What happens to those candidates that don't receive a national Army ROTC scholarship? I was told your name and profile goes into a national database where potential ROTC units may want to pick you up? Am I right on this? If so, does this mean they may offer you an in-house scholarship?
*Army* What happens to non-scholarship candidates? *Army*
- Thread starter a_tx_vol
- Start date
nofodad
10-Year Member
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2011
- Messages
- 554
There have been cases in the history of this forum where candidates who did not receive a national scholarship were contacted by a battalion at a school where they had applied and been offered a campus based scholarship prior to enrolling. I think that is quite rare. More frequently candidates are encouraged to choose a college, enroll in the Battalion and perform well. Academically, physically and in terms of participation. If the battalion has campus based scholarships to offer you will be considered. There are other paths still to commissioning, but this is the most common way to get a campus based scholarship.
Thanks for the info. It confirms some of the other posts I have read. My DS scored a 29 on the ACT, 3.3U/3.5W GPA , Team Captain wrestling (State placer), Sea Cadet leadership, perfect score on his interview, excellent APFT, and was still passed over on the second board. What else does he need to do to earn a scholarship? Our local university ROTC unit has already promised a 4 year scholarship to include room and board if he wins the national scholarship or not. The problem is the school is close to the bottom of his preferred destinations. Perhaps he needs to suck it up and be thankful for what he has.
Your son's stats are solid, they are probably in the middle average of those that have applied for the AROTC Scholarship. The biggest issue is that by the third board there are around 10,000 applications to review, they will select a total of around 20% for the year. His chances will depend on how many applicants have higher stats then his and which schools they have listed.
As you can see by the offer that was made to your son, school selections can play a big role in getting selected from one of the three national boards. The more popular or competitive the program the more applicants they have, some schools will have 300 plus applicants listed with only 15 slots available for scholarships. Some schools will not have enough scholarship winners select their school and will have slots left over, cadets that selected these schools have a much better chance of receiving an award. Every year there are applicants that have amazing stats 3.7+ UWGPA, heavy in athletics and leadership, that list only competitive school, many do not receive a scholarship while applicants with stats lower will receive offers for less competitive schools.
Your son has some choices to make if he does not receive a scholarship this round, he can either accept the offer on the table or take his chances with a higher choice school. There is really nothing more your son can do at this point but wait and then make some choices once the decisions have been made.Whether your son would be able to receive a battalion scholarship from one of these schools will depend on a few factors. Does the school have any funds to offer a scholarship, do they have contracts available for his class, how will the competition be among the other cadets looking for the same scholarship. He may have to complete his first year with the hope of getting a 3 year the following year once the cadre have time to evaluate all the cadets.
One thing to keep in mind, not every 4 year scholarship winner makes it through the first year. When my youngest started in the fall of 2011, he was one of three 4 year scholarship cadets. By the end of the year he was the only one left, the other two had dropped the program or were disenrolled. Two cadets from his class that did not have a scholarship were given one by the end of the year.
Best of luck to your son.
Wow. Thank you for the valuable information Jcleppe. The picture is becoming much clearer. I wish we had found this thread at the beginning of the process. My son has done exactly as you have described in your post. He listed and applied to some of the most competitive AROTC programs: Georgetown Univ, George Washington, Ohio State, Virginia Tech, Norwich, and so on. It seems we have an uphill battle for the third board. Bummer.
turtlerunnernc
5-Year Member
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2014
- Messages
- 619
DS is also waiting on 3rd board. How competitive are VMI and Norwich for the scholarships? The post I saw for the second board I saw only a could of VMI first choice.
k2rider
10-Year Member
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2010
- Messages
- 719
a_tx_vol: My son was one of those that didn't get a National scholarship but was offered a 4 year before school even started by the #1 school on his list. It may have helped that it was #1 on his list and we took the time to travel out of state to tour the campus and meet with the cadre. My son sounds a lot like your son (right down to the wrestling minus the state placer) and when they sent my son to do his DoDMERB physical before he was awarded the scholarship, I assumed he was a lock for a National scholarship. I was wrong but he has been very happy overall at Boise State and is off to West Point tomorrow to compete in the national Ranger Challenge competition.
nofodad
10-Year Member
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2011
- Messages
- 554
A_tx_vol, GU, GWU, that's my DS' battalion. No guarantees but the Hoya battalion has had several campus based scholarships the last three years. None of their MSIs were national scholarships but I believe according to my DS all were offered campus based scholarships this year as was he his MSI year. Has he been accepted to GU and/or GWU?
You go active duty and get sent to Germany to drink beer, if I'm the case study.
Kidding aside, if cost is an issue your son shouldn't let college choices get in his way if his goal is to be an Army officer. The cost of admission is one accredited Bachelors degree, regardless of origin. Unless the school he wants to attend offers him something the other can't down the road, it doesn't really matter if he attends North State U or South State U.
A lot of kids want to avoid the local State U because of the "13th grade" situation - too many familiar faces that they've already risen above, etc. and want something bigger and more challenging (which sounds like the list of schools higher on his list).
That being said, he is likely to avoid his old "high school" just because his social circle will likely focus on ROTC. Also, if this school is less competitive than the schools higher on his list, he is more likely to be more competitive within his battalion, (BTW, ROTC students typically have much higher than average GPAs within their respective universities) which is better when it comes to competing for AD slots down the line.
One last thing... You may want to introduce him to the military line "Embrace the suck." It will become part of his vocabulary soon enough.