Scheduling Question's

gojack

....
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After a lot of reading here, I am unsure about how this schedule works.
please correct me where I am wrong.

For Fall 2011 college admissions:
Student's ROTC package must be completely by Aug 31th
Selection Board meets end of September?
Acceptance letters mailed two weeks later on about Oct 15th?

Student then has 30 days to select a college.

Most colleges do not announce acceptance until about Jan 30th

So student must select one school, not knowing if they are accepted there.

If a student picks a scholarship to a school that does not accept them , then what?

If the student is not selected in the first board, what is the schedule for the remaining boards?
 
As far as selecting only one school... you really need to apply to more. My son attended a USNA seminar and they talked about the NROTC scholarships. They said he should apply to at least 5 colleges with the program. My son did that and out of the 5, he was only accepted at 2 (which really surprised me as I thought for sure he wouldn't have a problem getting into most that he applied for). His NROTC scholarship was awarded to a school he was not accepted at. He was able to do a school change request and as long as the school that he changed to had an opening, they switched him. If not, he can request to be put on their waitlist. I know applying to 5 colleges is time consuming and cost, etc... but it was worth it. Best wishes.
 
Sorry I was not clear, he has 7 schools on his list that he will apply too...

But It is possible to change schools if he is not accepted at one he has a scholarship for?
 
After a lot of reading here, I am unsure about how this schedule works.
please correct me where I am wrong.

For Fall 2011 college admissions:
Student's ROTC package must be completely by Aug 31th
Selection Board meets end of September?
Acceptance letters mailed two weeks later on about Oct 15th?

Student then has 30 days to select a college.

Most colleges do not announce acceptance until about Jan 30th

So student must select one school, not knowing if they are accepted there.

If a student picks a scholarship to a school that does not accept them , then what?

If the student is not selected in the first board, what is the schedule for the remaining boards?

As AROTC goes...

August 31 is a good deadline to make so that your son's application will be reviewed for all boards. Typically, all the documentation has to be received by CC a week or 2 prior to the board meeting. Note that once an application is submitted, there isn't much you can update (new SAT/ACT scores being the notable exception).

Don't have the date for the first board, but it is generally a very small selection of candidates, usually for the most competitive of schools (both academically and ROTC-wise).

If not selected at the first board, your son's application will be carried forward to subsequent boards.

Once selected by a board (based upon his whole person score), he will be given the choice of up to 5 schools (depending upon slots available) and 30 days to choose one of those schools for a scholarship. Additional note: the later in the year a candidate is selected, the fewer choices he will have as many schools fill up early. Most winter recipients of scholarships had 3 or fewer choices.

If for some reason (not getting accepted to the school comes to mind here) you son wishes to change schools, in the beginning of May he will receive a form where he can request a transfer and list where he wants to go. Scholarship transfers are granted upon a space being available with no guarantees. It behooves you to choose schools that you are likely to be admitted to or have early or rolling acceptances (stay away from early decision) on your list and apply early.

Based upon last year's experience and your son's stats, you shouldn't worry about being selected in October. November/December are iffy as well, as last year they had a big cutback in the number of scholarships and a big increase in the number of applicants. That being said, make sure your son gets his ducks in a row early just to show that he is organized and prioritized.

BTW, the units have some say in whether an applicant gets a scholarship to their school (how much is debatable). Beyond carefully prioritizing his school list on the application, he should stay in touch with the cadre at his top schools, especially if there is a change along the way in rankings. Many schools have campus-based scholarships that they award to applicants who do not get selected for national scholarships (awarded by Cadet Command). Typically these go to the applicants who they know will show up in the fall (they don't like applicants who use it as a place holder while they make up their minds).

Hope this helps.
 
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a couple things to keep in mind

I believe for this year's process they are going to adjudicate requests for changing schools after each board, so you won't have to wait until the end of all the boards to request a change. What happened this year is that when the process was over and winners requested to change the school they wanted to change to didn't have any more allocations, so the offer was useless.

Once an applicant has an offer in hand from one of the early boards changing their college application to an "early decision" application may help them get into their school of choice.

It's a complicated, slightly scary process...keep close contact with a good recruiting officer and you will do fine.
 
Our experience for Navy - list 5 schools that have nrotc programs and APPLY to them - Navy scholarship award letter (fall of '08) offered scholarship, STATED SPECIFIC school and gave 30 days to respond to award.
This is clarfication for Navy only, my son did not apply to any other ROTC programs (air force or Army), and one must choose to apply for Marine OR Navy scholarship - so I can not add anything about the other processes.
larrys mom
 
As usual, goaliedad is right on.

I would add that don't be afraid of accepting a scholarship to a school you haven't been accepted to yet. It's scary for a couple months, but if it's your dream school and you're a realistic fit, I'd say go for it.
 
Thanks All

Sure a lot of knowledgeable and helpful members here.
 
a couple things to keep in mind

I believe for this year's process they are going to adjudicate requests for changing schools after each board, so you won't have to wait until the end of all the boards to request a change. What happened this year is that when the process was over and winners requested to change the school they wanted to change to didn't have any more allocations, so the offer was useless.

Once an applicant has an offer in hand from one of the early boards changing their college application to an "early decision" application may help them get into their school of choice.

It's a complicated, slightly scary process...keep close contact with a good recruiting officer and you will do fine.

Someone just posted on another thread how they have orientation in two weeks at college and after a month still after heard back about their transfer of scholarship. I sure do hope that they were one of the successful ones and the request to transfer their scholarship was successful as school starts soon.
 
a couple things to keep in mind

I believe for this year's process they are going to adjudicate requests for changing schools after each board, so you won't have to wait until the end of all the boards to request a change. What happened this year is that when the process was over and winners requested to change the school they wanted to change to didn't have any more allocations, so the offer was useless.

Once an applicant has an offer in hand from one of the early boards changing their college application to an "early decision" application may help them get into their school of choice.

It's a complicated, slightly scary process...keep close contact with a good recruiting officer and you will do fine.

This definitely would be an improvement.

I, for one, would rather see a system whereby scholarships are awarded only after the first round of acceptances for a school are sent out and allow early board recipients to a school with early acceptances to later trade in when a more competitive schools first round of decisions are announced (along with the scholarships).

For example:

1) Top candidate Alpha applies to 5 schools including his/her local State U (a safety) which has rolling admissions and 4 more competitive school, some with Early Acceptances in December and January.

2) S/he is on top of things and get all college applications in during September and the ROTC scholarship application in during August and is awarded the scholarship at State U during the first board in October.

3) S/he accepts the scholarship at State U in October, knowing s/he has a bird in the hand.

4) In December, one of his Early Action schools higher up his list accepts him in their first round of decisions and the December board awards the first of the scholarships for that school to Alpha. Alpha decides to upgrade and turns in the State U scholarship (which can be recycled to another candidate in January) and accepts the scholarship to this school.

5) However in January, his top pick Ivy League school defers Alpha to regular decision. Meanwhile other applicants to top pick Ivy League school do get admitted and fill up all the available scholarships.

6) Alpha finally gets accepted to top pick Ivy in March, but finds out that all of the scholarships have been given out to Early Acceptance candidates. While disappointed, Alpha understands that s/he lost out to more qualified (academically) candidates (as judged by early admission). Alpha ask to be put on the waitlist for scholarships to top pick Ivy.

7) In late April, one of the scholarship recipients to top Ivy finally gets a SA appointment and turns in top Ivy scholarship. Alpha, being the top OML candidate on the waitlist gets an offer and turns in scholarship accepted in December for the scholarship at top Ivy League school. Alpha sends in acceptance letter to school at the end of April.

In this scenario, the system works to award each school's scholarships at the earliest date where they can be realistically accepted which usually corresponds to the date the best early applicants get their acceptance. There is a bit of churn as more schools award scholarships, but a waitlist for each school awarded by OML score allows recycled scholarships to go to the highest rated interested candidate.

I don't think this method will be implemented in my lifetime (it requires tracking of each schools earliest decision dates and building waitlists for each school as well as multiple awardings of the same scholarship when they get recycled. It doesn't necessarily eliminate the late in the game changes, but it does ensure the best (by measurement of OML score) candidates available get awarded the scholarships for the most competitive schools with later initial decisions, while allowing candidates to lock in backups without excluding their dream school.

My dreams having been expressed, if Clarkson is right this will help many. I encourage all concerned candidates to investigate further and report back.
 
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