Can I get an AFROTC scholarship?

[Tkaler]

Hey guys. This is my first post here and I am curious about my chances for an AFROTC scholarship.
My stats:
GPA: 3.57 (unweighted), 4.08 (weighted)
ACT: 33 ( 33R, 33E, 33M, 32S)
SAT: 1390 (700CR, 690M) (1400 super scored) should I report this?
College credit: Wil graduate with 20+ (2 AP's, 2 Dual Enrollment, 19 honors)
Major: Non technical (finance/international business)

Extracurriculars:
Baseball (9th, 10th) shoulder surgery prevented play junior year, and I may have to have another surgery (possibly requesting PFA waiver because of the inability to do pushups)
Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) (10th, 11th, 12th)
Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) (11th, 12th)
Volunteering: ~100 hours of miscellaneous work

Awards:
FBLA: 2011: 1st place at districts (E-Business), 7th place at State (E-business)
DECA: 2012: 3rd place at invitational (Financial Services Team Decision Making), 1st place at districts (Financial Services Team Decision Making), 4th place at State (Financial Services Team Decision Making), 4th place at State (International Business Plan), International Competitor (International Business Plan)
Baseball: 2011 Summer: State tournament most valuable hitter

Leadership:
Vice President of DECA
Team leader in organization of fundraisers, raising $1500<

Work Experience:
Summer 2012: Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Optimization for international manufacturing automation company (~8 hrs/week)
Summer 2012: Financial Metrics and Reporting for international consumer services franchising company (~16 hrs/week)

High School of Business
Not sure if this is relevant to the AF, but my school is one of about 40 in the country that offers the High School of Business. What it is is that students take certain classes throughout their high school years, and they graduate with a separate diploma from the "High School of Business". There is talk about making this diploma worth 12 credits at our state colleges, because the classes are equivalent to those of a first year business student in college. I will graduate with this diploma, and I did not factor these credits into the previous 20+

Medical Issues
As previously mentioned, I had surgery on my shoulder to repair a torn labrum. During the surgery, a tool broke and a piece was left in my shoulder. I may have to have another operation in the coming months to take it out, thus rendering me unable to do pushups.
Also, in middle school while playing football, I sustained a hip injury. Throughout many bouts of physical therapy and MRI's, no problem or solution could be determined. However, due to the fact that the shoulder tear was not seen on the MRI, the doctors think that there may be a similar problem in the hip. Most likely a torn hip flexor that didnt heal correctly, or a torn labrum. An opperation will most likely happen here...

So what do you guys think? I hope the medical problems dont disqualify me...

[Jcleppe]

Originally Posted by Tkaler

Hey guys. This is my first post here and I am curious about my chances for an AFROTC scholarship.
My stats:
GPA: 3.57 (unweighted), 4.08 (weighted)
ACT: 33 ( 33R, 33E, 33M, 32S)
SAT: 1390 (700CR, 690M) (1400 super scored) should I report this?
College credit: Wil graduate with 20+ (2 AP's, 2 Dual Enrollment, 19 honors)
Major: Non technical (finance/international business)

Extracurriculars:
Baseball (9th, 10th) shoulder surgery prevented play junior year, and I may have to have another surgery (possibly requesting PFA waiver because of the inability to do pushups)
Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) (10th, 11th, 12th)
Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) (11th, 12th)
Volunteering: ~100 hours of miscellaneous work

Awards:
FBLA: 2011: 1st place at districts (E-Business), 7th place at State (E-business)
DECA: 2012: 3rd place at invitational (Financial Services Team Decision Making), 1st place at districts (Financial Services Team Decision Making), 4th place at State (Financial Services Team Decision Making), 4th place at State (International Business Plan), International Competitor (International Business Plan)
Baseball: 2011 Summer: State tournament most valuable hitter

Leadership:
Vice President of DECA
Team leader in organization of fundraisers, raising $1500<

Work Experience:
Summer 2012: Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Optimization for international manufacturing automation company (~8 hrs/week)
Summer 2012: Financial Metrics and Reporting for international consumer services franchising company (~16 hrs/week)

High School of Business
Not sure if this is relevant to the AF, but my school is one of about 40 in the country that offers the High School of Business. What it is is that students take certain classes throughout their high school years, and they graduate with a separate diploma from the "High School of Business". There is talk about making this diploma worth 12 credits at our state colleges, because the classes are equivalent to those of a first year business student in college. I will graduate with this diploma, and I did not factor these credits into the previous 20+

Medical Issues
As previously mentioned, I had surgery on my shoulder to repair a torn labrum. During the surgery, a tool broke and a piece was left in my shoulder. I may have to have another operation in the coming months to take it out, thus rendering me unable to do pushups.
Also, in middle school while playing football, I sustained a hip injury. Throughout many bouts of physical therapy and MRI's, no problem or solution could be determined. However, due to the fact that the shoulder tear was not seen on the MRI, the doctors think that there may be a similar problem in the hip. Most likely a torn hip flexor that didnt heal correctly, or a torn labrum. An opperation will most likely happen here...

So what do you guys think? I hope the medical problems dont disqualify me...

I'll let others comment on the Academic, Athletic, and Leadership Stats.

Your biggest hurdle will be getting Qualified through Dodmerb, you will most likely be DQ's right off the bat, then AFROTC will request a waiver if you are a competitive applicant. Waivers are increasingly harder to get. The fact that you will need surgery so close to the application and the unknown and probable surgery for your hip will be a problem. The other issue is that with the surgery if you are unable to do the PFA they will not waive it, there are way too many applicants that have no medical issues.

The only way you will know for sure is to apply and go through the process. However you should also look heavy at a Plan B and C, your medical situation will be an issue.

[Tkaler]

Ok... I would be able to complete the PFA my during college, and I am physically fit. The test wouldn't be a problem for me without the medical issues. My BMI, waist measurements, and situps are all good enough for the maximum points allowed. And the rest would come after the surgery. If I can get a 3 year scholarship, can I defer the PFA until the sophomore year?

[Non Ducor Duco]

Your gpa is good, not amazing unweighted, but your test scores should make up for that. You seem pretty sound in every area except the physical one. Only one sport, but your medical status will be the biggest issue you'll have to overcome in order to be qualified to accept a scholarship offer since they don't send you to dodmerb for AFROTC until one is offered. But in order to get that far you have to first have a qualifying PFT score. If your surgery will stop you from completing the PFT for a while afterwards, try taking it now if you can manage to get someone qualified to proctor it now that school's out. Hopefully it all works out for you, you'll have a whole year to recover so it may all work out perfectly. Just curious, the (2 AP's, 2 Dual Enrollment, 19 honors), is that what you will graduate with or what you already have?

[Tkaler]

Ha that Was a mix. The 19 honors are what I already have. I will graduate with 23. The APs and dual enrollment are what I will graduate with

[Tkaler]

My mistake. I counted down my transcript of honors classes, but they were by semester and not year. So really, I've taken 10 honors classes now, and will graduate with 12.

[Non Ducor Duco]

Originally Posted by Tkaler

Ha that Was a mix. The 19 honors are what I already have. I will graduate with 23. The APs and dual enrollment are what I will graduate with

So then do they give partial college credit for honors where you live? Because 2 AP's and 2 Dual enrollment credits don't add up to 20+ college credits, even if they're all math and science classes they'd only add up to 16, and that's only if you get 4+ on the AP tests. I must be misunderstanding you. Smart kid like you with SAT scores like that has got to graduate with more AP's, unless your school only offers a few, and more than 2 dual enrollment classes if you have been afforded the opportunity. I know a few kids who only did it part time so they could still go back and take classes at their high school, but they never took less than 2 classes a semester so even if they only dual enrolled 1 year they left with 4 classes under their belts. Partially since (and I say partially because most of those kids were extremely well off, some even had their parents pay their way and didn't take a scholarship for some crazy reason. I mean, just because you CAN pay doesn't mean you should), of the two dual enrollment scholarships offered in my state, only 1 was awarded to part time students and it required you to be taking at least 8 credits per semester. And partially because driving to school (I had a 45 min commute but some kids had commutes of a little over an hour) for just 1 class all semester is a waste.

[Tkaler]

Our dual enrollment works differently. We have a professor from the college come to our school and teach 3 out of the 5 days per week. They are teaching the majority, therefore it qualifies it somehow as a college class. And it is unusual, but my 4 will add up to 20+. I am taking one class, College Accounting, that will count for 12 credits. Here's the breakdown:
College Accounting: 12 credits
Marketing 3: 3 credits
AP Lang: 4 credits
AP Statistics: 4 credits
So 23 in all. Also the possibility of the High School of Business credit could bring that total to 35.
I really didn't kick it into gear until halfway through my sophomore year. So I missed out on a lot of AP classes. My school offers many AP's in the sciences, but those are not what I choose to use my electives on. I will, however, have taken every business class my school offers (including all of the college-level ones) and received an A in every one.
We do not get partial college credit for honors classes, they are just weighted for our GPA.

[Tkaler]

How do the waivers work, exactly? Would it be possible to get one for my freshman year? I probably wouldn't even need it for that long, just enough to get through the senior year of high school. I would most likely be able to fully participate when very close to the starting date of PT

[Pima]

First off, for AFROTC the big question here is are you going TECH or Non-TECH?

It is a player in this game since @80-85% of all scholarships are awarded to Tech majors.

I am not so concerned about your uwgpa, but I will be if you say you are in the top 30% of your class, especially if 0% go Ivy, 25% go 4 yr, 50% go 2 yr. This is part of the PAR regarding your WCS. Your curriculum looks to be very rigorous, and that is a positive, but if the school hands out A's like candy Apples in October, it will come back to bite you.

I agree with everyone the DoDMERB issue is a big issue. DoDMERB Q's or DQ's. Branches decide to waive the DQ. They will request the waiver, you have no voice in this decision. In this current fiscal military budget waivers are occurring less and less by the day. Think of it like health care and a pre-existing condition. Waive you, they will pay for it as long as you are in the military. Not saying it won't happen, just saying why it is happening less frequently.

My best suggestion to you is to get your records in order and be prepared to fight. Hoping that won't be the case, but it is best to be ready if it is the case.

Regarding the 3 yr.[quote]If I can get a 3 year scholarship, can I defer the PFA until the sophomore year?]/quote]

3 YR IS is not for HS students, IS = In School (college). You can convert a Type 7 4 yr to a Type 2 3 yr. as an HSSP applicant, but to do so you will need to complete C100 as a freshman, and PFT is part of AFROTC. Fail it and they will release you.

Not an option!

Finally, just from my personal experience many kids your age want to be in the AF for flying opportunities. Not saying that is your goal, but if it is, take the time to investigate rated vs non-rated from a medical perspective. You may get a waiver, but it may be only for non-rated due to your shoulder and hip issues. College is 4 yrs, AD is more than 4 yrs.