UHBlackhawk
5-Year Member
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2015
- Messages
- 2,342
It depends on how you word it to West Point. It could give you a leg up.This is really helpful and makes me feel better about my doubts and concerns.
The only thing I am really concerned about is that if I get accepted for the 2020-2021 academic year to USMA and decide to decline to take the ROTC scholarship and then come back next year saying that I want to go to USMA, won't they look at me in a different light, possibly a negative one?
I'm really glad that your DD found what she was looking for!
In my DD’s case she just needed time to grow and mature and find her place. She got to do some cool things while enlisted, but she also did a bunch of “police call”, sweeping for unexploded ordinance in Iraq, kitchen detail, digging latrines... things that tend to give you “perspective”. I think those sitting on the admissions board understand that.
Perhaps a year at a “real university” wouldn’t give you the same experiences, but it would give you more of a perspective on which route is best for you.
Now having said all of that, and having been ROTC along with my wife I can say USMA will normally give a Cadet more military opportunities than ROTC. The Army probably spent more money on my DD’s military training in her first year at West Point than they spent on me over 4 years. But it comes down to what you do with those opportunities.