AFROTC reducing HS scholarships in favor of In-College scholarships

Seeking clarification for son who is entering HS as a Senior this year and has just begun the AFROTC application process: if he does not receive the all elusive Type 1 AFROTC scholarship, then he will basically not be eligible for financial assistance via AFROTC until his Junior yr in college assuming he participates in the college AFROTC program for freshman and sophomore years without AF financial assistance and qualifies after that? So there are no Type 2 or 7 scholarships anymore either?
 
1NervousMom said:
Seeking clarification for son who is entering HS as a Senior this year and has just begun the AFROTC application process: if he does not receive the all elusive Type 1 AFROTC scholarship, then he will basically not be eligible for financial assistance via AFROTC until his Junior yr in college assuming he participates in the college AFROTC program for freshman and sophomore years without AF financial assistance and qualifies after that? So there are no Type 2 or 7 scholarships anymore either?
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That seems to be correct - only Type 1 is listed on the new application guide just posted to the AFROTC site.
 

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Herman_Snerd said:
Great posts/ details above. thanks for sharing all.

The increase in ICSP awards is a positive, but as food for thought, here are a couple of concerning perspectives on these changes.
  1. Attracting top talent: There are a number of elite high schoolers who have, well very often, their choice on where to go to college, and their choice of which of ROTC or SA branch they would wish to serve in – rock star scholar/ athlete/leaders, national record holders, inventors, built their own companies etc. with some impressive accomplishments. And there are a few hundred more who maybe don't walk on water but are just OUTSTANDING. For this group they may have ROTC scholarships in hand from Army and/ or Navy ROTC/ SAs- full 4 year or 3 year rides and less people will have scholarships from HS from AF. Some of Army/ Navy scholarships also come with 4 years of room and board. So this change may make the AF less attractive to those top candidates.
  2. Less 4 year scholarships/ less people on scholarship for their first years in college: This means more people would need to join AFROTC as a college programmer, and compete for a scholarship in AFROTC. So less people will have 4 year scholarships, and it notes the ICSP awards are not retroactive – so more AFROTC candidates will be paying for years 1 and 2 in addition to the risk of paying for years 3 and 4 if not invited to move forward to advanced training. There is no moving forward to advanced years unless invited – imaging competing, meeting standards, then not only not getting a scholarship, but being dropped entirely. Before this change a number of students had 2 free years of education at-least before they were unceremoniously dropped.
  3. Middle child syndrome: The students now in the AFROTC program with 3 year Type 2 or less than full type 1 scholarships may get no benefit from this increase in ICSP awards – this will help others, but not those who agreed to lower tier packages.
Ultimately candidates will decide where the best path is for them, but with college costs today it would be great to see less young people who are committed to serve come out of school with debt. I agree there will be some benefits for the existing ICSP candidates, but overall I see some drawbacks to these changes.

All feedback or perspectives welcome:)
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I agree Herman. I think top technical talent that are not on the Ivy track will look at other branches or academic scholarships in general. I feel for the middle child cadets in the middle who may not be picked up for a scholarship.
I was a ICSP awardee back in the day for AROTC. The only caveat that sucks and I am going to say it is I ended up taking out some student loans and then received some scholarship. When it was time for active duty, I felt like I was doing the same job as those officers that had full rides. Also, prior servicemembes also were debt free with GI bills picking up that first year of the bill. The only advantage is that I didn't have the highest GPA (but great test scores) and the ICSP allowed me to start over with my GPA. It seems like the USAF will save money going this route, get more cadets who are dedicated but the burden will fall more on the cadet to prove themself.
College students don't oversleep and miss PT if so you won't get your scholarship lol.
 
Is it possible they simply upgraded all the scholarships to type 1?
They did that this year after the fact every type 2 and 7 got upgraded to type 1.
So maybe they are simplifying the process and categories and will be more competitive with USARMY and USNAVY.

So maybe there is a reduction in HS based scholarships but its off of the total of TYPE 1+ TYPE 2 and TYPE 7. As if they keep only the number of type 1's that would be a really small pool and wouldn't make sense to me.
 
5280Aspens said:
That seems to be correct - only Type 1 is listed on the new application guide just posted to the AFROTC site.
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Even the website only lists Type 1 for high school scholarships. The college scholarships page list has Type 1 and Type 2. I wish they'd comment if a current Type 2 in college like my kid is can apply for a bump to a Type 1. His college has gotten very tight with their aid and a bump up sure would help.
AFROTC is also offering a Nursing Scholarship now as part of the college scholarships.
 
ASKMEAGAINDAD said:
Is it possible they simply upgraded all the scholarships to type 1?
They did that this year after the fact every type 2 and 7 got upgraded to type 1.
So maybe they are simplifying the process and categories and will be more competitive with USARMY and USNAVY.

So maybe there is a reduction in HS based scholarships but its off of the total of TYPE 1+ TYPE 2 and TYPE 7. As if they keep only the number of type 1's that would be a really small pool and wouldn't make sense to me.
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I would tend to agree, and hope you are right. I guess my oldest got lucky before the started changing things (although I will say he definitely had the needed resume to get a type 1 scholarship). He was awarded AFROTC type 1 HS scholarship to attend Colorado State University back in 2018 and is just finishing up (5 year plan) this year. He has been an excellent student (BS Mech Eng), solid cadent, and just got his pilot slot confirmed few weeks ago. He will be a great asset to the AF for years and years. If type 1 scholarships drop off a lot the AF will definitely be missing out on very solid candidates. His younger brother, Jr in HS, is looking at ROTC options as well so sure hope AF hasn't removed too many of those HS scholarships for those that may not want to go to an Ivy...
 
I think the Air Force is making a smart business decision based on their current requirements and the talent pool they have in colleges now.

It may be a little tougher through the HSSP path, but for those in high school, you can always give NROTC another look. We're like Motel 6......we'll leave the light on for you. 😉
 
SoCal_Dad said:
I would tend to agree, and hope you are right. I guess my oldest got lucky before the started changing things (although I will say he definitely had the needed resume to get a type 1 scholarship). He was awarded AFROTC type 1 HS scholarship to attend Colorado State University back in 2018 and is just finishing up (5 year plan) this year. He has been an excellent student (BS Mech Eng), solid cadent, and just got his pilot slot confirmed few weeks ago. He will be a great asset to the AF for years and years. If type 1 scholarships drop off a lot the AF will definitely be missing out on very solid candidates. His younger brother, Jr in HS, is looking at ROTC options as well so sure hope AF hasn't removed too many of those HS scholarships for those that may not want to go to an Ivy...
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I would guess that the Air Force would respond that they have found they don't need to award Type 1 HSSP scholarships to get students to enroll in AFROTC at Colorado State. Indeed, a Type 7 would have done the trick since Colorado State is a public university. But that aside, they have evidently concluded that giving close to 100% of POC cadets scholarships > giving a smaller percentage scholarships from freshman year forward, with significant attrition along the way. For the Air Force, that seems like a smart choice.
 
franknd said:
I would guess that the Air Force would respond that they have found they don't need to award Type 1 HSSP scholarships to get students to enroll in AFROTC
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Frankly, it may be a smart move as it will also cause colleges to have more incentive to put "skin in the game," to attract these very talented students instead of relying on the DOD scholarships. The kids who qualify for these national scholarships are often outstanding students, athletes with demonstrated leadership potential. Most schools will want to offer them merit scholarships to enroll. However, a lot of very bright high school students may think they want to be an officer, but by their junior year in college, change their mind. Those that stick with ROTC into their junior year are more mature, more certain in their choices - and the ROTC staff has had two years to assess their qualities and motivation.
 
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