Three Year Scholarship Upgrade?

My daughter was awarded a 3 Year Army ROTC scholarship. Two questions: (1) she has been told that she may get an upgrade to a 3 1/2 or 4 year scholarship, but won't hear until November. What are the chances of this happening?
(2) I'm finding very minimal information on what opportuntities are available to her during the summers, specifically, language schools or opportunities to travel and engage in some relevant training. Is there anywhere to find this type of information? Thanks in advance for your replies.

Armydad88 said:

My daughter was awarded a 3 Year Army ROTC scholarship. Two questions: (1) she has been told that she may get an upgrade to a 3 1/2 or 4 year scholarship, but won't hear until November. What are the chances of this happening?
(2) I'm finding very minimal information on what opportuntities are available to her during the summers, specifically, language schools or opportunities to travel and engage in some relevant training. Is there anywhere to find this type of information? Thanks in advance for your replies.

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If the cadre has indicated she may have an opportunity to get an upgrade to her scholarship then the chances are better then 50%, tell her to keep he APFT score up, have a good midterm grade report and be fully involved in ROTC and her chances will be better.

You can search through this forum for Summer Training, you'll find some good information. She may want to look into Project Go in regard to language opportunities.

Best of luck to your daughter.

Here's my anecdotal and inferential reasoning take on this:

A PMS is like a President of division of a business. Like all businesses, there is a budget within which to meet certain objectives. The budget may change a couple of times during the fiscal year, which requires adjustments, but there is a hard budget nonetheless, just as in business.

So, the PMS/business division President has to think through how to spend scholarship budget. Does the PMS allocate left-over or new scholarship budget money on a 2nd year (MSII) who is not on scholarship at all, or award that money to a 3 Yr. AD scholarship recipient so that their new scholarship is upgraded to 3.5 yr. or 4 yr?

Bottom line, IF there is additional scholarship budget (no guarantee), your cadet will be competing against any MSII not yet on scholarship, as well as against other MSI cadets who are on 3 yr AD scholarships. Bear in mind AR-145 does recommend the PMS take financial circumstances into consideration in determining which cadet to award the new scholarship money to. In other words, if the non-scholarship MSII is thinking of leaving ROTC to get a 20 hr job so they can afford to stay in school, and the MSI 3 Yr. AD scholarship awardee can pay for first year without hardship, then guess where the money will go?

upgrade

ArmyDad88---I am USMA 88. Maybe we ran into each other in the past in the Army.

Based on my experience and talking to a ROO here recently upgrade depends on the following:

1. The money your particular school's Brigade has to provide upgrades. In a bunch of cases scholarship students fail to contract in the fall or drop out which frees up money. Some Brigades have more drops than others.

2. High cost or low cost schools makes a difference. Much easier to upgrade a low cost state school scholarship than a private school.

3. Discipline or Major--lately, Army ROTC has been more willing to upgrade STEM majors than others.

Please note that this is based on my discussions with one current ROO and one particular Brigade.

Good luck!

LTC Rob Kirkland (USA, Ret.)--former PMS
"The Insider's Guide to the Army ROTC Scholarship for High School Students and their Parents"

Concur with PMS...in recent years most qualified 3's got upgraded, and STEMs definitely had the best chance. That being said, don't count on it happening. It is certainly not a guarantee. This could be the year they don't upgrade.

With regard to summer opportunities. if she is a freshman airborne/air assault type training is a long shot, and she'll have to be contracted to be considered. CULP is more likely, but again she'll need to be contracted.

Thanks for the information so far. I appreciate your time. My daughter, who has had 5 years of Russian in HS, has been accepted into the school's accelerated medical school program, spending her senior year (4th year) as a first year med student. She'll graduate with her class and have finished her first year of med school at the same time. She has expressed an interest in CULP's Russian language offerings. She's a highly motivated young woman who will make the very most of her army experience.

Please keep the information flowing. I'm sure every answer I get will provoke more questions.

Armydad88 said:

Thanks for the information so far. I appreciate your time. My daughter, who has had 5 years of Russian in HS, has been accepted into the school's accelerated medical school program, spending her senior year (4th year) as a first year med student. She'll graduate with her class and have finished her first year of med school at the same time. She has expressed an interest in CULP's Russian language offerings. She's a highly motivated young woman who will make the very most of her army experience.

Please keep the information flowing. I'm sure every answer I get will provoke more questions.

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I wouldn't bank on using the language you've studied at CULP. There were cadets from DS' battalion with three years of Chinese that went to Paraguay and one with three years of Russian that ended up in Thailand. The placement can seem random. That being said, she should definitely apply to Project GO as an MSI (there are international and domestic programs) and then if she contracts early in her MSII year, she can apply for CULP.