The Citadel AROTC Scholarship Update

Full Metal Bulldog

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Great news everybody! A few months ago I posted a thread asking about the processes and difficulties/issues associated with receiving a campus-based 3 or 3.5 AROTC scholarship at The Citadel. One semester later, a thousand hoops jumped through and an equal amount of hurdles climbed over, on the day I was to leave for Christmas furlough, I finally ( and incredibly luckily) was able to secure a full 4 year AROTC scholarship and was sworn in as a scholarshipped and contracted Citadel Army cadet.......Thanks to everyone on SAF for their invaluable information!!!!! It's truly been a roller-coaster ride, but now I realize there truly is a light at the end of the tunnel!!!!
 
Congratulations- that's excellent news.
 
Great news everybody! A few months ago I posted a thread asking about the processes and difficulties/issues associated with receiving a campus-based 3 or 3.5 AROTC scholarship at The Citadel. One semester later, a thousand hoops jumped through and an equal amount of hurdles climbed over, on the day I was to leave for Christmas furlough, I finally ( and incredibly luckily) was able to secure a full 4 year AROTC scholarship and was sworn in as a scholarshipped and contracted Citadel Army cadet.......Thanks to everyone on SAF for their invaluable information!!!!! It's truly been a roller-coaster ride, but now I realize there truly is a light at the end of the tunnel!!!!

Congrats and Best Wishes, Santa came a week early.
 
Congratulations Full Metal Bulldog! That's great news. My DS has been accepted to The Citadel and is still waiting for RD from VMI. DS has also applied for a 4 yr AROTC scholarship which would be a tremendous help since he would pay out-of-state tuition at both schools. If he doesn't get a scholarship offer before matriculation, he too will be trying to get a 4, 3.5, or 3 year scholarship during his 1st year. It sounds like it was a difficult process to get the AROTC scholarship as a knob (lots of hoops & hurdles). Can you give any advice about what you did to secure your scholarship?
 
Absolutely, Bryson, I'll be happy to tell you what the general process is for securing an in-school scholarship at The Citadel, I'll post it on here to provide a reference for anyone else who may be interested.

Essentially, as soon as classes started, I immediately began "harassing" (probably more literally than not towards the end) the LTC in charge of scholarships with the Army department. There will be dozens of other knobs doing the same. Those first couple of months they'll attempt to get all Army-scholarshipped interested knobs' basic high school information (GPA, SAT/ACT's and such) as well as some other early-on information (Citadel PT test score) to place into an OML for scholarships. At the same time, you will be encouraged to complete all of the contracting paperwork (this is the same for cadets who recieved a high school scholarship). This is not to be trifled with: it's a big hairy, scary monster in the form of white paper and black ink, and takes lots of time to complete, with a much-more-than-comfortable room for error (I had to complete a certain document three times, one of which was due to a literal last-minute error)

Once the OML is secured, a certain percentage of cadets interviewed with the PMS as a final part of their "package". This is coupled with the previous data to determine which scholarship the cadet is selected for. The Citadel sends in a request for a scholarship, the Army replies with a yes or a no.

Now, the 4-year scholarship is tricky: the selected cadet must be 100% done with all paperwork, approved by the Army, and ready to take the oath by early-mid December. This year I believe Dec. 17th was the deadline. After that date, 4 year scholarships are voided and become 3.5's. To get everything done and approved, both as a 4th class cadet and as a student, is difficult, but not impossible by any means. But everything MUST be done before that date for that first semester to be paid for. A big issue is the cadet's way home. Christmas furlough at The Citadel starts as soon as a cadet finishes his last exam. What if a cadet is done with his/her exams that Monday, is planning to leave Tuesday morning, but there's a delay in the scholarship process where he/she can't contract until Friday? If a 4-year school-based scholarship is in your cadet's future: prepare to have VERY flexible transportation plans for Christmas break. When I was at that last day at The Citadel, I was planning on leaving at 0830 that morning. My ride had to be on the road by 0930. Inevitable last minute complications yielded running around campus until I was finally able to swear in at 1630. I was lucky to find another way home that didn't involve thumbing my way down I-95 :wink:

The best advice I can give: NEVER quit!!!

But, that's the basic process.....if you or anyone else has any other questions, feel free to post or PM me.
 
Full metal bulldog, what does OML stand for? Also, what are considered competitive scores? DS has a high school gpa 3.6 unweighted and a 24 composite ACT. It sounds like PT scores and the interview with the PMS (what does PMS stand for?) plays a big part. DS will be traveling from Texas to do overnight visits at the Citadel, VMI, and North Georgia in February. I have faith he will do good wherever he decides to attend. Congratulations again on your scholarship. Have a great Christmas break.
 
OML stands for "Order of Merit List", a list compiled of selected induviduals sorted by their credentials used to determine who gets what (in this case a scholarship).

I wouldn't know the exact scores that would be considered competitive, however I had a 1290 SAT, a 28 ACT, and a 4.0 unweighted high school GPA. PMS stands for Proffessor of Military Science. In terms of actually getting a scholarship, the PT test only matters that the applicant in question passes the PT test. The induvidual score doesn't matter until much farther down the road.

All 3 of those schools are excellent choices, thank you again, and Merry Christmas to ya'll as well.
 
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