ROTC Process ?

Susan707

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Nov 28, 2018
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Please forgive me for asking simple questions but I'm a parent and new to the ROTC process. So it's my understanding that the 1st Boards occurred in October, so when are the results posted or have they been posted to the individual student's portals. I think the 2nd Boards are in early January, when are those decisions released? I'm guessing most awards are made at the 2nd Boards?
 
The results of the first board were already released. Many on this forum were awarded scholarships. If a scholarship was not awarded, an applicant will not be notified but will simply roll over to the next board. I believe the final board awards the most scholarships but I might be wrong about that.
 
Does it really matter which round of offers is the most? If you didn’t receive notification about a first round offer the best thing to do is try to contact the ROO at the program you hope to join and ask about your status. This does two things...confirms what what status is, and opens up a dialogue with that ROO and shows him/her that you are serious about becoming an Army Officer.
 
It also depends on which branch you are applying to. NROTC, Navy option holds board about once/month; NROTC, Marine option has two boards. I believe AROTC has two boards and I'm not sure about AFROTC.
 
AROTC has 3 boards. You can find the dates somewhere on the Golden Knight Battalion blog. I too am not sure about AFROTC. @Pima would know all about that.
 
Please forgive me for asking simple questions but I'm a parent and new to the ROTC process. So it's my understanding that the 1st Boards occurred in October, so when are the results posted or have they been posted to the individual student's portals. I think the 2nd Boards are in early January, when are those decisions released? I'm guessing most awards are made at the 2nd Boards?

The first board ended 19 Oct. If I recall, my DD got a notification on that date on her portal that the target date for notification was 2 Nov.

So I suspect you can expect results around the 2 week mark after a board meets.

However, the results came out the following Thursday (~25 Oct) which, in my mind, was incredibly fast for government work. Usually, the approval process for something like that has to go through like 50 people in an organization. I picture the approval process like President of the Board to the Deputy to the Deputy of the Scholarship Directorate to the Deputy of the Scholarship Directorate to the Executive Officer of the Chief, Scholarship Directorate to the Chief, Scholarship Directorate to the Executive Assistant to the Deputy Commanding General, Cadet Command, etc...Of course I'm being facetious here, but the point is there's a lot of waiting that'll happen because that's the way the process is set up.

So I guess what I'm trying to tell you is your kiddo will get a message on the portal sometime during the week the board meets. The email will inform you of a target date for release of results (1st board was 2 weeks after). However, we were all pleasantly surprised when the results came back in less than week.

And yes, the results will post to the portal. Your kiddo will have about 4 weeks to accept (and choose a school to apply the scholarship) or decline.
 
What does this mean? If we applied for the first board back in October when should we get our decision?
 
What does this mean? If we applied for the first board back in October when should we get our decision?
If you are not awarded a scholarship by a board, you are automatically rolled over to the next board without any notification. As a result you may not hear a positive or negative reply until some time in April.
 
Has anyone gotten any new information? I’m anxious to see if i was awarded the scholarship or not
 
@abbyad01 Gee, read the thread and do a little homework. The results of October board were released some weeks ago. There is a link to the Golden Knights Battalion blog above, which was described as having the board dates. Since the next board isn't until Jan 19, it's pretty clear to me no one has gotten any new information. Determining when the third board occurs, and when you might hear a positive or negative reply, at the latest, is left as an exercise for the reader. All the information you need is already available on this thread.
 
I do believe the SA & ROTC Scholarship process is challenging. I have kids at Ivy League Schools and I feel that process was much less complicated than my girlfriend’s kid trying to get into a SA or getting an ROTC Scholarship. It also seems that finding information about differentiation between ROTC programs (not just Army vs. Navy, etc.) at different schools is hard to locate. For example, I know of the bigger ROTC programs, A&M, Va Tech, North Georgia but what about the 2nd tier programs, the Junior Ivy's of ROTC? I researched some of your schools that regular post on this Board, great schools, great programs but had I not looked at this Board I may not have ever known. How do you find them? Is there a US News & World’s Report type ranking of ROTC programs, what is the standard? Where would a high school student start their search if ROTC was one of the major factors in deciding where to apply to college?
 
You can always start at Armyrotc.com or goarmy.com/rotc or google Army ROTC. On that site there is a pull down list of programs by state.
There are 270+ Army ROTC host programs and over 1000 schools offer the opportunity to enroll in Army ROTC.
The problem with finding the “best” ROTC programs has two problems. First all the programs are good, and some do some things better than others. Second, what the ROTC program does is insignificant, compared to what the academic quality and fit of the school. A Cadet needs to get good grades and be well rounded to be successful in most cases. If they love what they do with Army ROTC, but they aren’t happy at their school and major they are usually not going to have good outcomes. The Golden Knight Battalion is a great program and Clarkson is a phenomenal school, but if you don’t like winters and hockey is not your thing and you want to study liberal arts in the big city it won’t matter that we are so great.

Hope that helps.
 
First create your list of schools where your son or daughter would thrive academically, and then winnow that list based on which of those schools offer ROTC as "host" schools.

There is little variation in quality from one ROTC program to the next.
There is tremendous variation in schools' academic quality, range and depth of offerings in your son or daughter's target majors and personal fit with your son or daughter's preferred learning environment.
 
Personally, I am so glad there is no US News-style ranking of ROTC programs. Rankings are distinctly unhelpful when it comes to evaluating colleges and universities and tend to skew perceptions. I wouldn't want to bring that to ROTC. The programs may not all be exactly the same (size, institutional culture), but as other posters have stated, they are all good and held to the same standard, and the way that units are staffed tends to ensure that there is more uniformity (is that a pun?) among ROTC programs than among colleges. The best plan is to find a college that's a good fit and also to consider the obstacles (if any) that you may have to surmount (e.g. "crosstown" travel).
 
The officer staff of a ROTC program entirely rolls over every two to three years, so even if there was a comparison it's likely to be out of date. The cadet and midshipmen leadership of the battalion changes every year, or at least roles are changed every year. They are going to put you through the same academics and training. You won't find much difference between programs other than those between a civilian college and an SMC. One thing that varies, which really doesn't make any difference other than convenience, is having a military base nearby. It makes it easier to do some forms of training, but trust that you';; get that same training wherever you are.
 
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