Quick question of competitiveness of a army scholarship

abrownlths

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I'm currently a candidate a wait listed candidate for a few academies, but today I was offered a full tuition paid Army scholarship to my plan B school,which costs 54K a year, how difficult are these scholarships to get because it didn't seem as though I did a lot of paper work. Basically just trying to find out how grateful I should be for this scholarship. Thanks
 
Great question. You were offered a 4 Yr. scholarship to a "High Cost" school, which is the hardest scholarship to get. Maybe 10% of all scholarships are 4 Yr. High Cost... next hardest to get is 3 Yr. AD High Cost, then 4 Yr. Public, and finally 3 yr. AD Public.

Of course at least 80% of Scholarship applicants don't get anything... so add all that together and I'm guessing about 2% of all Scholarship applicants get 4 Yr. High Cost.

There are a few advantages to AROTC that people sometimes don't think much about:

1) 4 Yr. ADSO vs. 5 from USMA
2) Branching: USMA has very few slots allocated for its cadets to branch into a non-MFE (non combat arms) Branch, such as Intelligence, Medical Service Corps, Finance, etc. If you want one of those, then AROTC is actually a better route. On the other hand, it is easier to get Infantry out of USMA than out of AROTC.
 
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I'm currently a candidate a wait listed candidate for a few academies, but today I was offered a full tuition paid Army scholarship to my plan B school,which costs 54K a year, how difficult are these scholarships to get because it didn't seem as though I did a lot of paper work. Basically just trying to find out how grateful I should be for this scholarship. Thanks

Let's see, they are offering you $216K for tuition, $1200.00 per year book money and roughly $15K in stipend money over 4 years. I would think one would be pretty grateful.

You are correct though, the application process for an AROTC Scholarship is a lot less intense then the application process to a SA. While these scholarship are not difficult to apply for, they are difficult to get.

I am assuming you meant your question a lot different then it sounded at first reading.

Dunninla,
I assume you meant Service Obligation, not ADSO, ADSO means Additional Duty Service Obligation added to the original Obligation for branch and duty station consideration.
 
You know, even if everyone got one of these and I found I got one, I'd be very very grateful.

You should accept it. If an Academy appointment does finally come through for you, you can decline the AROTC Scholarship at that time. Good luck.
 
1. What was Plan C in case you weren't offered a full tuition scholarship?

2. Ask not how grateful you should be, ask your parents how grateful they are.

3. Depending on the answers to 1 and 2 above, I can make myself presentable and available for adoption on short notice.
 
I'm currently a candidate a wait listed candidate for a few academies, but today I was offered a full tuition paid Army scholarship to my plan B school,which costs 54K a year, how difficult are these scholarships to get because it didn't seem as though I did a lot of paper work. Basically just trying to find out how grateful I should be for this scholarship. Thanks

This year, with the budget and reportedly record numbers of applicants, be grateful....very grateful.

Congratulations!
 
I'm currently a candidate a wait listed candidate for a few academies, but today I was offered a full tuition paid Army scholarship to my plan B school,which costs 54K a year, how difficult are these scholarships to get because it didn't seem as though I did a lot of paper work. Basically just trying to find out how grateful I should be for this scholarship. Thanks

There are a lot of folks who could not afford the $54K to attend your Plan B school without the scholarship. I'm sure there are a lot of folks who didn't have the opportunities that have been presented to you both now and throughout your youth. Yes, you have achieved a lot, but we all stand on someone else's shoulders and even with that, there are no entitlements that come with achievement in this world.

Be grateful to the Army that has afforded you this opportunity and to those in your life who have provided you the opportunity to put together the resume that got you that far up the OML to get one of the few high-cost private university AROTC scholarships. Most of these schools only get 1 or 2 at most 4-year scholarships. Some get none. Most are 3-yr AD at this cost of school.
 
Dunninla,
I assume you meant Service Obligation, not ADSO, ADSO means Additional Duty Service Obligation added to the original Obligation for branch and duty station consideration.
I think the primary meaning of ADSO is "Active Duty Service Obligation", and that the relatively new ADSO incentive program, which is relatively new, is a secondary usage of the acronym.

http://www.acronymfinder.com/Active-Duty-Service-Obligation-(US-military)-(ADSO).html

Here's another that came up: http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/arofficerinfo/blobligation.htm
 
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A few words of caution:

As a 4-year scholarship cadet, if you are disenrolled after the first day of your MS 2 (second) year, you will incur an active duty and/or reimbursement obligation. The choice would most likely be at the Army's discretion.

If for example a month before your commissioning you were to be involved in a DWI, you could find yourself owing $216,000 plus. The more expensive the school, the greater your potential liability.

This may not happen frequently, fortunately, but long-time readers of this forum can attest that it has indeed happened.
 
A few words of caution:

As a 4-year scholarship cadet, if you are disenrolled after the first day of your MS 2 (second) year, you will incur an active duty and/or reimbursement obligation. The choice would most likely be at the Army's discretion.

If for example a month before your commissioning you were to be involved in a DWI, you could find yourself owing $216,000 plus. The more expensive the school, the greater your potential liability.

This may not happen frequently, fortunately, but long-time readers of this forum can attest that it has indeed happened.

Yea, verily.
 
I think the primary meaning of ADSO is "Active Duty Service Obligation", and that the relatively new ADSO incentive program, which is relatively new, is a secondary usage of the acronym.

http://www.acronymfinder.com/Active-Duty-Service-Obligation-(US-military)-(ADSO).html

Here's another that came up: http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/arofficerinfo/blobligation.htm

Your right about the terms, it's just that ADSO has been used so much lately to describe the additional service obligation I just wanted the OP to distinguish between the two.

You have to love it some times when the acronyms overlap.
 
A few words of caution:

As a 4-year scholarship cadet, if you are disenrolled after the first day of your MS 2 (second) year, you will incur an active duty and/or reimbursement obligation. The choice would most likely be at the Army's discretion.

If for example a month before your commissioning you were to be involved in a DWI, you could find yourself owing $216,000 plus. The more expensive the school, the greater your potential liability.

This may not happen frequently, fortunately, but long-time readers of this forum can attest that it has indeed happened.

Another distinction between ROTC and the SA. The SA allows 2 years before the cadet is obligated.
 
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