100 AFROTC Type 1 Scholarships being given out to Flight Academy Cadets who attend an HBCU Fall 2020

A

AetherAce

Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2020
Messages
14
Earlier this morning an email was sent from HQ AFJROTC to Flight Academy accepted cadets in the class of 2020.

The Flight Academy program was an opportunity for AFJROTC cadets to earn their private pilots license for free on a scholarship from the Air Force. Unfortunately with the current COVID19 situation, the program was cancelled for this year. While sophomores and juniors received an offer to earn a PPL the next summer, graduating seniors did not get such an offer and would not get the chance to earn their PPL even though they had earned the scholarship. After the program cancellation announced in March, it was mostly radio silence from HQ until this email came out today to graduating seniors only.

Parents and Cadets,

Great News!

Air Force ROTC is offering Full TYPE I scholarships (Full COSTS OF TUITION) to AFJROTC Flight Academy Selects who are willing to attend college this fall at any of the below Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU).

There will be 100 scholarships given out, and YOU could be one to receive a scholarship.

You will have to meet Air Force standards and agree to enter the Air Force as a commissioned officer upon college graduation.

You must be able to start college this 2020 Fall semester and be accepted into the college. You must pass a medical exam and a physical fitness test. (There will be more requirements from Air Force ROTC.)

If you meet college requirements and Air Force/Air Force ROTC standards, this opportunity is almost guaranteed. Again, there will be 100 scholarships awarded to qualifying cadets.
Click to expand...
Included was a list of colleges that the offer would apply to.
1593111859882.png


This incredibly good offer has been confusing to the community of Flight Academy cadets for this year.
For instance,
-100 Type 1 scholarships are being given out when there are max 60 seniors out of the 200 total FA cadets.
-Most college admissions results came out months ago and this offer only applies to seniors attending those colleges in the Fall.
-Typically the only "shortcut" to earning a Type 1 is being accepted to an Ivy league/T20 college which is incredibly difficult on its own.
-Is the offer limited to Flight Academy cadets or to other HBCU incoming students? HQ definitely has to be aware Flight Academy alone cannot fill up the 100 offered scholarships.

This also raised some speculation on the funding and future of ROTC scholarships

-The Flight Academy scholarships were worth around 10k each while a single Type 1 could potentially be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars so was this funding a leftover or magically appeared?
-Such a decision crosses JROTC and ROTC indicating this is something that may have come from the very high ups.
-With such an easy offer for Type 1s being given out, what does this mean for the number of ROTC scholarships given out next year?


If anyone has anymore information on this, please comment as it would be greatly appreciated. Any senior who takes the offer would have to do so on very short notice and many were already set on their college paths.
 
I wish I could say more but unfortunately everything you have said is the most I know
 
AetherAce said:
100 Type 1 scholarships are being given out when there are max 60 seniors out of the 200 total FA cadets.
Click to expand...

I believe this also includes Seniors, Juniors, and possible Civil Air Patrol cadets. Just my own speculation.
 
AetherAce said:
so was this funding a leftover or magically appeared?
Click to expand...
I don't know either way, but I can tell you that the scholarship offer numbers this year were down considerably over last year. No explanation was given, although the final board coincided with the explosion of COVID-19, so draw your own conclusions there. Consult the AFROTC scholarship threads for more details if you are interested.
 
AetherAce said:
This incredibly good offer has been confusing to the community of Flight Academy cadets for this year. For instance,
-100 Type 1 scholarships are being given out when there are max 60 seniors out of the 200 total FA cadets.
-Most college admissions results came out months ago and this offer only applies to seniors attending those colleges in the Fall.
-Typically the only "shortcut" to earning a Type 1 is being accepted to an Ivy league/T20 college which is incredibly difficult on its own.
-Is the offer limited to Flight Academy cadets or to other HBCU incoming students? HQ definitely has to be aware Flight Academy alone cannot fill up the 100 offered scholarships.
-The Flight Academy scholarships were worth around 10k each while a single Type 1 could potentially be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars so was this funding a leftover or magically appeared?
-Such a decision crosses JROTC and ROTC indicating this is something that may have come from the very high ups....
Click to expand...

A simple (perhaps obvious) explanation for the discrepancies noted above would be that this is primarily a gesture in response to recent events rather than a serious, well thought-out policy and that the intended audience for this hasty, symbolic gesture is a political one -- e.g. Congress.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top