AFROTC Chances

duksquad

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Oct 1, 2019
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I have researched this topic for awhile and know that no person can tell your exact chances. I am also not ignorant to the fact that I have slim chances. However, I do ask that someone please take a look at what I have done and tell me how I stack up compared to you or your friends. I have applied and am going to the interview tomorrow and am quite nervous.

I have a 3.4 GPA unweighted. My school is one of the hardest in my state and we do not offer AP classes. I am in the top 50 percent of my class and my GPA has gone up every year never lower.

I have a 28 ACT no super score.

I have been in Marine JROTC and CAP for 4 years and have gotten to the rank of Lance Corporal in JROTC and Senior Airman in CAP. I haven't worked but I have volunteered with these two quite a lot over the past 4 years. I will not bore you with the exact things I have done. I have been to 4 years of a Summer Engineering Course at a local college and was a team leader for creating various things.

Thank you.
 
Those who are not competitive for a scholarship are not invited to interview.

As long as you don't bomb your interview, you'll probably get an offer in the next board or two.

Hopefully you have prepared for the interview and gone through several rounds of practice. If not, review the interview prep tips on here and ensure you can speak to specific areas where you were a leader. Project friendliness and confidence-- don't slink or highlight your shortcomings. In short, avoid the self-deprecation in your post above.

If you don't get an offer-- no big deal. Not getting picked up for HSSP doesn't mean you can't go into ROTC.
 
Thank you very much for the insight. I have done some practice with my parents and I do think I am good at talking and meeting new people. When in the interview, am I allowed to ask for some time to think about my answer before I say it? I've read conflicting reports of people doing this.
 
am I allowed to ask for some time to think about my answer before I say it? I've read conflicting reports of people doing this.

I am non-military but have interviewed hundreds of employment candidates. It is always preferable to pause and give a thoughtful answer as opposed to blurting nonsense.

Bottom line, don't blurt. But don't take forever to answer either.

Good luck!
 
Those who are not competitive for a scholarship are not invited to interview.

As long as you don't bomb your interview, you'll probably get an offer in the next board or two.

Hopefully you have prepared for the interview and gone through several rounds of practice. If not, review the interview prep tips on here and ensure you can speak to specific areas where you were a leader. Project friendliness and confidence-- don't slink or highlight your shortcomings. In short, avoid the self-deprecation in your post above.

If you don't get an offer-- no big deal. Not getting picked up for HSSP doesn't mean you can't go into ROTC.

Just to correct a statement here - everyone who is eligible academically are invited to interview, even if you have just the bare minimums. We have offered scholarships to cadets who have 3.0 GPA and 26/27 on their ACTs which are minimums.
 
Thank you so much!

Here is where interview practice with folks other than your parents (preferably military officers or civilians with hiring experience like @AROTC-dad ) comes into play. Once you go through a few rounds with different people, you become accustomed to unanticipated questions.

You will not have any goofy questions asked of you in the interview. It will be very straightforward. Search the ROTC subforum and you will find several posts where others list the common questions asked.

Specifically, be able to answer:
- Why you want to be in the AF
- Why you want to be a military officer
- Why the AF would benefit by having you as an officer
- What specific jobs interest you (and why)-- Note, know some actual officer jobs here-- many of the "cool" jobs are enlisted-only in the AF, which will make you look silly if you waltz in there talking about wanting to be a firefighter or an airborne linguist
- How your plans change if you do not receive a scholarship
- Who in your family has served in the military-- Note, if you have AF veterans in your family, be prepared to know what their job was, whether they retired, and what their rank was when leaving the military. Not knowing this makes you look disconnected as a military applicant

Beyond those questions above, you will get a bunch of questions about specific leadership actions you have taken, challenges you've had to overcome as a leader, how your peers reacted to you taking charge (notice a trend here?), etc. If you can't answer those quickly, it will be a tough interview.

Yes, take a second to answer a question if you have to. But you should not be asking for time to think about every question, especially ones like "Why do you want to be in the AF?"

If you're really nervous, then shore up your appearance--> get a haircut, shave, wear a tie, make sure your belt matches your shoe color, shine your shoes, etc. Stuff like that will generally set a better tone and make the interview kick off better.

Take a folio in with you with a blank notepad, several copies of your resume, and a sheet with important dates and events you want to bring up. There's nothing wrong with checking your notes when asked a question.

Good luck, kid. If you've prepared, you'll do fine. First of many interviews in your life and it only gets easier. Let us know how it goes. :)
 
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Just to correct a statement here - everyone who is eligible academically are invited to interview, even if you have just the bare minimums. We have offered scholarships to cadets who have 3.0 GPA and 26/27 on their ACTs which are minimums.
Thanks for the clarification!
 
Good luck to you! Our DS did his NROTC yesterday. Be early, dress professionally, no gum, firm handshake, deodorant, make eye contact and if you don't understand the question, ask them politely to repeat it. And be confident, you got this!!!
 
Hi - if you receive a Type 2 Scholarship and in the meantime had your ACT score go up - is there a process you can be reconsidered for a type 1?
 
NO. Once boarded and awarded a scholarship, they will not reboard the recipient again.

I will say this, unless something has changed, this early out your child is most likely a solid type 2. In yrs past if a candidate was on the cusp between one type and another, in this case, type 1 and 2, they would hold off in awarding a scholarship until they saw a larger pool size to see which one they will fall into if they were on the cusp.
Think of a bell curve. The early and last boards usually will have the least amount awarded. Hence, my point of him being a solid type 2 from a historical data aspect regarding a scholarship. IE even if they have tons more candidates down the pipeline he would still be in that type 2 data point from yrs past.
Remember type 1 is only 5% of all AFROTC scholarships. Type 2 is 15%.
 
Those who are not competitive for a scholarship are not invited to interview.

As long as you don't bomb your interview, you'll probably get an offer in the next board or two.

Hopefully you have prepared for the interview and gone through several rounds of practice. If not, review the interview prep tips on here and ensure you can speak to specific areas where you were a leader. Project friendliness and confidence-- don't slink or highlight your shortcomings. In short, avoid the self-deprecation in your post above.

If you don't get an offer-- no big deal. Not getting picked up for HSSP doesn't mean you can't go into ROTC.
Really? I thought everyone gets it. I felt like mine wasn’t competitive compared to what others say but I still got an interview.
 
Really? I thought everyone gets it. I felt like mine wasn’t competitive compared to what others say but I still got an interview.

Read four posts down from that one and you will see where I was corrected on that statement.
 
NO. Once boarded and awarded a scholarship, they will not reboard the recipient again.

I will say this, unless something has changed, this early out your child is most likely a solid type 2. In yrs past if a candidate was on the cusp between one type and another, in this case, type 1 and 2, they would hold off in awarding a scholarship until they saw a larger pool size to see which one they will fall into if they were on the cusp.
Think of a bell curve. The early and last boards usually will have the least amount awarded. Hence, my point of him being a solid type 2 from a historical data aspect regarding a scholarship. IE even if they have tons more candidates down the pipeline he would still be in that type 2 data point from yrs past.
Remember type 1 is only 5% of all AFROTC scholarships. Type 2 is 15%.

Just putting in a statement that if you want to be reboarded to try and compete for a higher scholarship you can by giving up your current scholarship and e-mailing the scholarship technician. They will not update your test scores with any higher ones, you'll just be competing again in later boards so if the later boards are more competitive and you don't get one, you will lose the one you receive initially so that's entirely up to you. This has been done twice so far, so it's very uncommon and risky.
 
I have been in Marine JROTC and CAP for 4 years and have gotten to the rank of Lance Corporal in JROTC and Senior Airman in CAP. I haven't worked but I have volunteered with these two quite a lot over the past 4 years.
Take heart that you will probably get a slight boost to your overall score from doing CAP.
This boost-- a couple of points, roughly, on a 1-100 scale-- plus a good interview will likely close the gap between you and an applicant who did not participate in CAP but has better grades and a higher ACT than yours.

For your interview answers, any time there's a question about an experience of yours-- ie one that begins, "Can you tell me about a time when..."-- you can use this simple format to organize your thoughts quickly, calm yourself, and answer clearly and directly:

1. Situation: briefly describe the setting, including time, place, the organization or social situation and your role in it;
2. Complication: succinctly describe the problem that you were solving for (aka the "challenge")
3. Resolution: describe your solution approach-- it's often helpful to do this in two parts: a) my first attempt at a solution, which (failed) (was unsatisfactory) (actually created another complication that had to be resolved); and b) the second, better, satisfactory solution that I hit upon.
4. Results of #3 your solution: how it improved the situation you described in #1.

Good luck!
 
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