROTC Mom, but I agree with goalie, they don't talk about scholarships at all.
Scholarship or no scholarship will not impact your ranking.
I might as well throw this into the mix.
When I went to Norwich, I was one of the freshmen who showed up without a scholarship. Nobody cared about scholarships at all (it was more of a "parent" thing). I did, however, get picked up on a 3yr campus scholarship that fall. I then proceeded through the remaining years with somewhat of a "2.0 and go" attitude, because all I wanted was Infantry. In retrospect, it would have been MUCH better over the long run if I had much higher grades in college. But I can't go back to that now.
Fast forward to law school. During graduate school, Ronald Reagan was no longer paying the bill. And I knew that if I didn't get straight A's, I'd end up selling cars or something with $100k in student loans. I remember, distinctly, one day I was tired and didn't feel like going to my contracts class. I ran some numbers through my head and concluded that I was essentially paying $350 for that one-hour class. I grabbed my books and headed off to class.
Grades in college matter MUCH more than grades in high school. There have been times throughout this process when I have actually thought that maybe it would be better for my kid (who will need really good grades if he wants med school) not to be on scholarship rather than to be on scholarship. The other thing that I have thought about is, if DS didn't get selected for a scholarship, then he would really have to bust his tail as a walk-on ROTC cadet in the hopes of getting a campus scholarship. Now, if we see the military really restricting active duty slots in 4 years, when the Class of 2015 is ready to graduate, my DS busting his tail in his first year as a walk-on ROTC would be HUGE for his prospects of getting an AD slot, whereas a person with a 4yr scholarship might become complacent because there might be less incentive to compete early on with the other ROTC cadets.
Those who are hungrier often do better in the long run. The Green Bay Packers proved that point a few weeks ago.
Just a thought.
don't lose hopee everybody, the changes are still coming
