Accepting your ROTC scholarship

Oldsalt

5-Year Member
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Sep 26, 2012
Messages
223
Thought I would share some common answers. They are worth what you are paying for them.
Always confirm any information you read on this board.

Accept your scholarship ASAP.
You can do all three online, the NROTC link is hidden in the booklet.

By accepting you are reserving the scholarship for your use should you elect to participate in ROTC.
You can decline your scholarship at a later time.

Common answers:
You can accept scholarships from all three services.
Accepting a scholarship does not hurt your chances of getting an appointment to a service academy.
You are not committing to anything by accepting.
You do not commit to serve until you sign paperwork your Sophomore year of college.
Contact the unit of any school you are considering. Tell them you have been awarded a scholarship. It makes a difference at most schools.

Uncommon answers:
Navy only: (Pima and ClarksonArmy will have to chime in for other services)
By starting plebe summer at the Academy you are declining your NROTC scholarship.
You used to be able to accept and hold your NROTC scholarship. If something happened at plebe summer, you could show up at the NROTC unit and start school, no harm no foul. Not anymore.

Navy: Transferring a scholarship to a different school can be as simple as a phone call or next to impossible. If the gaining unit has space, no problem. Some units fill up fast and will not have room.
AF: The earlier you commit to a school the better. But AF has a lot more flexibility in school choice.
Army: Any listed school should be fine. If you fail to get accepted to any school on the list, there are schools that always have space. You just need to find them. There are great people on this board that are very helpful in April.

Navy and Army: Cost of school also plays a role. If you were awarded a scholarship to an instate school and ask to transfer to an expensive private school, that could hurt your chances. Your order of merit plays a role, but you don't know where you stand, so try to transfer or get the school added to your list early.

Some schools offer free room and board to ROTC scholarship students. When you reach out to the unit, ask.

If you are planning to crosstown, do your homework. Some units are very accommodating, others are not. Ask how many students are crosstowning and ask to talk to one.
Traveling 45 mins each way 3-4 days a week is not realistic, but some units require it.

Get/stay in shape! You would be shocked at the number of students that lose their scholarships because of fitness. Don't be a statistic.

Transferring services once you are in college is very tricky to do. Navy to Marine Corps and vice versa is pretty easy. Can't do physics or Calc? Ew Rah Marines! Any other combination can be very challenging. Has it been done? Of course, but the number of variables at play is huge. Read: don't plan on trying a service and if it doesn't work I'll go (fill in the blank.)


OPINION:
Some on this board feel holding multiple scholarships hurts others chances of being awarded one.
This is true, in that, they won't award your scholarship until it is declined, but they services know that a certain percentage will decline and plan for it.
You earned it, wait until you have been accepted, passed DODMERB, and are totally committed to serving in the branch of your choice before declining. Strange things happen always have a plan B.

Congratulations to the awardees.
OS
 
Wow, like opening a Christmas package! DS was awarded NROTC scholarship yesterday...and all the above were questions that popped up. First go around at our house! Its as if you read my mind! Thanks for the info!
 
One question: any reason to NOT accept your scholarship right away? I don't see a reason (NROTC in DS's case)??
 
IMHO there is no reason not to accept.
Others take the position that if you know you're not going to use it, decline it.
My position is it is OK to hold it as a plan B or C. They earned it.
OS
 
Thank you! The only reason he wouldn't use it is if other things he has applied for don't pan out (academies). A very real potential he will. This is one of the most exciting moments for him. So wonderful to see a dream of his coming true! I think we will purchase some non-alcoholic sparking grape juice, and toast him pushing ACCEPT!
 
Thought I would share some common answers. They are worth what you are paying for them.
Always confirm any information you read on this board.

Accept your scholarship ASAP.
You can do all three online, the NROTC link is hidden in the booklet.

By accepting you are reserving the scholarship for your use should you elect to participate in ROTC.
You can decline your scholarship at a later time.

Common answers:
You can accept scholarships from all three services.
Accepting a scholarship does not hurt your chances of getting an appointment to a service academy.
You are not committing to anything by accepting.
You do not commit to serve until you sign paperwork your Sophomore year of college.
Contact the unit of any school you are considering. Tell them you have been awarded a scholarship. It makes a difference at most schools.

Uncommon answers:
Navy only: (Pima and ClarksonArmy will have to chime in for other services)
By starting plebe summer at the Academy you are declining your NROTC scholarship.
You used to be able to accept and hold your NROTC scholarship. If something happened at plebe summer, you could show up at the NROTC unit and start school, no harm no foul. Not anymore.

Navy: Transferring a scholarship to a different school can be as simple as a phone call or next to impossible. If the gaining unit has space, no problem. Some units fill up fast and will not have room.
AF: The earlier you commit to a school the better. But AF has a lot more flexibility in school choice.
Army: Any listed school should be fine. If you fail to get accepted to any school on the list, there are schools that always have space. You just need to find them. There are great people on this board that are very helpful in April.

Navy and Army: Cost of school also plays a role. If you were awarded a scholarship to an instate school and ask to transfer to an expensive private school, that could hurt your chances. Your order of merit plays a role, but you don't know where you stand, so try to transfer or get the school added to your list early.

Some schools offer free room and board to ROTC scholarship students. When you reach out to the unit, ask.

If you are planning to crosstown, do your homework. Some units are very accommodating, others are not. Ask how many students are crosstowning and ask to talk to one.
Traveling 45 mins each way 3-4 days a week is not realistic, but some units require it.

Get/stay in shape! You would be shocked at the number of students that lose their scholarships because of fitness. Don't be a statistic.

Transferring services once you are in college is very tricky to do. Navy to Marine Corps and vice versa is pretty easy. Can't do physics or Calc? Ew Rah Marines! Any other combination can be very challenging. Has it been done? Of course, but the number of variables at play is huge. Read: don't plan on trying a service and if it doesn't work I'll go (fill in the blank.)


OPINION:
Some on this board feel holding multiple scholarships hurts others chances of being awarded one.
This is true, in that, they won't award your scholarship until it is declined, but they services know that a certain percentage will decline and plan for it.
You earned it, wait until you have been accepted, passed DODMERB, and are totally committed to serving in the branch of your choice before declining. Strange things happen always have a plan B.

Congratulations to the awardees.
OS[/QUOTE

Thank you for this information. I will pass it along to my DD as this covers so many scenarios she is dealing with!!!
 
My son has been awarded an Army ROTC scholarship, but he hasn’t submitted his applications to the other 2 branches yet. He will most likely submit within the next couple of weeks. However, since it is likely the Army scholarship will require notification of acceptance within a month, there is a chance he may need to accept the Army scholarship prior to hearing back from the other 2 branches. Should he accept the Army ROTC scholarship, and if he is awarded say a Navy ROTC scholarship, can he later decline the Army scholarship and accept the Navy’s?
 
You can accept all three services ROTC scholarships and decide later which you choose to use.
Wait until you've passed DODMERB for all services before declining. Each service has slightly different requirements.

Side note: Some AF units have the ability to upgrade scholarships to type 1. Also, some schools accept non-type 1 scholarships as full tuition coverage similar to yellow ribbon programs.
Ask the units you are considering.
OS
 
Old Salt, that side note has really caught my eye. What did you mean when you said some units can upgrade a scholarship to a type 1? That's a pretty big deal. Why would that happen and how can we find out more about that?
 
It's not common, but I have seen it.
Simple answer, they want your child to go AF.
Ask at the unit the you're considering.
Don't ask, don't get.
 
Hi all - such a great and informative forum. My DS just received his congrats email from AFROTC for Type 1 scholarship. He is beyond excited (and his parents are beyond proud). Sounds like we wait for the actual paper acceptance letter and then go in and accept online and upload a copy of that acceptance letter.

Few questions related to next steps though:
- How long does it take to do DoDMERB and get official/final acceptance from AFROTC? Since he just received his scholarship 'acceptance' we don't have a lot of time before we need to let schools know if he'll attend or not. He has many to choose from (great kid/student, very lucky to have the options) and some have very nice merit scholarships included. His #1 choice (CSU-Fort Collins) isn't the most cost effective if he ends up not getting to do AFROTC (don't expect this to happen he is very fit, no medical issues we know about, but you never know what additional tests will find), but feel we may not know his final results until after May 1 (when most schools need decision from prospective students). Is this just part of the gamble? Is there a way to fast track the DoDMERB (I know probably a dumb question - govt go fast?? ;-) ).

- Can we try and find local DoDMERB medical facility and try and schedule an appt rather than wait for paper acceptance letter, just so we can try and get that part going? Is that even an option?

Thank you for any info folks may have.
 
When it says to upload an acceptance letter, I believe it means an acceptance letter from the college where you plan to use the scholarship. I received a Type 7 scholarship in November, and I never received anything in the mail from AFROTC throughout the whole process. For the medical process, I believe it was about a week from me finding out about the scholarship to getting notified that I can begin the DoDMERB process.
 
They'll tell you what doctors to use, and when, for DoDMERB. Some folks begin the initial semester without being medically qualified yet.
 
The whole DODMERB process happens happens pretty quick.
Most doctors will tell you if there are or could be any issues.
Congrats!
OS
 
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