Citadel Academic Scholarship?

Hi,

This seems to be a popular topic, so I will allow you all to grace me with your expertise, experience, and wisdom.

My son is intent on going into the military. He, in all likelihood, will not be accepted into any of the military acadamies due to a vision problem. However, we have gone to visit the Citadel and he is dead set on going there. The recruiter we spoke to said that if he could get his class rank into the top 10% and his ACT score at a 30, he would be able to make a very strong case for a full academic scholarship.

My son will also be applying for an ROTC scholarship for which the recruiter also said he would be very competitive. He is very active in the community, made the high school 'dream team,' has a 4.3/4.0 GPA and will definitely be in the top 10% of his class. His ACT is a 29 and I am going to have him go to a tutor. He is also going to wrestle in college and we have met and worked out with the Citadel Wrestling club (high school club run by one of the assistant wrestling coaches).

What is the likelihood of a full or partial academic scholarship at the Citadel given that my son will meet the requirements the recruiter stated? Does this seem in line with what others have received or seen given?

(We are going to VMI next month and he has already toured Davidson (not military but does have ROTC) and met with the wrestling coaches at Davidson as well. )

Vision problem?

Are you certain the vision problem which keeps him out of the academies will not keep him out of the military entirely? If it does, will he still want to attend the Citadel? There are many good reasons to attend an SMC besides going into the military but I thought I'd ask the obvious question to make sure this is being thought out.

Unfortunately I have no idea about an actual answer to your question.

thanks for the reply kinnem. Yes, we are 100% sure that his vision problem will not keep him out of the service upon graduation. He has already verified he is still eligible for officer comission and he is also eligible for special forces.

One of his eyes is 20/15. The other is 20/600, but we did not find out about this until he was 7. It is called ambliopia (sic?). When there is such a discrepancy in the two eyes, the brain decides the poor eye really isn't worth the trouble and never develops the neural pathways between the brain and the optic nerve. We had to patch his eye for three years, but because we caught it so late, he is only able to see 20/40 - 20/60 corrected. Since one of his eyes is not correctible to 20/20, he is virtually guaranteed of being medically disqualified according to the West Point recruiter. What the recruiter told me was that "with the exception of his vision, he would be a very strong candidate, but a medical waiver almost never given for vision problems. Having said that 100% of those who don't apply don't get in."

I understand what he is saying, but it seems like a lot of work to my son to apply when he is pretty much guaranteed of not being accepted.

Last I spoke with financial aid at the Citadel, all scholarships had been awarded except for ROTC.

The passage below is from the Standards of Medical Fitness. The vision requirement is the same for both USMA and ROTC, and, if I read your post correctly, he would be disqualified for both. However, this is not to say he won't receive a waiver from one or both. Do not "self-disqualify". Apply for both and let the system work. You may be surprised.

b. However, for entrance into USMA or ROTC, distant visual acuity that does not correct to 20/20 in one eye and 20/40 in the other eye does not meet the standard.

not an expert on medical standards but of course they keep changing all the time; waivers can be granted but slim to no chance when the military has plenty of warm bodies that meet the standards. Not sure how one would qualify for SF but not an FSA or is this typical military logic. Hopefull it kinda sounds like this young man isn't a senior.

This information is a couple of years old, but should still be reasonably accurate. There are approx. 25 full ride scholarships. These scholarships are awarded through an invited competition which occurs three times in during the school year. The scholarships are not divided up equally, so the school could decide to award all of the scholarships during the first competition. I don't know if this ever happens; DS and at least one other student were awarded their scholarships after the last competition. But if your DS is asked to compete, it would be a good plan to attend an earlier competition.I seem to remember reading that more than half of these scholarships are allocated to SC residents. As schools become more competitive, the scores required to earn scholarships increase. DS (not a SC resident) had a 32 ACT and somewhere around a 4.7 weighted gpa. His classmate (a SC resident) had scores that were similar. I don't know if the lesser scholarships are all awarded through this competition, or if the school sets some aside to award by some other means. Because The Citadel is a public institution, a lot of this information is online. You could also consider contacting the scholarship office to find out what the stats are for this years awardees. You mentioned that your DS wrestles; if he is interested in IC wresting get the coaches involved. It can be one more voice in support of your DS, and may make a difference as a tie breaker.

Hello all,

Thanks for the replies. He is a junior, sorry I forgot to post that.

I will check the stats online. Is there a description of the competition for the scholarships? I would be interested in having him read that.

DS had his competition several years ago. At that time they were given an essay topic that could take them in several different directions. They submitted the essay, and then in a small group setting the kids discussed their essays in a round table type format. There were several faculty members present who evaluated the level of input from each student. Some of the feedback I recall was that they were looking in part for students who could not only present their paper, but who could also interpret and apply information from their competitors' papers.

Brodie07 said:

DS had his competition several years ago. At that time they were given an essay topic that could take them in several different directions. They submitted the essay, and then in a small group setting the kids discussed their essays in a round table type format. There were several faculty members present who evaluated the level of input from each student. Some of the feedback I recall was that they were looking in part for students who could not only present their paper, but who could also interpret and apply information from their competitors' papers.

Click to expand...

That sounds like something I could actually ace (as opposed to multiple choice standardized test).

Just visited The Citadel, and my DS is 95% sure to go there. My brother also is a Citadel Man.
Couple of things: There's a list of scholarships with descriptions on their website. There are many partials, but Brodie07 stated correctly per my information that there are 25 full-ride scholarships which are awarded through the invitational competition. It was explained to us parents that they award these in three parts. All applicants to The Citadel are automatically considered for scholarships.
My DS is a 32ACT, 4.0 unweighted, extraCs out the wazzu, esp. community projects and leadership. He was 3Q'd with MOC nom for AFA and USNA. He interviews well and makes an impression. His dual-credit teachers love him. He has 50 credit hours from secondary school. He was awarded a partial scholarship after the competition. Bottom line is the scholarship competition is highly competitive. I believe one of their stats is that they are number one academically in the SE among public undergraduate institutions - that's quite impressive.

The Citadel also has an Honor College Program and a Leadership Institute. You have to apply separately for the HCP, but everyone takes courses in leadership.

Although all cadets participate in ROTC all four years, only 30% of Citadel students are ROTC on the commissioning route.

Actually the current commissioning % is more like 42 but with the ongoing drawdown all ROTC programs will be taking a hit in the next few years. Ranked as the #1 public college in the south, undergrad School of Engineering is 17th nationally and Civil Engineering program 5th.

bob80q - what do you think of The Citadel's new ME program?