Well, congratulations to all those who have received a scholarship this year. Congratulations also to those who missed it now, but will get a 3 yr. from the school they attend. The 3 yr. might come in the next couple of months, or after being in your ROTC unit for six months at your college. If you really want it, you'll figure out a way to make it happen. Congratulations also to those who will swear into Guard or Reserve in the next month, got to basic training, and attend college that way... or with Guard/Reserve + ROTC in the SMP program.
Now, here's our update/experience:
- Learned of a 4 yr. scholarship to one of the UCs (In-state) on Thursday last week. Tuition is $11,500 this year, and expected to go up $1k - $2k per year for several years. Learned that that particular communication was not supposed to happen that Thursday... that ROOs are supposed to confirm this week, but not last.
- Learned that same Thursday from contacting the TCU (you know, national champions in football this year)/Baylor battalion that something might be offered to DD out of Cadet Command from one or both of their schools, but nothing could be confirmed at that time.
- Got on the plane with DD and wife to visit both TCU and Baylor yesterday am, a trip planned in January to see which school she preferred, with or without ROTC. Arrived to TCU mid afternoon to tour the campus and meet with the PMS. He told us of DD's 3 year scholarship to Baylor (which collaborates with him as Host TCU -- same budget), and that if DD much preferred TCU to Baylor, that the scholarship could likely be swapped over. Both schools have identical tuition+fees, which is about $32,500
- Leaned that most offers out of CC this 3rd round were for 4 yr. in-state, or 3 year expensive (private of OOS public).
- Learned that currently most ROTC cadets (about 60%) get to go AD when they commission, but that is likely to change bigtime. In four years time, assuming no major engagements, most ROTC cadets (guess is 60%) are likely to have to go Reserve (IRR) or Guard, as there won't be enough demand for junior officers at that time vs. currently. The only thing a cadet can do to control that decision is to keep their GPA up, perform well within the Unit, and score highly on the PFT. Low GPAs won't stand a chance... as GPA is 40% of the total score used in national rankings. GPA is *not* adusted for major (i.e. engineering vs. Art History), or for school (i.e. Cornell with its 4.2 HS GPA students vs. directional State U with its 3.1 HS GPA students). Hmmm... that's the next battle for some statistical whiz at CC -- to normalize GPA across majors, and across schools. It's already begun at gradeinflation.com... so it couldn't be that difficult to map that data on a larger scale for the use of the Army. The Academies likewise to not normalize GPA across majors, so my assumption is that they would need to do it first, then ROTCs would follow... esp. Engineering vs. non-Engineering.
-After touring and visiting Berkeley, UCLA, TCU and Baylor, DD much prefers Baylor as a campus, and it helps that Baylor is quite strong in her academic interest .... Biology. Already discussing the wisdom of using the 5 in AP Bio to start bio in the sophomore level classes...
Too late...sad but you already did. We know that diversifying exists, but that doesn't mean those chosen were not qualified. DS is fair haired WM non scholarship and I would never sow the seeds of dissension in him toward anyone else that may have won when he did not. GoinBroke whether you intended that or not I can not judge, but that is the result of that kind of post.
