Non-Technical Major Question

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nickolai77

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Hello everybody. First off, thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. I am a high school junior and am interested become an officer in our nation's armed forces through ROTC. I have not yet decided which service branch to join, as all of them interest me in a different way. However, I want to major in political science and/or economics. Public service appeals to me, and I think these two majors will open doors for me in the military and for government jobs after I serve. I want to become either an intelligence officer or perhaps office of special investigations. However, I understand that the military places a high emphasis on technical majors. I believe my accomplishments in high school will allow me to gain admission to a private university with a $38000+ tuition cost. My question is which military ROTC branch will be most likely to give me a scholarship based on my non-technical major at a school with a high tuition. Also, is a political science/economics major often granted a scholarship? Thank you again.
 
Your most likely success is Army for two reasons. First, they do not lean as heavily on considering majors as a factor in granting scholarships. Secondly, they have many more scholarships to offer than the Air Force and the Navy each year because they are the largest branch and have been in a growing mode as opposed to the others. However, they do award non-technical major scholarships in all the services, so you have nothing to lose by applying to all of them. As far as the more expensive schools, they intend to award scholarships to someone if the slots are there. Might as well be you!
 
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One other thing you might want to consider: What ROTC programs are offered at the college(s) that you want to attend? There are far more AROTC units than any other branch.
 
AROTC for 2 reasons.

1) They call what you want a Generalist scholarship. I got one. They do not look at majors as much as the other services. Navy ranks them by tiers (and nontech is third teir), and Air Force gives VERY FEW full tuition scholarships to nontech majors.

2) You can not go intelligence from a NROTC unless you are going marine option.
 
Thanks for the insight. The more I think about the Army Military Intelligence position, the more I like it. Is branching in military intelligence difficult? Is there a certain degree that is preferred or that a cadet must have?

Also, how does Army MI compare to Air Force MI and OSI?

Thanks.
 
When you graduate from college you will be given an AROTC rank. This is comprised of academic, fitness and LDAC (I believe). You will then be ranked against every cadet in your graduating class (the entire US).

You make a list of your top 3(?) branches. ie infantry, MI, armor....
As they go down the ranking from the #1 cadet to the bottom they assign you your branch. The higher up you are on the ranking list, the better chance you get your top choice.

Army does not factor in major or school when weighing your academic portion. It's strictly GPA. So, a history major from Middle State U with a gpa of 4.0 is ranked higher than a nuclear engineer from MIT with a 3.9.
 
Intelligence is one of the harder branches to get into for Army.
Quote from a current AROTC at a different message board
Intel is a very hard branch to get coming right out of college. About 10% of applicants get to start out in the Intel branch as a second lieutenant. That said, many people will transfer into Intelligence after 3-4 years in a different branch (Infantry, Armor, Field Artillery, or Chemical).
....

There are four "sending branches" that need more junior officers than senior officers. They are infantry, armor, field artillery and chemical corps.

There are four "receiving branches" that are the opposite. Finance, air defense artillery, intelligence, and signal corps.
Click to expand...
 
Over the past year the army has been placing heavy emphasis on improving its MI and Foreign Relations branches to meet the strategy changes occuring in the Middle East. Because of this, the Army has begun stressing language and travel abroad experience to ROTC. When I interviewed with my PMS for the scholarship he gave me a 2008 version of the Army's Strategic Language List which rewards cadets for majoring, minoring, or even taking Rosetta Stone courses on specific languages that fall within the Army's AO. Cadets that do so will recieve point boosts on the final OML that ranks each commisioning cadet in the country for their branch specialty. There are also points awarded for studying abroad in non-english speaking countries.

I'd definately recommend trying to take up a double major/minor with a language, or sticking with a major that will allow you to study abroad if you want some leverage pursuing a MI position in the future.

I'll try and find a way to post the list up here tomorrow, I'm having a difficult time finding one online.
 
My older son is a Chinese major with AROTC at Indiana. He was offered an ROTC SLCP scholarship for Russian Studies during the summer before he started college, followed by one year of Russian. He then received the same scholarship for his second summer. He was able to complete his minor in Russian before he started his sophomore year. Excellent opportunity.

He receives an extra stipend for taking Chinese, however trying to get that stipend has been a challenge! He finally got the years worth at the end of his freshman year.

AFROTC has an even larger list for languages.
 
It seems like MI is a difficult field to get into.

Is there anything that a cadet can do besides keep up good grades and physical fitness that would improve his or her chances at obtaining the position?

Also, how often do cadets mark 3 specialties other than infantry and get selected for infantry? Are cadets usually selected for a career in their top 3?
 
If you don't want infantry then you probably won't get infantry. It is competitive.
 
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