Rotc plan b turned out to be plan a

I have read alot on the forums referring to ROTC as plan B. For my son it turned out to be that the "B" stood for the BEST plan. He did not get into USNA after all the paperwork, interviews, etc. For him it was a blessing. After his candidate visitation weekend he came home with a different perspective. HE wanted both the navy and the complete college experience. He already had received his ROTC scholarship so it worked out well. He had a good freshman year at the college of his choice. He enjoys his freedom/choices, etc. Discipline was self taught. He has learned to be responsible for paying his rent, buying groceries,cooking for himself and budgeting his money. He knows he wants to be a Naval Officer. He has great friends at his unit. I could not be more proud. After just a few weeks at CORTRAMID, he sounds like he has grown and matured even more. He got to be Platoon Commander for Marine week and learned what it means to be the "go to" person. Amazing life for an 18 year old. Those of you considering ROTC as plan B do not need to think of this as the lesser road.

SRHSMOM said:

I have read alot on the forums referring to ROTC as plan B. For my son it turned out to be that the "B" stood for the BEST plan. He did not get into USNA after all the paperwork, interviews, etc. For him it was a blessing. After his candidate visitation weekend he came home with a different perspective. HE wanted both the navy and the complete college experience. He already had received his ROTC scholarship so it worked out well. He had a good freshman year at the college of his choice. He enjoys his freedom/choices, etc. Discipline was self taught. He has learned to be responsible for paying his rent, buying groceries,cooking for himself and budgeting his money. He knows he wants to be a Naval Officer. He has great friends at his unit. I could not be more proud. After just a few weeks at CORTRAMID, he sounds like he has grown and matured even more. He got to be Platoon Commander for Marine week and learned what it means to be the "go to" person. Amazing life for an 18 year old. Those of you considering ROTC as plan B do not need to think of this as the lesser road.

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Thanks for posting this and I'm glad things turned out so well for your son.

My son had his nominations all set for a SA and came to us in the beginning of the year and said that he felt like he really wanted the real college experience and ROTC and would we be upset with this choice. We of course said it was his life and he needed to chose wisely and chose what would make him happy. It all worked out as he was placed on the wait list, he got into his first choice college and received an AROTC scholarship.
I hope that he comes home as happy after his first year as your son!

My question would be what you mean by "complete college experience" and "real college experience." what experiences, besides illicit ones, make the experience at a non-SA school more "complete" or "real"?

secondly, yes, you will find most here consider ROTC to be plan B. That is due to the fact that this is called serviceacademyforums.com. If it was called rotcforums.com, people would call ROTC their plan A.

My question would be what you mean by "complete college experience" and "real college experience." what experiences, besides illicit ones, make the experience at a non-SA school more "complete" or "real"?

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First of all, I hate to see that you think the only difference is illicit. While I am not downgrading those who attend military colleges I would like to point out some of the "non-illicit" differences that one might find at a civilian oriented college. First of all, you get to interact with all types of diverse people that do not have the military at the interest of their decisions. The freedom to make choices without worrying about strict regulations are also present. At a civilian college, students learn to face adversity, where not all their classmates agree with the military. You have the chance to learn to budget your stipend, get a job, experience the college life where the military does not necessarily come first. You learn to interact, on a daily basis, with people not currently in the military and the opportunity to study at internships, and interact with the local community on a regular basis. Technically I could write a book, but I just wanted to give a few.

secondly, yes, you will find most here consider ROTC to be plan B. That is due to the fact that this is called serviceacademyforums.com. If it was called rotcforums.com, people would call ROTC their plan A.

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While yes, I understand that most consider ROTC as plan B on this forum, however there is a minority. Yes I understand that this forum is called 'serviceacademyforums.com' but there are a minority here that consider ROTC plan A. Just because the name states it, doesn't mean it encompasses the entire subject (in this instance the site). Also, this thread is called "ROTC:
This forum is for discussion of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps" not "ROTC: our plan B".

First of all, I hate to see that you think the only difference is illicit. While I am not downgrading those who attend military colleges I would like to point out some of the "non-illicit" differences that one might find at a civilian oriented college. First of all, you get to interact with all types of diverse people that do not have the military at the interest of their decisions. The freedom to make choices without worrying about strict regulations are also present. At a civilian college, students learn to face adversity, where not all their classmates agree with the military. You have the chance to learn to budget your stipend, get a job, experience the college life where the military does not necessarily come first. You learn to interact, on a daily basis, with people not currently in the military and the opportunity to study at internships, and interact with the local community on a regular basis. Technically I could write a book, but I just wanted to give a few.

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That is quite the straw man you have built. Every opportunity you just cited can be found at an academy. Beware of falling into the belief that SAs are populated by mindless automatons of a single political view, as it could not be farther from the truth. Cadets budget their money, interact with locals, participate in internships and fellowships, and frequently represent the military to those who dislike the institution.

As for plan B, it's silly to lament the use of the term on this site. Plan B doesn't mean it's not a good option. It means it's not the preferred option on this site.

scoutpilot said:

My question would be what you mean by "complete college experience" and "real college experience." what experiences, besides illicit ones, make the experience at a non-SA school more "complete" or "real"?

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I think the main point would simply be freedom. Im not familiar with all the SAs but I have two childhood friends currently at USNA. Just discussing our experiences, especially as freshmen, I have a lot more freedom (and I technically go to a SMC).

Normal ROTC students can live on their own, have close school friends withdifferent interests and aspirations (that dont include the military), decide for themselves when to leave campus, when to go to bed, when to eat, have a girlfriend, etc. Im not saying SAs dont offer diverse opportunities. But for an 18 year old about to leave high school and home for the first time, they usually want to "be on their own" during college. And ROTC accommodates that.

Every opportunity you just cited can be found at an academy.

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With all respect, no. At the academy, you can not hold a 'job' due to the rigorous class schedule, pt, sports, training, ect. You do not have people at the academy who disagree with the academy (as per the requirements for acceptance say, quoted "Not be a Conscientious Objector".)

What we are just trying to point out, as the poster above stated, freedom. There is no restrictions as to what you can do (of course within the law) as opposed to the academy. I understand academy attendees or cadets are not mindless drones, but I also understand that they are not awarded all the 'freedoms' (for lack of a better word) then College ROTC students.

Sad that you really missed the mark and did not get what I was referring to by the complete college experience, but since you come from a SA I guess your point of reference is limited. My son mastered time management this year on his own, not because someone told him when to be where. I did not mean anything negative about any service academy and find it unfortunate that you looked for the negative in my comments. Sad also that you find it necessary to treat the ROTC as the red headed stepchild.

SRHSMOM said:

Sad that you really missed the mark and did not get what I was referring to by the complete college experience, but since you come from a SA I guess your point of reference is limited. My son mastered time management this year on his own, not because someone told him when to be where. I did not mean anything negative about any service academy and find it unfortunate that you looked for the negative in my comments. Sad also that you find it necessary to treat the ROTC as the red headed stepchild.

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Nothing personal, but you are the one who missed the mark. I simply read, word for word, what you wrote. No one has to look for the negative in your comments, as it's quite plain to see. There's no way to positively assert that the academy experience is incomplete, which is what your commentary in the first post did. You said he wanted "the navy and the complete college experience," which means that you think that USNA offers the navy but not the complete college experience.

Cadets don't learn time management because they're told where to be, any more than a civilian student learns it because his classes have specified start times. They learn it because the daily regimen requires that they fit 25 hours of work into a 24 hour day. As far as holding a job, don't confuse doing real work with getting a paycheck.

No one has said ROTC is not a good source of a commission. It can be an excellent source, and usually is. But to claim that superfluous concepts like choosing one's bedtime and having a girlfriend (both of which happen at academies as well, btw) are baseless reasons to claim that an academy offers an experience that is somehow "incomplete" or not "real college."

If you meant to talk about the level of individual freedoms, then that is what you should have said. Again, if you don't like the primacy given to SAs on this site, think about what the site is called. It's about stated goals, not about the superiority of one source or another. You wouldn't go to ivyleagueforums.com and wonder why people listed state schools as their plan B, would you?

Many cadets in ROTC claim they wanted a real college experience, so it would seem there must be some merit to this point of view. There is quite a difference between a civilian college and the Academies. Aspects of both aren't always for everyone.

For example, Craig Mullaney, a graduate of West Point states that "if West Point had wanted spontaneity, someone would have scheduled it" I think many students choose ROTC rather than an academy because they want the freedom to pick and choose what they do with their time.

While this may be serviceacademyforums.com, it is not exclusive to those who have attended/will attend an academy, as evidenced by the title of this thread. While there may be a majority on this site looking to attend an academy, the majority of officers receive their commission through ROTC (for the Army at least). This site provides valuable information to those cadets.