Advice needed on Minuteman Opportunity

gettrex4

5-Year Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2017
Messages
3
After not receiving a national scholarship, my son was offered a 4 year Minuteman Scholarship that would pay full tuition through the Army National Guard. He had to enlist, and was told that he would then be under his School's ROTC Program come fall. He successfully made it through MEPS, and went to his reserve weekend drill in June. Everything seemed to good to be true, until we received a call last week stating that the Scholarship was now being awarded as a 3 year due to lack of funding.
He is attending a pricy University, and we will have to come up with around 35k to make it through the first year. His recruiter gave him the following options due to this change
... #1. Get through the 1st year and be great full for the 3 year Scholarship. #2. Accept the scholarship, transfer to a less expensive school for the 1st year that is covered by the same ROTC Battalion and then transfer back the last 3 years to the original school to use the scholarship. #3. Accept the Minuteman Scholarship and come in and compete for the Army ROTC Scholarship through the Local Battalion...if he would be offered then the ARNG would release him to accept the ROTC Scholarship and serve in active duty after. #4. They will grant him an Administrative Discharge due to the situation, and then he could explore the same opportunity as I'm #3 as far as competing for a 3.5 /3 year Scholarship with the opportunity for active duty.
Please understand that this is not ment to be a rant or complaint, as we are very proud and grateful for this opportunity...it is that I am trying to give him the best advice and I am still learning as I go. Any thoughts or points that we may be overlooking would be greatly appreciated.
 
take my words with a grain of salt, but getting a 4 year or 3.5 year scholarship through the local battalion is almost impossible. in my battalion only one person out of 30 was awarded a 3.5 year scholarship last year and he did not have any scholarship to begin with. it is in my experience that cadre tend to prefer awarding non-scholarship/non-contracted cadets first before deciding to add another half year onto someone who already has a scholarship to begin with. i say this since a few years ago my battalion had a lot of money and instead of extending 3 year scholarships to 3.5 years, they instead chose to give out 4 years to those uncontracted/unscholarshiped.

best of luck.
 
There are too many variables for me to offer any real opinion; but here were a few thoughts that crossed my mind: is Active Duty okay with your son, or would he really prefer reserves? What is his major? Would getting the freshman classes done at the lower cost school delay graduation? It looks like he'd still be in the same ROTC battalion, which would be a plus in my book. Above all, what is his tolerance for financial risk? Did he get any local scholarships to offset the $35k? Is starting life with that much debt a deal breaker?

Myself, I'm too risk adverse to let go of the bird in the hand.
 
Has he talked to the ROO at the ROTC Battalion. Another story about someone who relies on the advice of a recruiter pertaining to ROTC.

Why would the Battalion allow him to compete for a line scholarship,when he will already be "on scholarship" (3AD winners are considered "on scholarship" even though they aren't receiving benefits).

I would say the only option if he wants to use the scholarship, and wants to be in the National Guard when he graduates is to suck up that first year and drive on.

TALK TO THE ROO THOUGH!!!
 
Could not agree any more with @clarksonarmy !
The ROO at my school has been extremely helpful. He introduced Minuteman to me, talked me through many situations/problems, and in the end I was offered a 3-year campus based AROTC scholarship. So, I was in the same boat as your son (except I didn't even make it to MEPS before I was offered the campus based scholarship). I cannot provide any insight or opinion since I am not even a student until next month... I can, however, fully agree with what clarksonarmy said. Best of luck to your son!
-O
 
Back
Top