I feel like we have not really addressed the elephant in the room.
Your ability to stay at your college if you do not get the AROTC scholarship.
Have you discussed plan B with the folks. Plan B being if you cannot stay where will you attend college next year? Are you starting to apply to a backup school as a transfer student?
Remember AROTC is like NROTC where X amt of cadets are on scholarship, what if they have only 1 slot available? ROTC cadets on scholarship are the minority, as I am sure you are aware of in your NROTC unit. What will make you more competitive than a non-scholarship cadet in that AROTC unit right now? Many of them will be applying for the ICSP too.
I agree with Deskjockey. It is a valuable adult lesson you are learning right now. I have always been a proponent of do not apply for a ROTC scholarship just so you can attend that dream college. Mainly because of what you are saying now. You love the college, but reality is setting in and you don't love the branch that you will owe 4 yrs AD....as of yet.
I also agree with Deskjockey, each branch does have similar career paths with some variance. They all have Intel. They all have some form of cyber. They all have Public Affairs, Finance officers, Military Police, Mission support, etc. etc. etc.
I get you don't want to serve on a ship, however, only you can answer this question. How badly do you want to stay at your college? Can you bear it out for 4 years AD if you stay with NROTC and commission that way? Or are you saying that there is no way you can do that and would rather transfer to a school you can afford?
Typically here when posters state they are applying for a scholarship in HS because that is the only way to attend, most posters will state don't do that. The reason why is we know there are many kids that walk after the 1st yr. and that places them in a quandry of how to pay for their education.
I also believe that if you keep your mind open to the opportunities you never thought of regarding Navy, you might look back and say my 1st thought (NROTC) was the right thought. Let's assume you get the AROTC scholarship, will you turn and say I don't want to be in tanks, or jump out of perfectly good airplanes or in helos, so you are back again at the same starting point, but now much further down the road.
~ I have always believed that for the Navy you do something like the AF 6 months out (deployed) and back home for 6-12 months. Yet for the Army they can deploy up to a year and come back home for a year and deploy again. ----no flaming...just what I have always assumed from what I read.
~~ If my assumption is correct. Than think of it a little differently. Being on a ship is a little city of its own. It will have to go into ports every now and then. Unlike being sent to the sandbox (Qatar, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc) You will be in the sandbox for that entire time.
Just my 0.019864 cents and with $2.07 you can get a small coffee. I would say as a parent stay with NROTC. The grass is not always greener on the other side. You might have to leave your college if you don't get the scholarship, which I think is probably a likelihood. Will you now say I wish I stayed in NROTC?
Another thing to think about is an adult reality. Not everybody 'loves" their job. They do it because it is a paycheck. It is the adult thing to do. I don't know what college you are attending, but unless it is really renown/respected for your major than I would stick it out with NROTC. Do the 4 and the door. The work experience will be a huge asset to many companies. Rand, Raytheon, Lockheed, SAIC, L3 Comm all want employees with military service. Not only because they are defense contractors, but because they want the ones with security clearances too. Secret clearances are very expensive to obtain, thus if they have 2 applicants that are equal, and 1 has a TS while the other does not, they are going to pick the one with a TS.
My best wishes, thoughts and hopes for you.