That's the spirit
. I'm going to Georgia Tech in the fall, its the feeder school for most of the rotc units, especially air force (army has more options), in the area because the next closest host is UGA which is 2-3 hours away, the units aren't very big though. But I wasn't aware that I would have to really compete for a slot in an ROTC unit freshman year. I thought they just took whoever is deemed qualified physically and academically and has good leadership qualities. It seems like if i can get into georgia tech(which is pretty selective, though not overtly so) for engineering, i can get into the rotc unit no problem. But i guess it would be more competitive getting into a unit at a school like Penn state because rotc seems to be a popular organization in certain areas.
I don't know what it is, but its like, once you enter the bible belt (Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, etc.), certain things are relatively unheard of. I know of plenty of people who enlist, but only one person who ever did college rotc, and they enlisted first then went to college (luck for me cause i wouldn't have heard about it otherwise). Heck, my school has a pretty big jrotc unit, but in 4 years i don't think there has been 1 rotc scholarship recipient. They all seek to enlist, but none of the ones i spoke to knew about the college scholarship. Our jrotc is pretty much a joke, according to ppl who take it and from what i've seen of their physical abilities, its "just a free class" where really all they learn is discipline and how to conduct themselves publicly, something my parents made sure i knew how to do from a young age (spare the rod, spoil the child and all that jazz
) so that type of jrotc would have been just as useful to me as mentorship(FYI there is no mentoring in mentorship class, you just work in attendance, library, etc. basically its a free period). No challenge, HUGE waste of time. But the raiders team is really good so im surprised none of them have gotten any awards. I could be wrong, but our school is pretty poor, is cool with the military, and hasn't made AYP in about 6 years so they jump at the opportunity show off any and every award.
But since you're "trying to get selected", did you already submit some sort of direct application to Penn state's rotc program?