AFROTC Major when up for boards

LimonUp

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May 19, 2022
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When applying for an AFROTC Scholarship, I noticed how if your major was not a tech major, you would put “0GYY” or “General Studies” while all the tech majors had indentifiers making your major obvious. My question is if this still applies when going for the FT board or the rated board once you’re in AFROTC. What do the boards see when it comes to your major? If I’m not tech, do i look like every other non tech or would my majors name be visible to the Air Force? In an extreme example, would a gender studies major and an aviation science major—both technically non techs but one obviously more useful to the Air Force—be seen as the same? Thanks for the insight
 
You are evaluated based on Tech or Non Tech for EAs. I do not believe that your specific major, excluding specific technical programs for specific AFSCs, will change your OM. I am not 100% sure on this, but from what I have heard about this process I do not believe it will impact PSP boards outside going for a Rated Tech / Non - Rated Tech EA.
 
The post above nicely answers your question. I'll just add two related approaches if you're concerned about a non tech role impacting you.
1. Go for the major your have a passion for, apply to all branches, and let the chips fall where they may. Percentage wise less non-tech scholarships are given by the Air Force, but that doesn't mean zero non tech scholarships are given by them. Know that Army cares less about majors than Air Force and Navy overall. So you may wish to apply to all of them with your dream major and see how it works out.
2. As an alt. strategy, if your call / goal is to serve somewhere as an officer more than participate in a specific branch, AND you have the skills/ willingness to handle a tech major, you may consider applying for a Rated Tech scholarship with AFROTC and then applying for the Army/ Navy with your dream major Professional Flight or whatever. DS did this - he had an engineering background in HS through project lead the way, and would have accepted the TECH rated AFROTC scholarship he was offered if the others did not come through and that worked out for him. It's a hedging strategy that would only work if you're OK with a tech major for 4 years - overly miserable approach if you're not.
 
Thanks for the insight. For context, I have a non tech Air Force scholarship and genuinely don’t know what I want to study. I have my PPL and dream of being a pilot, and I am aware pilots do not require a specific degree unless they want to be a test pilot. The only major from tech which interested me a lot was meteorology as I find weather interesting and feel it is very important to being a pilot but I know meteorology majors are rare to become pilots because it’s critically manned. Because I’m not tech, the commander from the det I’ll be attending, my SASI, and friends in AFROTC suggested I take full advantage of being non tech because once I declare tech I cannot go back to non tech. I’ve considered going for something related to weather that is not meteorology and then just taking a bunch of the weather classes as my classes of choice. I already know non tech is not as desirable than tech to the Air Force, but because of the circumstances of not knowing what I want to exactly major in, I think going tech and locking me into one major would not be wise and therefore I want to at least start out non tech but still want to be conscious on if the Air Force would even like my major. If the Air Force can’t tell the difference from gender studies to something STEM but non tech, then I guess I shouldn’t stress the specific major.
 
My DD earned a Type 1 tech. She was miserable first semester. She did get HQ to approve a change to a Type 2 non-tech this spring. Went from a 2.5 to 3.8 semester GPA and a lot happier. So you can change with some work but most likely would lose a Type 1 if offered that.
 
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