Hi everyone. I'm a sophomore in high school currently and was wondering if anyone had any advice to increase my chances of receiving an ROTC scholarship in a few years. I want to serve in the military for a full career but am going to college first and the ROTC scholarship looks like a great route to aim for along with applying to a service academy. Currently I have a 3.96 GPA and am in top 30% of my class. My GPA will be going up soon with new grades and a fe4w other factors. I should be top quarter of my class by application time for ROTC Scholarship. I am in AFJROTC and have a staff position within it. I am currently joining the Civil Air Patrol as well. I compete in wrestling and lacrosse for my school next year I may start doing cross country as well. I am in multiple clubs and believe I can obtain officer positions within them. BETA is one of them and I will be able to join NHS next year. I am taking 3 APs and 2 IB classes next year. Rest of classes are advanced. My GPA should be around a 4.1 at end of first semester of junior year. My SAT scores are on track to get a 1200+ but I plan on taking the SAT several times to hopefully get around a 1300. I am also 2 years ahead of my current grade level in mathematics. This summer I will be at attendance in multiple summer leadership seminars through JROTC and may go to stuff through Civil Air Patrol, as well as I have applied to the STEM Program at USNA and am applying to the USMC Summer Leadership Academy. Don't know if I will be accepted to either but am hopeful. So was just wondering if anyone could offer any advice to me of what I can improve upon or what else I can do to increase my chances of obtaining an ROTC Scholarship. Thanks for reading and thank you for your time. I greatly appreciate it, sorry for the long message.
ROTC Scholarship Advice
- Thread starter army2021
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Axxif
5-Year Member
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- Aug 5, 2013
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The only thing I noticed of some possible worry was the SAT scores... do you mean overall or with just the math/reading? Regardless, a better score is always beneficial; see if you can try to improve it (A good resource that is recommended by AJROTC is https://www.march2success.com/). Also, I would recommend working toward seeing if you can secure those officer positions, as well as maybe try securing a team captain position - trust me, definitely helps! One final thing that I'm not sure of is how much community service you've got. Although it might not be a big focus of the applications (I can't speak on the NROTC and AFROTC ones, but AROTC puts en emphasis on SAL: Student Leader Athelete), but it might be the determining factor between you and another guy, and besides that it's great for the community anyhow. Best of luck to you, and be confident; a high head will take you far!
baileydb
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Just a tip-- ask your CAP squadron commander about promotion requirements since you were in JROTC. In some cases they will let you promote faster (1 month between promotions instead of 2) because you were in JROTC. If that is the case, definitely use that to your advantage, and promote quickly and try to get as many staff positions under your belt as possible before you go to college. They like to see lots of leadership, and CAP is a great place to get that
k2rider
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You have a 3.96 GPA and that's only "top 30%"? That must be one smart school. There are plenty of people getting scholarships with 3.2's so you're pretty solid. The youngsters getting scholarships in the 1st round with AROTC seem to have ACT scores in the 30's as a general rule. Your activities look great. I don't know a lot about CAP but make sure you have some volunteer hours to show with some organization and the more leadership you can show, the better. For example, there is another hopeful prospect on the board that is going to organize a 5K fundraiser for a school teammate stricken with an ailment of some type. That is great stuff for his resume.
Thanks for the feedback everyone. The SAT scores I mentioned I was talking about the 2 part exam. I also am friends with people at my states war memorial which is a big foundation/museum type place and the secured me with a job to volunteer there during the summer. I will be roughly getting between 100-200 hours of community service there. I dont believe I will be able to become a team captain within any of the sports unfortunately. Hope that wont keep me out. Greatly appreciate everything you all have said. Thanks!