AFROTC 4 Year Type 7 Scholarship

[fm17]

I got offered a 4 year type 7 scholarship for a technical major. When I completed the application through Holm center, I had my major preferences as General Studies (because Kinesiology my desired major was not available in the drop down list), Computer Science, and Aerospace Engineering. Throughout my 4 years of high school, I did an engineering magnet program that covered all types of engineering from civil to aerospace to electrical. It is something I enjoyed a lot and saw myself majoring in when going to college. In my junior year, I became heavily interested in joining one of the military branches and finally fell in love with the Air Force. I have always loved airplanes and traveled a lot internationally throughout my childhood, so flight has always interested me. So I went to the Air Force's website and looked through all the officer careers to see what I would like to do. My top 3 choices were Pilot, Developmental Engineer, and Aerospace and Operational Physiologist. When applying to my first choice school I chose undecided engineering as my major back in September of 2019 since I was still suck on doing an engineering major of some sort. But eventually as I slowly researched into the Aerospace and Operational Physiologist career field, I got more and more interested to the point that I did not care much about engineering because this new career fascinated me so much. When I was in contact with an Air Force Health Professions recruiter he suggested me to get a Masters in Kinesiology to be competitive for this job and do ROTC at college. But Kinesiology is not considered a technical major which would mean I would not be able to accept the scholarship if I do not switch to computer science or aerospace engineering. I live with my single mother and a sister so a 4 year type 7 scholarship would help a lot financially, but is it worth me doing something I am not as interested in anymore. I know with Kinesiology I can still be a pilot or pursue aerospace physiology. But with an aerospace or computer science degree, aerospace physiology would be completely thrown out the window. But this is something I have truly become interested and would love to pursue instead if I can not become a pilot. So I am not sure if I would be able to do that.

 

[Pima]

1. Re-read your award letter. Does it specifically state tech degree?
~ If it does it is highly unlikely, slim to none that they will allow you to switch to a non-tech major. Reality is 80-85% of all scholarships are for tech majors, and has been for probably a decade or more.
2. Getting a grad school slot straight out of ROTC is not something I would bet on. It is insanely competitive. Let's put it this way. Chances of getting a fighter is much higher, and you are still looking at @15% from the start of your UPT class to winging. About 25% will wash out, and out of the winging class 25% will get fighters.
3. You really have to ask yourself some very serious questions.
A. What if you love the school, love ROTC, but hate that engineering major, do you stay with the major because you need the scholarship?
B. What if you love the school, hate ROTC, but love engineering? Do you stay in ROTC because again, you need it to pay for school?
C. Let's say you are ehhh about it all, but muddle through only to get to your sophomore year and not selected for SFT. No SFT = no POC. No POC = no commissioning. Basically, it means you have a very high chance of being dis-enrolled. Loss of scholarship for your final 2 yrs.
D. You get a pilot slot. You wing. Are you ready to owe them 10 yrs of your life after winging. I assume you are 18 right now. The traditional trajectory would mean....Graduate at 22. Typically it is about 6-9 months before you start UPT. That means you are now 23. UPT is 54 weeks. You will be 24 when that clock starts ticking. IOWS 34 or almost twice your age now before you can bolt.

People have this image of how amazing it would be to be a pilot. What they don't take into account is how hard the lifestyle will be to live on a daily basis, especially when they fall in love, get married and have kids. I have seen it on the side of a spouse and now as a Mom.
~~My hubby flew F15E's and DS flies C130Js. In both airframes, they are gone 150 + days a yr. My husband missed every Halloween from the time our youngest was 5 months old until he was 8. He missed our eldest son's 1st Communion. I can't count on my hands how many birthdays he missed, his, mine and our 3 kids.
~~ My DS is married and a proud father of 2. He found out his wife was pregnant with their 1st about a week after being sent for a 6 month deployment. He left his wife with no belly and came home to see a huge baby bump. He missed the 1st ultra sound. He missed the 1st kick. He came home to a nursery with a crib and changer built by her bc she was due in 6 weeks. It is not uncommon for him to be gone a lot, yet home life continues.

That is my point about be careful for what you wish for. I don't regret one moment of our 21 yrs in the AF, and obviously our DS as an ADAF pilot didn't either. However, it is not all Top Gun. Like any rose that is beautiful, there will be a lot of thorns too. If you are not willing to bleed from a cut by the thorn so you can smell the rose, than maybe you should not go for the rose.

 

[fm17]

1. Re-read your award letter. Does it specifically state tech degree?
~ If it does it is highly unlikely, slim to none that they will allow you to switch to a non-tech major. Reality is 80-85% of all scholarships are for tech majors, and has been for probably a decade or more.
2. Getting a grad school slot straight out of ROTC is not something I would bet on. It is insanely competitive. Let's put it this way. Chances of getting a fighter is much higher, and you are still looking at @15% from the start of your UPT class to winging. About 25% will wash out, and out of the winging class 25% will get fighters.
3. You really have to ask yourself some very serious questions.
A. What if you love the school, love ROTC, but hate that engineering major, do you stay with the major because you need the scholarship?
B. What if you love the school, hate ROTC, but love engineering? Do you stay in ROTC because again, you need it to pay for school?
C. Let's say you are ehhh about it all, but muddle through only to get to your sophomore year and not selected for SFT. No SFT = no POC. No POC = no commissioning. Basically, it means you have a very high chance of being dis-enrolled. Loss of scholarship for your final 2 yrs.
D. You get a pilot slot. You wing. Are you ready to owe them 10 yrs of your life after winging. I assume you are 18 right now. The traditional trajectory would mean....Graduate at 22. Typically it is about 6-9 months before you start UPT. That means you are now 23. UPT is 54 weeks. You will be 24 when that clock starts ticking. IOWS 34 or almost twice your age now before you can bolt.

People have this image of how amazing it would be to be a pilot. What they don't take into account is how hard the lifestyle will be to live on a daily basis, especially when they fall in love, get married and have kids. I have seen it on the side of a spouse and now as a Mom.
~~My hubby flew F15E's and DS flies C130Js. In both airframes, they are gone 150 + days a yr. My husband missed every Halloween from the time our youngest was 5 months old until he was 8. He missed our eldest son's 1st Communion. I can't count on my hands how many birthdays he missed, his, mine and our 3 kids.
~~ My DS is married and a proud father of 2. He found out his wife was pregnant with their 1st about a week after being sent for a 6 month deployment. He left his wife with no belly and came home to see a huge baby bump. He missed the 1st ultra sound. He missed the 1st kick. He came home to a nursery with a crib and changer built by her bc she was due in 6 weeks. It is not uncommon for him to be gone a lot, yet home life continues.

That is my point about be careful for what you wish for. I don't regret one moment of our 21 yrs in the AF, and obviously our DS as an ADAF pilot didn't either. However, it is not all Top Gun. Like any rose that is beautiful, there will be a lot of thorns too. If you are not willing to bleed from a cut by the thorn so you can smell the rose, than maybe you should not go for the rose.

Thanks for replying back with such a detailed response, I truly do appreciate it.

1. In regards to the scholarship it did specifically say just tech degree.

2. Something I did forget to include is, I’ll be coming into college with all my general education (core) courses done except chemistry. This was because of the AP classes and Dual Enrollment courses I took throughout high school. I am basically already 2 years ahead. Before the scholarship interview at my detachment and the day of I mentioned this in regards to my situation. I know at my detachment, they like for cadets to be at least 3 years in the program so they can prepare them to be officers. In that case I would have not enough time to complete the program because I have 2 years of credits already. But since I want to complete my masters for that chance of getting the Aerospace and Physiology officer role. That puts me back into the 4 year threshold. I mentioned this to an officer at the detachment and she said they could probably work with HQ regarding my situation. But I am not 100% certain, but I also don’t see why that would be a problem. Since I’m doing the extra time, I need to prepare to be an officer and it’s not out of personal satisfaction to get a masters degree. It’s because it is a requirement for that certain officer career in the Air Force.

3. In regards to A,B,C I will do some serious thinking this week in attempt to figure out what the correct path is.
But for D I am fully prepared to live that lifestyle. Someone has to do it, same way your husband did it and your DS is currently doing it. I am ready to continue in their footsteps for those who cannot.

Thanks Pima, I wish you and your family the best during these unfortunate times.

 

[Pima]

I’ll be coming into college with all my general education (core) courses done except chemistry. This was because of the AP classes and Dual Enrollment courses I took throughout high school. I am basically already 2 years ahead.

What you don't understand or realize yet is how the college system works. Leave AFROTC out of the equation. I highly doubt you will graduate even at a 3 yr marker.
WHY? Simply put colleges now deal with this all of the time, and you just hit the 4 yr marker.
~ You will be like many freshman, and probably like my kids that did Dual. Not one of them graduated with less than 156 credits. All of them had to do 4 yrs. Only my eldest was in ROTC.
~ Colleges work it now that they only offer a pre-req. 1x a yr. You do not have chemistry. That means if chemistry is a requirement, than you are not going to jump in as a sophomore. You will be with the freshmen.
~~ My DS (AFROTC -non-tech scholarship type 2 dual major Govt/Poli and International Relations as a scholar for a Big 10 school) entered with APs and dual. He had not only Chemistry, but Physics too. He had Calc., and AP Stats (AP score 5). However, they turned and said for his degree he had to have Quantum Mathematics, plus Stats II for his degree. They piled on that he had to also have Macro and Micro Econ. ---note his degree. Those classes were offered only 1x a yr. That is how it works.
~~ Same happened for our two younger kids (ACC schools --- DD attended VT, not in ROTC). She walked in with 31 credits, AICE (Cambridge degree program) and they said nope... this 1 class does not = what we require.
~~ Not 1 of our 3 graduated early bc of their school saying you need this specific course.

Colleges are a business now. You should look deep into your school curriculum and requirements. Talk to the degree advisor. A strong school will sit you down at orientation and plot out your 4 yrs.

If you can truly graduate in 2 yrs. Than maybe you should go OCS.
~ Type 7 will only pay tuition, not R & B. R &B is a huge amount. Are you going to live on campus?
~ It states tech, and that means it must be a tech degree.
~ You will need to be selected for SFT as an AFROTC cadet. Who knows what the rate of selection will be in 2 yrs.

 

[Pima]

But since I want to complete my masters for that chance of getting the Aerospace and Physiology officer role. That puts me back into the 4 year threshold

Forgot to address this.
Unless something has changed the 4 yr scholarship is for UNDERGRAD only. You cannot combine the 2. IOWS, you can't walk in and commission 2 yrs later and than use the last 2 yrs of the HSSP for your grad degree.

I do know some of my DS's friends that were not scholarship. They entered as a 250, but were in a joint program at the college when they were accepted as freshmen (5 yrs, but you graduate with a Masters) They worked with them. If memory serves me correctly they were considered AS 700.

 

[fm17]

What you don't understand or realize yet is how the college system works. Leave AFROTC out of the equation. I highly doubt you will graduate even at a 3 yr marker.
WHY? Simply put colleges now deal with this all of the time, and you just hit the 4 yr marker.
~ You will be like many freshman, and probably like my kids that did Dual. Not one of them graduated with less than 156 credits. All of them had to do 4 yrs. Only my eldest was in ROTC.
~ Colleges work it now that they only offer a pre-req. 1x a yr. You do not have chemistry. That means if chemistry is a requirement, than you are not going to jump in as a sophomore. You will be with the freshmen.
~~ My DS (AFROTC -non-tech scholarship type 2 dual major Govt/Poli and International Relations as a scholar for a Big 10 school) entered with APs and dual. He had not only Chemistry, but Physics too. He had Calc., and AP Stats (AP score 5). However, they turned and said for his degree he had to have Quantum Mathematics, plus Stats II for his degree. They piled on that he had to also have Macro and Micro Econ. ---note his degree. Those classes were offered only 1x a yr. That is how it works.
~~ Same happened for our two younger kids (ACC schools --- DD attended VT, not in ROTC). She walked in with 31 credits, AICE (Cambridge degree program) and they said nope... this 1 class does not = what we require.
~~ Not 1 of our 3 graduated early bc of their school saying you need this specific course.

Colleges are a business now. You should look deep into your school curriculum and requirements. Talk to the degree advisor. A strong school will sit you down at orientation and plot out your 4 yrs.

If you can truly graduate in 2 yrs. Than maybe you should go OCS.
~ Type 7 will only pay tuition, not R & B. R &B is a huge amount. Are you going to live on campus?
~ It states tech, and that means it must be a tech degree.
~ You will need to be selected for SFT as an AFROTC cadet. Who knows what the rate of selection will be in 2 yrs.

I said the 2 years because when I had a meeting with my advisor at the local community college where I was taking the dual enrollment courses. She told me that after this spring semester, I would be on track to graduate in 2 years once I transferred to the university of my choice. My close childhood best friend also attends the university I got accepted to. He was on the same boat as me with just as many credits and is due to graduate on Spring 2022 (he entered last Fall). Everybody has told me otherwise as well, so now I am really confused.

In regards to completing my masters I already have mentioned it to the detachment, they replied with this last November "We have other cadets who have entered the program with credits towards their bachelor’s degree. We can run your degree program concurrently with your training since you have a desire for entry into a medical career field and work with HQ AFROTC to ensure that you are reflected as such in the system. We can certainly work with you to ensure that your education runs alongside your degree program; we just need at least 3 years of training to ensure that you meet all your training objectives. " When I had a briefing with the detachment they also mentioned the AS 700 for those getting a masters.

By the looks of it I am going to stick with kinesiology and not transfer to a tech degree so I will not be receiving the scholarship with this plan.
I am also going to be staying at home so I do not have to worry about R&B.