ROTC=Higher Chance of College Admission?

cooper1234

5-Year Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2010
Messages
133
Is this true, or completely false?

I spoke with my CO after my interview and my mom asked him this question and he said that it may be a slight factor because the college knows that admission is 100% paid for, but how much will that factor in?
 
This is a question that is on many people's mind, and the answer is... it is different from school to school.

At the university my son attends, the ROTC staff basically can direct admissions to accept a particular applicant that has received a scholarship. My son's friend got a scholarship to another school, had a personal call to the admissions department from the PNS advocating acceptance to the friend, and he was still denied admission.

Bottom line is don't assume there is a guarantee of admission due to the scholarship. That is why you should definitely list some likely admission schools in addition to the reach schools.
 
This is a question that is on many people's mind, and the answer is... it is different from school to school.

At the university my son attends, the ROTC staff basically can direct admissions to accept a particular applicant that has received a scholarship. My son's friend got a scholarship to another school, had a personal call to the admissions department from the PNS advocating acceptance to the friend, and he was still denied admission.

Bottom line is don't assume there is a guarantee of admission due to the scholarship. That is why you should definitely list some likely admission schools in addition to the reach schools.

Thank you for clearing it up a little bit. I know that it doesn't guarentee it, but every little bit helps. Also, since I plan on majoring in Nuclear Engineering, it was hard to find any schools that aren't reaches.

My list included:
Penn State
Purdue
Univ. of Florida
U Wisconsin
UMD

But at the moment, the 2 that I have the best chances at are Purdue and Penn State. The other three are reach schools.
 
Whereas the only true way to find out the correct answer to this question would be to pole every single, university, college, institution of higher learning, ect in the United States, I believe that you are both correct.

When I was applying to my college, the PMS that interviewed me stated that they place calls to admissions and do everything in their power to get you accepted if you are someone they want and would qualify. Also, I believe that the college recognizes that you will be upheld to a higher standard, be involved, and as stated above, it is guaranteed that the institution gets its funds.

Good LUCK!!!!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Whereas the only true way to find out the correct answer to this question would be to pole every single, university, college, institution of higher learning, ect in the United States, I believe that you are both correct.

When I was applying to my college, the PMS that interviewed me stated that they place calls to admissions and do everything in their power to get you accepted if you are someone they want and would qualify. Also, I believe that the college recognizes that you will be upheld to a higher standard, be involved, and as stated above, it is guaranteed that the institution gets its funds.

Yeap, that's basically what my CO told me, almost word for word.

It's nice to know that I'm not the only one that as been told this. He also told me that since I applied early, it helps a little because right now, applications are pretty slow, and around August/September, they are going to be getting apps in the dozens at a time, so it helps to do it early. Would you agree with that?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Many schools accept or reject you based on your resume and their criteria ... not your ROTC status. We received conflicting info from our BGO on this last year ... saying it could tip the balance ... we do not feel it did. California state schools, for example, are very tough to get into for out of state students. the Full ROTC scholarship didn't seem to influence this ... our son got in to some, not others ... Oregon State, however, offered our son a full ride --- NOT COUNTING the ROTC ... same story at Arizona ... that was based on grades, scores, etc ...

Research your schools, look for a good fit ... that is the "best" school for you ...
 
Thank you for clearing it up a little bit. I know that it doesn't guarentee it, but every little bit helps. Also, since I plan on majoring in Nuclear Engineering, it was hard to find any schools that aren't reaches.

My list included:
Penn State
Purdue
Univ. of Florida
U Wisconsin
UMD

But at the moment, the 2 that I have the best chances at are Purdue and Penn State. The other three are reach schools.

University of Florida doesn't factor in the fact that an applicant has received a ROTC scholarship into their admissions process. Not sure how it was in the past, but with admissions so tough this year, it did not make a difference for a few.
 
.. the PMS that interviewed me stated that they place calls to admissions and do everything in their power to get you excepted if you are someone they want and would qualify.
Will they also do everything in their power to get you accepted?
 
eap, that's basically what my CO told me, almost word for word.

It's nice to know that I'm not the only one that as been told this. He also told me that since I applied early, it helps a little because right now, applications are pretty slow, and around August/September, they are going to be getting apps in the dozens at a time, so it helps to do it early. Would you agree with that?

I definitely would agree with you. I too applied early to my college. In my opinion applying early helps your chances because it shows the institution that you are dedicated to them. I believe the same applies for the scholarship boards for the numerous services. Dedication is one thing you want to show!! :thumb:
 
We were under this impression as well, as was the CO at the school to which my DD signed her scholarship letter. We found out afterward (when she wasn't accepted) that the admissions office has to be blind to all outside scholarships when they make their decision. So, I agree with above comment that it depends on the school. She applied to numerous schools and got accepted to all but that one! We thought it would be a piece of cake since she had a guarantee of 4 years of paid tuition to a very expensive private school.
Good luck to you.
 
UMD, does not place ROTC into the acceptance decision either. They are just like Florida. There is no place even on the application to acknowledge you would be a ROTC recipient.

Additionally, they too are like every state university currently due to the economy, they are having banner busting yrs of applicants. UMD had over 30K for only 4K spots.

I would think schools like VATECH that has a Corps of Cadets, not just ROTC, looks at the ROTC applicant with more weight than the traditional applicant.
 
UMD, does not place ROTC into the acceptance decision either. They are just like Florida. There is no place even on the application to acknowledge you would be a ROTC recipient.

Additionally, they too are like every state university currently due to the economy, they are having banner busting yrs of applicants. UMD had over 30K for only 4K spots.

I would think schools like VATECH that has a Corps of Cadets, not just ROTC, looks at the ROTC applicant with more weight than the traditional applicant.

I think that the Admissions office is going to make its decisions based on its own criteria and that really is independent of any decisions that the ROTC departments make about offering scholarships. You would think that for example VMI would take this into account but guys in the admissions office and the Army ROTC department at VMI both told me tha tthere is no relationship between getting an ROTC scholarship and getting accepted. VMI does as part of its acceptance criteria give weight to desire to pursue and accept a commission but the two departments really don't communicate back and frth.
 
VMI does as part of its acceptance criteria give weight to desire to pursue and accept a commission but the two departments really don't communicate back and frth.

That's what I meant about Tech, they may give weight because that is a part of their application process. I recall Tech asking if you plan to enroll in ROTC or the Corp.

However, UMD does not ask that question at all on the application, thus I suspect no weight is given. Our DS is at UMD AFROTC, thus I cannot speak for the Army det., but it would be shocking to me that admissions would talk to the Army det., and not the AF or Navy for selecting students. The Navy is small there (actually goes x town), but the Army and AF are similar in size.

Additionally, there are various types of scholarships, if the student is taking the 3 yr, 18K a yr, there is no guarantee to the school that they will ever collect the money (i.e. fails out freshman yr). Also, scholarship recipients are required to maintain specific gpas, again no guarantee that they will get the money.

For the AFROTC DET at UMD currently, 3 scholarship recipients had them revoked at the end of this yr, all do to a gpa. These students had missed it by 0.05% or less, in one case it was 0.02. If MD was banking on that money when accepting the student they now are short the bucks.

Honestly, if people think that it means the scholarship student is guaranteed money and that is why they take them, they are wrong. From a fiscal standpoint, the college is better off taking the student on FAFSA because that is GUARANTEED money! That student will not lose their grant/scholarship/loan if they fall below a 3.2 gpa, or if they get injured.
 
On my son's college apps he informed U of Richmond and Lafayette that he included them on his ROTC School wishlist. The Army didn't grant his scholarship to those schools. Instead, AROTC granted UMD, Elon, Dickinson, Gettysburg, and Wake Forest.

He was accepted at every school where he earned a scholarship.
He was wait-listed at Richmond and Laf.

Coincidence? We think not. We choose to believe that the Richmond and Laf WL's were influenced by knowledge that he would take his scholarship elsewhere.
 
This goes back to the actual application scenario.

I think if the college asks this then they do play it into their admissions equation, but if they don't, I do not believe you have a higher chance of acceptance.

You need to look at the actual college app. for the colleges you apply to when weighting if it gives you a better chance.

I do agree they probably did WL him because they knew he did not get a scholarship to their schools and would go elsewhere. However, people should also understand that the ROTC threads are filled every spring with NROTC and AROTC scholarship recipients writing "HELP, I only got into 2 of my 5 schools!" (AFROTC is not tied to any school, as long as the school accepts AFROTC, you can take it there).

Thus, if the threads are filled with I didn't get in, then we can abstract from there that for certain schools ROTC will not be an edge to get in and you need to be mindful of the situation.

BTW DougBetsy, UR and Laf are the ones that truly paid for not offering the slot. Obviously, he was above their par, and naturally ASSUMED that they were the safeties!
 
BTW DougBetsy, UR and Laf are the ones that truly paid for not offering the slot. Obviously, he was above their par, and naturally ASSUMED that they were the safeties!

LOL! Of course! :wink:
 
Back
Top