For all the reasons mentioned above, I think the ALO is acting out of turn and should be reported to the AFA (or his senior). Your son has earned the ROTC spot. He also might earn an AFA appointment. Let his scores and accomplishments speak for themselves and let the selections run their course.
mind games
- Thread starter piper
- Start date
Pima
10-Year Member
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2007
- Messages
- 13,900
Piper,
First off, everyone here has been down some form of the road you are walking on, and I HOPE you know that sometimes on sites like this best intentions are misconstrued.
If I have offended you, that was never my intention. My intention was always to give a broad base of actions that are available to your son.
Sometimes, thinking outside of the pocket is the best result.
This is a stressful time for any parent waiting for the college letters to come down, but even more so for parents with a child in your situation.
For many, it is not only about their dream college, but how they will pay for it and their dream job/career. For traditional kids they have no idea who their employer will be.
I have been here for 3 yrs. Our DS was where you are 3 yrs ago. Life was a rollercoaster. The best advice ever given to me 3 yrs ago, was "PIMA, walk away, if he wants it he will pick up the ball and run with it!"
It was meant out of kindness, and 3 yrs ago, I didn't get it, but now with 20/20 hindsight I get it.
Wherever his path takes him, it is his path and the AF will view him not as your child, but as an adult.
Many parents lose that sight. Nobody was insinuating you are the driving force, it was just to say how the AF views it.
Nobody isn't saying he doesn't have the accomplishments, but at the same time nobody knows his stats or where you are from.
For ex:
Are you from a competitive state or a non-competitive state? CA is much bigger than Idaho, thus it is more competitive for a Sen.
NoVA hs are ranked nationally in the top 100 in the nation, a 1300 SAT in NOVA is avg., in Terre Haute Ind. it could be above. That plays into the WCS for the nom slate.
RE AFROTC:
George Mason U, VTech and UVA all have AFROTC. All are state U's. However, their incoming stats vary widely. A GMU match is not a VT match nor a UVA match. A VT student considers GMU as a safety and UVA as a reach. UVA is the number 2 public university in the country, GMU is not even on the top 100.
None of us know what tier your son is applying to for admissions. If he is a UVA match and the AFROTC det is GMU, it makes sense they are going down this route they offer you, because they want to increase their stats.
Again, is this the safety of safeties? Or is this a match? It makes a difference when it comes down to what is going on.
Heck, our DS was offered @90K+ in merit from UMiami Florida(OOS) and the ROTC scholarship would have meant nothing because it was already a free ride, he is not there. They wanted him because his stats would have helped their stats. The merit he got from his college he is attending was a pitiance and the AFROTC scholarship meant everything. Yes, he is attending an OOS university.
I am not saying he is not qualified, but instead I am saying it is a big picture from college admissions. ROTC is college, and there are tiers when it comes to college.
I am also stating, that it is hard for people to respond accurately if facts are being left out.
Stats mean everything when it comes to the AFA, and I would hate the fact that you have given up an opportunity because you are not informed of the stats for the avg AFA cadet or how AFROTC scholarships are tightening up, thus more competitive. That is why I stated what I stated earlier regarding Stats.
Honestly IMPO.
He needs to talk to his ALO.
Let's say he has a 31 ACT/2190 SAT, 3.75 uwgpa, 4 APs, 3 yrs Soccer, 3 yrs NHS, 2 yrs working part time at Target.
Now he asks his ALO, how do I rack and stack against the 7 other candidates you have?
The ALO says:
Well, you have the lowest ACT, and the least amount of AP's, BUT your uwgpa is number 2. Plus I have 2 that are Eagle Scout and went to SLS, 3 that are Captains of their sports and you rank number 4 on the CFA scale.
Now add into the fact that there are 4 other ALO's for one Congressman. The Congressman can only nom 10. So if you do the math, and all of the school districts are the same the avg is 2 candidates for each ALO. Your ALO has 7. Gets even worse when you get to the Senatorial level if it is a competitive state, because now population doesn't matter. S.D. has 2 Senators, so does NJ.
That all sounds like gibberish, correct?
Now, let's take it from the WCS
1. Your SAT is the lowest
2. Your uwgpa is strong, but because you took the least rigorous schedule regarding APs compared to others you will take a hit.
3. Eagle Scout and SLS mean alot.
4. Leadership positions such as captain of a sport count. They want to see leadership.
5. CFA matters, and being number 4 means you are in the middle of the pack.
The MOC can only be charged 1 per slate. Those who do not win that MOC spot from an WCS position, will go into the bigger pool and now it is national.
Again the WCS matters.
Now let's look at where you are now.
Again, nobody knows what this university is. Is it Boise State or is it MIT? Big difference academically.
AFROTC:
Most AFA candidates (probably 99.5%) will apply to AFROTC. AFROTC does not know if their applicants are applying AFA. They do not have an NWL, either you get it or you don't.
Candidates are selected from a national perspective. It doesn't matter if you go to school in District 13 NC or District 23 in CA.
It doesn't matter if you go to Boise or MIT.
You need to be above the line drawn to get the scholarship
I know this is long, but I hope you can start seeing the intricasies that exist in this process.
First off, everyone here has been down some form of the road you are walking on, and I HOPE you know that sometimes on sites like this best intentions are misconstrued.
If I have offended you, that was never my intention. My intention was always to give a broad base of actions that are available to your son.
Sometimes, thinking outside of the pocket is the best result.
This is a stressful time for any parent waiting for the college letters to come down, but even more so for parents with a child in your situation.
For many, it is not only about their dream college, but how they will pay for it and their dream job/career. For traditional kids they have no idea who their employer will be.
I have been here for 3 yrs. Our DS was where you are 3 yrs ago. Life was a rollercoaster. The best advice ever given to me 3 yrs ago, was "PIMA, walk away, if he wants it he will pick up the ball and run with it!"
It was meant out of kindness, and 3 yrs ago, I didn't get it, but now with 20/20 hindsight I get it.
Wherever his path takes him, it is his path and the AF will view him not as your child, but as an adult.
Many parents lose that sight. Nobody was insinuating you are the driving force, it was just to say how the AF views it.
Nobody isn't saying he doesn't have the accomplishments, but at the same time nobody knows his stats or where you are from.
For ex:
Are you from a competitive state or a non-competitive state? CA is much bigger than Idaho, thus it is more competitive for a Sen.
NoVA hs are ranked nationally in the top 100 in the nation, a 1300 SAT in NOVA is avg., in Terre Haute Ind. it could be above. That plays into the WCS for the nom slate.
RE AFROTC:
George Mason U, VTech and UVA all have AFROTC. All are state U's. However, their incoming stats vary widely. A GMU match is not a VT match nor a UVA match. A VT student considers GMU as a safety and UVA as a reach. UVA is the number 2 public university in the country, GMU is not even on the top 100.
None of us know what tier your son is applying to for admissions. If he is a UVA match and the AFROTC det is GMU, it makes sense they are going down this route they offer you, because they want to increase their stats.
Again, is this the safety of safeties? Or is this a match? It makes a difference when it comes down to what is going on.
Heck, our DS was offered @90K+ in merit from UMiami Florida(OOS) and the ROTC scholarship would have meant nothing because it was already a free ride, he is not there. They wanted him because his stats would have helped their stats. The merit he got from his college he is attending was a pitiance and the AFROTC scholarship meant everything. Yes, he is attending an OOS university.
I am not saying he is not qualified, but instead I am saying it is a big picture from college admissions. ROTC is college, and there are tiers when it comes to college.
I am also stating, that it is hard for people to respond accurately if facts are being left out.
Stats mean everything when it comes to the AFA, and I would hate the fact that you have given up an opportunity because you are not informed of the stats for the avg AFA cadet or how AFROTC scholarships are tightening up, thus more competitive. That is why I stated what I stated earlier regarding Stats.
Honestly IMPO.
He needs to talk to his ALO.
Let's say he has a 31 ACT/2190 SAT, 3.75 uwgpa, 4 APs, 3 yrs Soccer, 3 yrs NHS, 2 yrs working part time at Target.
Now he asks his ALO, how do I rack and stack against the 7 other candidates you have?
The ALO says:
Well, you have the lowest ACT, and the least amount of AP's, BUT your uwgpa is number 2. Plus I have 2 that are Eagle Scout and went to SLS, 3 that are Captains of their sports and you rank number 4 on the CFA scale.
Now add into the fact that there are 4 other ALO's for one Congressman. The Congressman can only nom 10. So if you do the math, and all of the school districts are the same the avg is 2 candidates for each ALO. Your ALO has 7. Gets even worse when you get to the Senatorial level if it is a competitive state, because now population doesn't matter. S.D. has 2 Senators, so does NJ.
That all sounds like gibberish, correct?
Now, let's take it from the WCS
1. Your SAT is the lowest
2. Your uwgpa is strong, but because you took the least rigorous schedule regarding APs compared to others you will take a hit.
3. Eagle Scout and SLS mean alot.
4. Leadership positions such as captain of a sport count. They want to see leadership.
5. CFA matters, and being number 4 means you are in the middle of the pack.
The MOC can only be charged 1 per slate. Those who do not win that MOC spot from an WCS position, will go into the bigger pool and now it is national.
Again the WCS matters.
Now let's look at where you are now.
Again, nobody knows what this university is. Is it Boise State or is it MIT? Big difference academically.
AFROTC:
Most AFA candidates (probably 99.5%) will apply to AFROTC. AFROTC does not know if their applicants are applying AFA. They do not have an NWL, either you get it or you don't.
Candidates are selected from a national perspective. It doesn't matter if you go to school in District 13 NC or District 23 in CA.
It doesn't matter if you go to Boise or MIT.
You need to be above the line drawn to get the scholarship
I know this is long, but I hope you can start seeing the intricasies that exist in this process.
Last edited:
DeskJockey
5-Year Member
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2009
- Messages
- 78
Google can be a tricky thing. There are TWO Commander's Leadership Scholarship (CLS) programs: one for high school applicants, and one for college program cadets. Each AFROTC Detachment Commander has one CLS to award to a high school applicant.
The objective of the High School Scholarship Program (HSSP) CLS is two-fold:
(1) Increase the acceptance rate of HSSP selectees by making 4-Year scholarship offers as early as possible in the student’s search for a college/university and funding, and (2) provide Det/CCs a powerful tool to recruit high quality students to their Dets to help establish and maintain a solid leadership core for the cadet wing.
You can read all about the CLS (and just about everything else you need to know about AFROTC scholarships) in AFROTC INSTRUCTION 36-2011, which you can access at
http://www.uc.edu/afrotc/documents/AFROTCI36-2011.pdf.
The info on the HSSP CLS starts on page 51.
The objective of the High School Scholarship Program (HSSP) CLS is two-fold:
(1) Increase the acceptance rate of HSSP selectees by making 4-Year scholarship offers as early as possible in the student’s search for a college/university and funding, and (2) provide Det/CCs a powerful tool to recruit high quality students to their Dets to help establish and maintain a solid leadership core for the cadet wing.
You can read all about the CLS (and just about everything else you need to know about AFROTC scholarships) in AFROTC INSTRUCTION 36-2011, which you can access at
http://www.uc.edu/afrotc/documents/AFROTCI36-2011.pdf.
The info on the HSSP CLS starts on page 51.