Changing Schools

I recently was denied by a school that I selected for my army rotc scholarship. I was wondering if there was any way to switch schools. I know they send a letter our in the spring, but I was wondering if I could switch before hand, or do I have to wait?

you can change schools any time you want. Do it right now so that for the next selection board, the new list is already effective.

I have already been awarded a scholarship and I have already sent out the letter of intent to utilize the scholarship with my school choice selected. I was just wondering if I can change my school choice now

batman said:

I have already been awarded a scholarship and I have already sent out the letter of intent to utilize the scholarship with my school choice selected. I was just wondering if I can change my school choice now

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It is my understanding that you cannot change Battallions until the end of the selection process. There are several good reasons for this.

First of all CC has a hard enough time just getting everyone through the shuffle 1x before June given the requirements to distribute the candidates across schools.

Second, engineering a system to process the changes vs the first time recipients with equity would be troublsome.

At this point, I think you need to understand that your first choice school did not rate you high enough on their list to merit a scholarship at the first board. Cadet Command goes out of its way to award scholarships from the top of the applicants list down, given the school is willing to accept the applicant.

I don't know why this was the case. Probably a number of factors at work here. The first board is always made up of the most qualified candidates - something you should be proud of. However, like with college admissions, there isn't room for everyone at Harvard (or fill in any other highly selective institutuion) academically and the same goes for ROTC at the high demand schools. And with the widely discussed reduction in the number of scholarships available to schools, I'm sure this makes the decision process even more difficult for the ROOs and PMSs.

I don't know if you ever contacted the Cadre at your #1 school to discuss your interest. Often when equally well qualified candidates are available (and there were plenty in this first board), a battallion will go with the one who they know will accept their offer.

Are you also a SA applicant? I can't say that this is the actual thinking, but given equally qualified applicants where one has a nomination, the PMS may choose the one without the SA nomination this year because with a very limited number of scholarships, they can't afford to have a slot held until the bubble wrap is off in the summer and hope they can find an equally qualified applicant wanting to transfer. This is case where the shortage of scholarships and a glut of great applicants causes strange results.

As to advice as to how to move forward... I would suggest that you contact the PMS at your #1 and express your disappointment at not receiving the opportunity to select them. Let them know your admissions decision (I'm going to #1 U no matter what your decision, so if a slot comes available any time - even in the summer, select me OR the ROTC scholarship is a major deciding factor in where I will commit to on May 1. If you have a slot available before then (transfers start near that deadline IIRC) you'd be honored if they would reconsider you, otherwise I will be staying with my scholarship choice of #2 U.

At large battallions, there are almost always slots available around transfer time due to SA acceptances and DoDMERB issues. It is my understanding that the units still control who they will accept even as a transfer, so you need to sell them on your interest in their battallion.

I'd also suggest follow-up notes at landmark times - when you receive your acceptance at #1 U, when you receive any other significant honors at your school, etc. Keep your name in front of them and they are far more likely to select you the second time around.

Bottom line, celebrate that you've got the opportunity at #2 U with a 4-year scholarship, do your best to optimize your chances in the spring, but don't let it distract you from the opportunity in front of you. The results won't probably change until late spring, if at all.

Let me chime in here because I have had experiences this year with a similar situation

First, CONTACT THE BATTALION YOU WANT. This is the biggest thing. They can work things out for you.

I am confused. You have either of two situations
1) ROTC to School #1, but denied admissions to school #1
2)Denied ROTC to school #1, but accepted admission wise.

Situation number 1, you can change your school selection. I talked today with a PMS at my #2 school. I have accepted a scholarship to school #1. If I don't get accepted, he said it would not be a problem to transfer the scholarship to his unit. That might be because of my stats or because of this unit.

Situation Number 2
It is possible to change the schools ROTC sends you. It is not common, but if you work hard enough there is a possibility. Because of an admin error by CC for my top school, I was able to do this. Like I said, this takes alot of contact with the battalion and cadet command. You gotta show them that you WANT to be there.

Hope my experience helped in some small way.

Situation #1 is the one I am in currently. I got the scholarship, but was denied by the school. You say there is a way to change my school from school #1 (denied) to school #2?

Yes.
E-mail the Cadre at the school you want to go to now.
I believe that you let them know, and then fax an acceptance letter to CC.
They can help you with the specifics.
Congrats on the scholarship!
Where do you want to switch it to?

My DS is trying to decide between 2 schools for his ROTC scholarship - is it difficult to change it from the college he chose? We are going to visit in April and he will decide after that visit.

You need to accept an offer before you can transfer that offer (as I have said about a million times). You should request that transfer sooner, rather than later. Do not wait until after the process is over. If you wait until after the end of the process there may be a chance that the school you want to attend is already full and you didn't get in to the school you have an offer for.

clarksonarmy said:

You need to accept an offer before you can transfer that offer (as I have said about a million times). You should request that transfer sooner, rather than later. Do not wait until after the process is over. If you wait until after the end of the process there may be a chance that the school you want to attend is already full and you didn't get in to the school you have an offer for.

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Already accepted offer and chose school but he is now deciding which one. Going to visit each school in April.

This does not help the original poster, as it is already too far into the process for this advice. But for those that have juniors out there, my recommendation is if at all possible visit the schools prior to submitting your application. That will avoid a lot of these issues. Obviously not the issue of not getting in, but to know where you really want to go and where your plan B would be with a scholarship or without. I get that it costs money, and we were lucky in the sense that having two younger kids already gone through an athletic recruiting process of unofficial visits to multiple states to visit schools that we one, saw the value in helping our oldest decide which schools and also, proably felt a little guilty and obligated to do it for her too! She visited 4 schools and in 4 different states over about 6 months prior to submitting her application. Due to that she definitely has plans B and C in place if the scholarship does not come or is not offered to her plan A school.

Yeah, we were/are hopeful for an Academy (still waiting to hear from West Point and understand he's still in the pool). DS didn't want to visit anywhere until he knew he had gotten in, he has very definite goals. We are blessed to have a super flexible schedule to be able to make a fairly last minute trip - everything will work out for the best!