My experience with the AROTC Application

rayrotc

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Apr 22, 2018
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Was definitely an enhancing experience. Learned a lot and grew from this process. Grateful for the 4 year scholarship

So during this experience I had to really step up my game for standardized testing. There were plenty of people that said I wouldn’t get the ROTC scholarship but I used it as motivation to keep improving! On the SAT I was scoring 1100 but then I switched to the ACT. I scored better on it and got a 26. Solid but not amazing.

GPA was a struggle at first. Freshman year I took physics and did bad! I got a C in that class and had a 3.4 gpa freshman year. I worked harder and eventually received a 3.78 GPA at the end of junior year (3.63 unweighted). I heard that a 3.6 was the average for a 4 year winner. Ended with a 3.8 and graduated 30% of my class

Leadership was definitely my stronger suit. I always had the highest ranking positions in Student Government. I was a Representative and a class president freshman year, Committee Chairman sophomore year, Student Body Secretary junior year and Student Body President senior year. Actually passed many initiatives like $2000 water refilling stations installed, windows 10 in my school, spirit weeks, events, board of Ed meetings, etc. Also had 1200 hours of community service. Going on mission trips and serving as a small group leader and activities coordinator in my church

PT was something I took really seriously. I started to prepare during my junior year spring. I would run PT sessions with my friends and we would do it together. Pushups increased drastically from 45 to 75 in 2 minutes. Sit-ups improved a little and runs were easier. Overall I did solid on the PT test for the ROTC fitness test.

I also applied to West Point as well. Got a TWE in April but it helped me become more competitive

Summary: 3.63 unweighted GPA, 26 ACT, 64 pushups in 1 minute, 49 sit-ups in 1 minute, 6:45 mile. Lots of community service and SGA positions

If you have any questions, I’d be willing to answer
 
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Congratulations Ray, well done!!

I have a question. What was it about the ACT, that allowed you to do much better at it? (as opposed to the SAT).
 
Congratulations Ray, well done!!

I have a question. What was it about the ACT, that allowed you to do much better at it? (as opposed to the SAT).

It had easier questions and that made me shift my attention toward to it the most. For the ACT I started at 22 but improved 4 points after 4 months of studying. Only thing that held me back from getting a 28 was definitely the science section though
 
Congratulations Ray, well done!!

I have a question. What was it about the ACT, that allowed you to do much better at it? (as opposed to the SAT).

It had easier questions and that made me shift my attention toward to it the most. For the ACT I started at 22 but improved 4 points after 4 months of studying. Only thing that held me back from getting a 28 was definitely the science section though

Thanks, Ray. My DS did the opposite. He struggled more with the ACT and showed more significant improvement in the SAT. I am glad you tried both!
 
Was definitely an enhancing experience. Learned a lot and grew from this process. Grateful for the 4 year scholarship

So during this experience I had to really step up my game for standardized testing. There were plenty of people that said I wouldn’t get the ROTC scholarship but I used it as motivation to keep improving! On the SAT I was scoring 1100 but then I switched to the ACT. I scored better on it and got a 26. Solid but not amazing.

GPA was a struggle at first. Freshman year I took physics and did bad! I got a C in that class and had a 3.4 gpa freshman year. I worked harder and eventually received a 3.78 GPA at the end of junior year (3.63 unweighted). I heard that a 3.6 was the average for a 4 year winner. Ended with a 3.8 and graduated 30% of my class

Leadership was definitely my stronger suit. I always had the highest ranking positions in Student Government. I was a Representative and a class president freshman year, Committee Chairman sophomore year, Student Body Secretary junior year and Student Body President senior year. Actually passed many initiatives like $2000 water refilling stations installed, windows 10 in my school, spirit weeks, events, board of Ed meetings, etc. Also had 1200 hours of community service. Going on mission trips and serving as a small group leader and activities coordinator in my church

PT was something I took really seriously. I started to prepare during my junior year spring. I would run PT sessions with my friends and we would do it together. Pushups increased drastically from 45 to 75 in 2 minutes. Sit-ups improved a little and runs were easier. Overall I did solid on the PT test for the ROTC fitness test.

I also applied to West Point as well. Got a TWE in April but it helped me become more competitive

Summary: 3.63 unweighted GPA, 26 ACT, 64 pushups in 1 minute, 49 sit-ups in 1 minute, 6:45 mile. Lots of community service and SGA positions

If you have any questions, I’d be willing to answer

Congrats on your Scholarship and hard work to get there! Can you share what your approach was to listing your schools? Did you list 7? Did you pick smaller schools you knew you could get into? Any SMCs?
 
Congrats on your Scholarship and hard work to get there! Can you share what your approach was to listing your schools? Did you list 7? Did you pick smaller schools you knew you could get into? Any SMCs?

I simply put down the schools I was applying to. Only put 3 down.

Wheaton College IL (going there), Rutgers, and Virginia Tech (SMC). I also applied to Marion Military but I realized that I didn’t want to be offered ECP in the 2nd board so I took that out. And yes, I put down all the schools I knew I could get into.
 
Congratulations Ray, well done!!

I have a question. What was it about the ACT, that allowed you to do much better at it? (as opposed to the SAT).

It had easier questions and that made me shift my attention toward to it the most. For the ACT I started at 22 but improved 4 points after 4 months of studying. Only thing that held me back from getting a 28 was definitely the science section though

Thanks, Ray. My DS did the opposite. He struggled more with the ACT and showed more significant improvement in the SAT. I am glad you tried both!

My DS and DD both did better on the ACT than the SAT. From what I read, the questions are worded differently and use a different part of the brain in answering the questions. Not sure how that works, just something I read. This article also said kids who do well in STEM type subjects tend to do better on the ACT overall. Both my kids have always tested highly in math/science areas, so maybe there is something to that. Both kids said the questions just seemed clearer to them. I'd be curious to see data on what the percentile difference between the two tests is. Certainly I wouldn't expect a student to score in the 60th percentile on one test and the 95th percentile on the other.
 
Congrats on your Scholarship and hard work to get there! Can you share what your approach was to listing your schools? Did you list 7? Did you pick smaller schools you knew you could get into? Any SMCs?

My DD got a 4-year scholarship.

For her schools, she had the usual reach, match, and safety lists.

She put mainly her reach schools in the 7 and her top 3 were definitely reaches. I think only 1 on her list of 7 was a match. Only 1 on her list of 7 was a safety. The only reason she put the safety on the list was the ROO said she should list them in her top 7 so she can interview at the school. Odd request but my DD didn’t argue about it because she just needed the PMS interview done. In reality, she listed that school 7. She thought the chances of AROTC CC offering her the 7th school on her list was low anyway.

She did not apply to a SMC. She got into her top 2 schools (both reaches) on the list. She didn’t apply to the 3rd school on her list because she had already gotten into her top civilian school via EA.

I wouldn’t recommend her strategy. She could very well not have gotten into 5 of the 7 schools on her list as they were lottery schools. The admission decisions could have been rejections.

What helped her decision-making was she had an LOA to USMA in late August with a presidential nom on file by late July. She could afford to gamble a bit with her AROTC school list with that LOA and nom in hand before she even submitted her file for the first AROTC board.
 
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