How do I stack up against other ROTC scholarship candidates?

cjrrower

5-Year Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2011
Messages
3
I'm a highschool rising senior and am interested in applying for army ROTC scholarships. I was curious how I stack up against the average applicant and if I have a good chance for scholarship (preferably full ride).

Scholar
3.85 unweighted gpa, 4.15 weighted. 31 ACT. prospective chemical engineering student.
Member of national honor society and math honor society.

Our school is broken into 4 "houses" with students form each grade in each house. One senior is chosen to be the leader of them all. So I guess you could call me 1 of 4 copreseidents?

Extras
A boyscout. Will hopefully reach rank of Eagle by November (im afraid not before I apply :frown:).

A cellist for 9 years.

Attended the Tennessee American Legion boys state program. A leadership program run but the veterans association.

Atteneded Tennessee Governor's School: 68 scholars applied and were chosen for this. Very competitive. spend 1 month of summer at a university taking college classes for credit.

Athletics:
White male, 5' 11" 145 lbs.

Rowed varsity crew year round for 2 years. calculated around 1500 hours spent here. (but never held a captain position due to the head coach)

Will be running Cross Country my senior year

I am in very good physical shape, but upper body strength is my biggest weakness. to give you an idea: 2 mile run time- 11:40, 2 minutes situps - around 90, 2 minute push up- around 60 (time is not my problem, I just get exhausted by 60).

Side notes
I am an avid backpacker/outdoors man. I have camped more then 90 nights and bacpacked over 500 miles.

I got into this hobby with my dad who is 16 years retired military major (infantry).

So how do my chances look for a scholarship? preferrably full ride?
 
Welcome,

You look good, but it depends on which schools you are shooting for.
(good at most state colleges, maybe not as good at an Ivy)

An Army ROTC scholarship covers tuition, fees, book allowance and a stipend.
If by "Full Ride" you mean also covering room and board, that's not part of the
AROTC scholarship. However some schools offer room and board to AROTC
scholarship awardees List here: Link At other schools, University of Alabama
for example; Link you qualify for a nice scholarship, and in that case you can apply
your AROTC scholarship to you room and board. At 'Bama, if you can get your ACT
up 1 point, you would be a Presidential Scholar and would receive free full tuition for four years.
With a 32 ACT then If you were awarded a AROTC scholarship there, you would then have a 'full ride'
Including books and a stipend for spending money.
(My son has roommates doing exactly that)

I suggest you read this over,
Again welcome aboard, don't be a stranger here
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the input! I was always under the impression that you applid for AROTC scholarship and it had nothing to do with your school choice. You could just take the scholarship with you whereever you go. I don't plan on applying to an ivies. My list is: Virginia tech, Georgia tech, Alabama, Rose Hulman, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, and Carnegie Mellon.

Full ride really is not that important to my family, we could afford a non fullride, i was just meaning the largest scholarship available possible.

and in regards to Alabama, they have a seperate set of scholarships for engineers(which I am doing). With my ACT I get full tutition, and a 2500 stipend there. So my AROTC scholarship would be additive with that? I could use that to pay off room and board?
 
and in regards to Alabama, they have a separate set of scholarships for engineers(which I am doing). With my ACT I get full tuition, and a 2500 stipend there. So my AROTC scholarship would be additive with that? I could use that to pay off room and board?

Yes, AROTC scholarship can be used for Full Tuition and fees OR Room and Board up to $10,000/yr(?) That is on top of merit scholarships.

When your total scholarships go over the estimated cost of attendance (ECA), they cut off further funds, you can't make money on financial aid.
(AROTC Stipend is not included in ECA)

Vanderbilt has a terrific AROTC, they also offer $3,000 (someone reported $6,000) to AROTC scholarship awardees to help pay for room and board.

Alabama has great financial aid (if you qualify) and their new, huge Engineering complex will be opening soon Link (pgs 28-31)
 
Thanks for the input! I was always under the impression that you applid for AROTC scholarship and it had nothing to do with your school choice. You could just take the scholarship with you whereever you go. I don't plan on applying to an ivies. My list is: Virginia tech, Georgia tech, Alabama, Rose Hulman, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, and Carnegie Mellon.

Full ride really is not that important to my family, we could afford a non fullride, i was just meaning the largest scholarship available possible.

and in regards to Alabama, they have a seperate set of scholarships for engineers(which I am doing). With my ACT I get full tutition, and a 2500 stipend there. So my AROTC scholarship would be additive with that? I could use that to pay off room and board?

AROTC scholarships are awarded for specific school(s). Transfer is possible (but definitely not guaranteed) at the end of the process (April/May).

AROTC scholarships can be used for either full tuition OR room and board (based upon the dorm rates at the specific school).

Theoretically, if you received a full-tuition merit scholarship from one school, you could take the AROTC scholarship as room and board. Need-based (which I guess it would appear that your family would not be eligible for) financial aid typically doesn't work the same way. One thing to understand though is that all scholarship monies awarded by a college are subject to that specific college's rules. If there is a specific scholarship you are applying for at a school, I would recommend emailing the school and discussing your specific situation to get confirmation of the rules.

You have a competitive list of schools. To understand how your situtation might play out, understand that your application will be scored across a spectrum of attributes (scholar, athlete, leader). Your total whole person score will be compared against the other applicants numbers and you will be ranked in that list. Boards will be convened at different times during the school year (it has been changing recently, but the first one is typically in October) where a certain number of scholarships will be awarded (it varies).

Each unit/school is allotted a fixed number of scholarships each year. The applicants selected from a board (from 1 to N) are evaluated for the schools on his/her list and has scholarships awarded for up to 5 of those schools.

The number of scholarship options awarded depends upon a few factors. First, Cadet Command will not award more scholarships than the allocated quantity. Second up to 5 choices may be awarded. However in practice the past year, very few candidates get 5 choices. It has been practice in years past (perhaps marist or clarkson can confirm) that the PMS at a school can veto a candidate if s/he feels the candidate is not likely to accept that school's offer. This is done to preserve the unit's scholarships for the best candidates likely to choose that particular school.

Getting back to your list, you a mix of public, private and SMC schools on your list. SMCs have many scholarship slots, but a disproportionately large number of candidates. Expensive, selective private schools tend to have fewer applicants, but also fewer scholarships as CC seems to have cut back (fewer scholarships have been awarded in the past 2 years) more slots from thses schools. Public schools tend to have the best opportunities for scholarships for the top candidates because they have more scholarships and a lower average applicant whole person score.

It sounds like your family has some flexibility with regards to affording college. Count your blessings and have a long discussion with your parents as to how much they can put forward for your education. Visit these schools and if possible meet with the cadre to get a feel for these ROTC units as they will be very different from each other. You seem to have a preferred course of study, but make sure the school you select has other interesting courses of study that you would enjoy should your first choice prove too challenging (managing your GPA is critical in getting a preferred branch at the end of your ROTC years).

If the ROTC scholarship is totally optional from the financial perspective at your top schools, rank them purely in order of your student experience (given that you are OK with the ROTC unit structure). If you need "some" scholarship money to make things work, you will need to factor in the likelyhood of scholarship money (you might spend some time on College Confidential to research this) to you ranking as well as the likelyhood of ROTC scholarship.

Understand that you may have to make a choice of the school for your ROTC scholarship before you are admitted to the school. If your likelyhood of admission at any of these schools is considered iffy (check with your college counselor on this), you can accept the scholarship without admission and potentially transfer it in April/May (if not admitted) depending upon the availability of scholarships (other people decline them for SA appointments, etc.). Nothing guaranteed here however and you may end up going elsewhere based upon the non-ROTC scholarships you receive. You can still participate in ROTC (many many do) without a scholarship and even could get one for later years, depending upon your performance at school and in the unit and the unit's funding.

Hopefully I haven't confused you thoroughly. Best of luck.
 
That was a lot of information, but i'm pretty sure I understood most of it. I appreciate the help... Hopefully I can get chosen for one of the scholarships!
 
AFROTC is the only ROTC scholarship where you can take it almost anywhere, BUT the intended major is the big player, and that is not true for AROTC
 
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