AFROTC Language Majors

A

ahuntedyeti

5-Year Member
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Nov 2, 2012
Messages
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So after a grueling year long process, the cadre at Detatchment 055 has my info and i will be in the program come fall! Through denials to NROTC and AFROTC scholarships and to the naval academy, the competitiveness of commissioning is kind of sinking in.

Therefore, in an attempt to make myself as appealing as possible to the Air Force for FT and to a lesser extent scholarship, would majoring in a language (Russuan) be of more benefit to my chances than majoring in a non-tech? If I do not pursue language I would likely continue on with my intended major of Biology.

However, after contacting several cadets from the detachment and several non ROTC students in the bio major, i started to you around with different ideas. From the non-ROTC side, a lot of the initial bio majors had switched from a BS in biology to a BA in biopsychology because the rigor was so intense. Many of them saw gpas jump 4-7 points after switching. I assume the AF does not care about the rigor of your non-tech so the point of challenging yourself with a harder major is moot if you plan on making the AF a career (Which I do), at least from what I can gather.

Now with that said, how feasible would double majoring be if Russian and biopsychology were combined? Would I be better off sticking with one non tech and likely enjoy a slight gpa advantage or would it be smarter to double major, take a slight gpa hit, but major in something the Air Force desires (Russian)? Would those majors conflict too much to graduate in 4 years or would it be wiser to double major in something closer related such as poli sci, a subject I have also considered studying.

As many of you could tell from all my threads, your opinions and input have been invaluable and I thank you for them! Perhaps the best advice was to prepare for the pft immediately. From the time my initial pft score went on to the afrotc board (a 91) to now I have been attending the gym every day and have seen my score rise to a 97! Hopefully come fall a strong pft will help stand out.

Thanks again
/ahuntedyeti
 
I wouldn't major in a language unless it's something that you know you'll like and it's something you'll be decent at. Languages are pretty difficult and if you were a non-tech major in something that you liked you'd probably do better in it than in a foreign language. You may enjoy Russian though. I would just suggest you do something you'll at least somewhat enjoy.
 
Maybe I have missed it, but what is the career field in AF you want?

Rated, and it doesn't really matter.

Intel, and it may have an impact.
 
Just a quick tip, when you're filling out information to join AFROTC, there is only one space to list a major when filling out the enrollment forms. They don't consider double majors, minors, etc etc. You simply list one major and that is what they go off of. At least from my experience joining AFROTC anyways.

That being said, I had a 3.4 cgpa my freshman year because I was double majoring in political science and international affairs with a minor in history (I had a lot of AP credits coming in to college so I could do this) but once I joined ROTC in my sophomore year, I dropped the International Affairs major and my history minor and focused on just poli sci. Now I have a cgpa of 3.86 which definitely looks better especially since they wouldn't even look at my second major/minor. I guess I'll find out tomorrow how that plan worked out haha.
 
I forgot to mention though, if you minor or double major in a language and become fluent in it, that will make you look really good on paper because you can state if you a multilingual--so long as the language is one the Air Force deems critical/essential.
 
Don't get me wrong, I find the language interesting and would be up to try it, I was just curious as to whether it would be something the Air Force places any weight into.

Pima, I want to go rated but would take whatever they gave me. Would the language help in commissioning though?

Sounds like double majoring held you down somewhat. I will take that into consideration.
 
719,

If you want rated, it can also work against you too because it is critically manned.

I highly doubt Russian is in those parameters of critical manning. Chinese probably, Arabaic, maybe. Russian, probably not.

They need to think about their career field when it comes to their major if they are going non-rated.
 
I actually think majoring/minoring in a language isn't that hard, provided you like the language. I know several Cadets taking Russian, one taking Korean, and I'm doing Chinese and we're all tech majors. Honestly, it's one of the few classes where I know I'm definitely going to get an A in every semester. As long as its interesting to you, you make an effort to learn, and attend class, the work is easy and the teachers are more laid back than teachers in most other subjects. If you look at professor GPA adverages, the math and science teachers usually have 2.6-2.9 adverages, the really good ones have a 3.0+. When you look language professors, they have 3.4-3.7 adverages (Each college usually has their own website with this information and I got these numbers from mine). I say go for it with two "easy" ish majors, but make bio psychology your primary so that you can drop Russian with no problems if it turns out its not for you. Declaring a language as a second major is really easy, there's no obligation, you can drop it or switch it to a minor all the way up until graduation.

Russian is pretty high on the list, but currently the top 4 critical languages are Chinese, Arabic, Korean, and Swahili.
 
ahuntedyeti,

Our DS commissioned last yr and is at UPT now.

He graduated with a dual major (Govt and Politics) minor in International Relations, core in Military History and was in the scholars program which required him to intern on the Hill 20 hrs a week for his sophomore yr....on top of AFROTC.

His cgpa was 3.43. His rank out of SFT was top 20%. His PFT was 98 or so. His SAT was 1390. He had solo'd in regards to his PPL. His overall AFOQT was in the 90's. He was in AAS. He was top 20% in the det.

All of this matters for the rated board. It is like the scholarship...the whole candidate. His group had 100% rated selection, but 1 got CSO (eyes), and 1 got RPA. 13 cadets out of 13 that asked for rated got rated.


If you want rated, and are going to major in non-tech, major in what you enjoy.

The plus side is AFROTC requires foreign language, so that major will kill 2 birds with one stone.
 
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Pima said:
ahuntedyeti,

The plus side is AFROTC requires foreign language, so that major will kill 2 birds with one stone.
Click to expand...

Pima,

AFROTC does not require you to take a foriegn language. You can go your four years without taking a language and, if you are a tech major, this is most likely what will happen. You are only required to take the 2 ROTC classes per semester and fulfill the requirements for your major. Tech majors often require only 2 humanities which may be filled by a language, but can also be satisfied by a number of different classes. Many non-tech majors do require you to take a certain number of language classes, so your DS, as a Poli Sci/Gvt/Inta major, would have a curriculum that requires it. The OP's major may or may not require it, but AFROTC has nothing to do with that.
 
Non Ducor,

The thing is every yr AFROTC tweaks the scholarship. For our DS it was not a college issue. If you look in the bowels of this forum, there is a thread on this subject. DS not only had AP credits for French, but Latin too in HS. It was AFROTC that made him take 12 credits. His college accepted the credits.

Like I said, look back and you will see prior classe, had to take foreign language.
Your yr group might not require it. His did. He was a non-tech that carried no less than 19 credits.

I bow to you if that is current for AFROTC cadets.

Honestly for the OP this is moot. They want to fly. His cgpa is more important than his major if he is non-tech, especially because of PCSM2.0
 
All scholarship cadets (except nurses) activating scholarships starting 2012 must complete either 4 semesters/6 quarters of a single foreign language or 24 semester/36 quarter hours of math and physical science before they graduate/commission.
 
Thanks Becksgirl. For a second there I thought I was losing it. For DS, as I stated he had to have 12 credits, which would equal to 4 semesters.

Here is a question now...if not scholarship do you have to take a foreign language?

If so that would explain why non ducor duco believes it is not a requirement.
 
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Ok becksgirl, that makes sense. Because I know with absolute certainty that there are commissioning cadets at my det that have never taken a language in college and we were never told as scholarship cadets that we would have to. If you are in a tech major, or are in one of those non-tech science majors like biology, 24 credit hours of math and physical science will be filled easily by the end of sophomore year if not sooner, I've already filled that since I came in with 15 credit hours from dual enrollment that fit the description. Sorry Pima, I had never heard of this requirement for anyone besides non-tech, non-science related majors. But it makes sense why they would never mention it to us since its such an easy requirement to fill in a tech major and the non-tech majors at my school are already required to take the listed number of semesters in one language at the college.
 
Ok, if you did well on your SAT's, do well on your pt's, do well at the detachment and have a high GPA you will make it to Field Training. The more you struggle in anyone of those areas the tougher it becomes to make it to FT. I have no doubt that at some level in the USAF, double majoring probably could help a bit, especially if your second major is something they need. However, I also have no doubt that most any possible benefit gained from having a double major would be greatly outweighed if all of the extra work needed for that double major caused your GPA to suffer, or your training to suffer, etc......

My recommendation would be, find the major you like, work your butt off and get good grades, go to field training.
 
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