AFROTC Scholarship

A

alphafoxtrot

New Member
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Mar 27, 2016
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Hello all, I was wondering if anyone had statistics regarding the allocation of Type 1, 2, and 7 scholarships. I know the percent of applicants that are awarded each, but it is kind of an empty number without knowing relative GPA, test scores, run time, etc. I purchased the Insiders Guide eBook but it wasn't much help either.
A little about me-
HS Junior, 7/~560, Suburban TX, White Male
4.00 UW GPA, 4.60 W GPA
1440 PSAT, expect ~1550 on the real thing. NMS commended
4 years JV Golf, ~9:30 1.5mi run
Finishing up Eagle Scout. Served as troop leader and earned triple crown.
Intended Major- Civil or Systems Engineering
Not sure if it matters, but Uncle is retired commissioned USAF and both grandparents USN. Multiple Scout leaders retired USAF pilots.
Thanks in advance!
 
You are not really going to find the GPAs because there are @20,000 HSs in the nation with all different grading systems. IE. you state that you have a 4.6 WGPA, BUT HQAFROTC does not use a 5.0 wgpa scale, thus your wcgpa is going to be lower in their computations.

Additionally, the 4.0 for you might be on a 10 point grading scale, but for someone else their 4.0 might be on a 7 point scale. A 92 on a 10 point scale is an A, but on a 7 point it is a B. An 84 on a 10 is a solid B, but on a 7 point it is a C.

This is just one of the reasons why why they will ask for a school profile.

Another reason is they will look at not only your course curriculum compared to your peers, but how the school ranks out by their standards. Yes, most kids will say their school is competitive, but what HQ AFROTC is going to use to determine this is looking at stats. How many go to Ivy vs 4 yr public/private vs 2 yr vs trade vs workforce.
~ Being top 5% at a school where 0 go to Ivy, 15% go to 4 yr. 50% go to 2 yr and the remaining go to the workforce even with a 4.0 is different than the candidate that is top 15% at a school where 25% go Ivy, 40% go 4 yr, 25% go 2 and 10% go to work. The latter is seen as going to a more competitive school just from the fact that a higher % is going to Ivy and 4 yr.

AFROTC boards are national, they do not care what state you are from.

Your ECs are good and your run is good too. AFROTC does not do superscore for SAT or ACT it is best sitting. Best sitting avgs range from high 1200 to 1350 depending on their scholarship type and intended major.
~ PS you can only have 3 yrs of JV by the end of your junior yr because 8th grade does not count, nor does anything you do as a senior. The board only looks at 9-11.

I would think that you have a very strong chance for a scholarship, but would not say which type because of 1 last thing. Nobody knows the size of the pool you will be competing against, nor what the budget will be for your yr group. Typically, there are less than 1000 scholarships awarded. Out of that it will be less than 200 NATIONALLY that will get a type 1 or 2.
~ Statistically it has always hovered around 16-18% that will get a scholarship.

Finally, as you go down this path it is important to think about college choices from a financial perspective too.
1. Some cadets decide after their 1st yr that ROTC life is not what they envisioned and leave.
2. AFROTC scholarship is what we call here a 2+2. If you stay pass the 1st yr, than you compete for SFT. If not selected they typically will dis-enroll you from the program. Thus, loss of the scholarship.
3. You intend to major in a STEM(tech) program, but if you decide at college you hate engineering and want to change majors to a non-tech program, than you will need HQ AFROTC's approval. Chances are very high they will allow you to change, BUT not keep the scholarship.

In essence can you afford to attend that dream school if you lose the scholarship for whatever reason?

There are many posters here that every year after taking the scholarship, be it A/AF/NROTC that do not commission 4 yrs later for various reasons. Yet, I would say that the majority of cadets that enter the program, scholarship or not assume when they entered that they would commission.
~ DS's class started with over 100 cadets as an AS100, by the end of his freshmen yr 70 moved onto AS200. Start of his 200 yr, they had over 110 cadets (200s +250s). SFT came around and @60 went to Maxwell. After SFT, before the start of their 300 yr some cadets (non-scholarship) decided it wasn't for them, thus decided to walk ---with the permission of HQ. In the end he commissioned with @30 cadets.
~~ That number is basically the amount that will commission out of ROTC 4 yrs later. @25% is common.
~~~ His det. is considered large by AFROTC since they have at any given time @250+ cadets.

I do not know what your career intentions are, but here are my final tidbits of advice.
1. Research career fields in each branch.
~ Want to be a pilot? Great, but what if you don't get that slot? Are you willing to be flying a desk?
~ What if you get pilot, but wash out? Again are you willing to fly a desk stationed at Eilson AK, Mt. Home ID or Canon NM?
~~ Would you rather be happy in the Army if those aspirations do not occur?
2. Too many cadets get tripped up on the DoDMERB aspect. They are sooooo busy trying to get a scholarship to pay for college that they forget to activate it they need to pass the medical.

I hope my novella helps. OBTW, there is no such thing as legacy when it comes to the scholarship. You are just a candidate that is competing against other candidates.
~ Caveat unless we are talking about someone like John McCain, George H Bush, etc. Someone that has connections where they can play a trump card. Otherwise, the only edge you really have right now is the ability to be prepped for the interview which is part of the WCS.
 
"How many go to Ivy vs 4 yr public/private..."
Your son's school's profile is a different style of profile than what I've seen. My kids' school's profile, and others I've seen locally, don't have info on # of Ivy acceptances broken out. The profiles have stats on grads attenting colleges and scholarship dollars received, but no % going to Ivies. It hasn't harmed the students. Both of my kids got awards from all of the services and their school always sends some to ROTC and the Academies each year.
But I'm curious how/why your school breaks out just the Ivies from other selective schools that are just as hard, if not harder to get into. For instance, not all Ivies are at the same level of selectivity. HYP are the top three. And outside of the Ivies, MIT and Stanford are as hard to get into as HYP and harder than the other Ivies. And there are other highly selective non-Ivy schools as well, Duke, Rice, Harvey Mudd, Wash U, Chicago, Cal, etc. It seems like your school is short selling itself by highlighting Ivy kids as the only breakout among it stats. Have the counselors explained why they only look at Ivies? Thanks.
 
unknown,

It is not my kids school, but what HQ AFROTC is looking at regarding the sealed transcript. Key word is sealed.
~ Sealed includes a lot more than you think.

Typically for Ivies it would be HYPPSM
~ Harvard, Yale, Princeton, UPenn, Stanford and MIT.

Yes, the others you listed are competitive, hence why they also look at 4 yr Private/Public.

I did not create the system. I am only stating what I know that was told to me by the GC for DS for AFROTC. They ask for a school profile. That profile is even deeper than I posted earliert
~ How many AP/IBs offered. Percentage of students that take AP/IB classes. Pre-reqs needed for AP/IB
~~ They will not ding a student for having 6 APs if they only offer 6 compared to the candidate that has 6 and they offer 15.
~~ They will not ding the candidate that could only take 6 because the school system has a specific pre-req for APs. IE for my DS in NC he could take either Std or Honors Bio, no AP Bio option until he completed std or honors Bio. For my other 2 in VA they could take AP or std or honors, there was no pre-req.
~ They will go back and as I stated earlier use an algorithm to decide what that wcgpa is. 4.6 is not going to be their number because they do not use a 5.0 scale.

My children were AF brats, not one attended less than 8 schools during their educational yrs, K-12. Only 1 of my 3 had the luxury of attending only 1 HS....the other 2 went to 2 different HSs in 2 different states.
~ DS1, ADAF pilot, AFROTC scholarship type 2 commissioned went to a HS where it was a 7 pt grading scale. Did not do AP Bio/Chem because the pre-req for APs was to take the honors Bio 1st. His school was like college...semesters, 4 classes ea semester.
~ DD and DS2 attended HS in another state. ( DS1 is 2 yrs older than DD and 4 yrs older than DS2) He graduated HS and his younger brother entered HS when he entered college as a freshmen. The younger 2 went to a HS that was a 10 pt scale and could take std/honors or AP Bio. IOWS they walked out with more AP classes. Plus since it was a 10 pt scale that 84 was a B for them, whereas for their brother in a different state that 84 was a C.

Again, their schools did not make the rules. HQ AFROTC did. There are over 20 THOUSAND HS in the nation. AFROTC needs to create a balance and not the GC to argue with them. HQ asks them to submit a school profile.

FWIW use my kids as a model. DS1 attended a HS that was the best in the area, but nothing like my younger kids where their school in a different state was ranked top in the state. A school that offers AICE. A school where several got appointed to the SAs. I live in No VA. Avg superscore SAT is 1350+ out of 1600.
~ Are you seeing what I am saying?
~~ Every kid will say I attend a competitive school, but when push comes to shove from a national level (ROTC board) is it really competitive?

Not trying to be rude, mean or unkind, but for the OP uwcpa 4.6 is not a real number since they do not use a 5.0 scale. 7 out of 560 is amazing. 1440 PSAT an NMF is a feather.

They look great!

Let's not divert the thread, if you want to discuss the process more for AFROTC than start a new thread. I hate chance me threads, but I felt the need to respond not only from the I have researched aspect, but also to remind them money matters when it comes to paying the bursar every semester.
 
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Not meaning to divert, just asking a question on some post info that contradicted our experiences with ROTC applications. Seems kind of silly to start a new thread for a side question and then invite you to the side thread where I asked the question. But, I'll stop here and just mention that no ROTC is not seeing those percentages in the students' apps from my kids' sealed school's profile (and I don't need the key word pointed out, I know it's sealed). I've seen the profile and it just lists the colleges where grads have been accepted. And we don't list the numbers who have been accepted at each, so there is no way for people to calculate percentages. (Per our local NROTC commander, they do not look at percentages as described.)
Finally, it does seem odd that AFROTC would dump very selective schools like Chicago, Wash U, Cal, Rice, and Duke in a general category of 4 yr Private/Public. And apparently AFROTC needs to learn that MIT and Stanford are not in the Ivy League if they're categorizing them like you say they are. I'll stop here and not divert anymore.
 
Thanks y'all for all the replies! Regarding questions about my school, about 5 NMS Semifinalists a year 12 NMS Commended. Will have taken 10 (maybe 12) APs by end of junior year, but the school offers all of them. As should be As on any GPA scale (lowest on unofficial transcript is 93). Whoever offered the 25% commissioning rate, that really provides insight about the program in general. If I were to drop ROTC I wouldn't be absolutely depending on a scholarship financially. Will probably try out the program even if i don't receive a scholarship. If I did end up commissioning I believe 1st choice would be Intel or similar. Willing to work anywhere. I know the guy that got accepted to Annapolis this year at my school in my very competitive district and I have similar stats. Anyone know the relative competitiveness? I've visited USAFA and I liked it but didn't love it. So in answering my original question the allocation of scholarships is based on the needs of the particular branch? Is chance there will be more slots with a new CiC? Who should be my first point of contact regarding the program/scholarship?
 
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alphafoxtrot said:
Thanks y'all for all the replies! Regarding questions about my school, about 5 NMS Semifinalists a year 12 NMS Commended. Will have taken 10 (maybe 12) APs by end of junior year, but the school offers all of them. As should be As on any GPA scale (lowest on unofficial transcript is 93). Whoever offered the 25% commissioning rate, that really provides insight about the program in general. If I were to drop ROTC I wouldn't be absolutely depending on a scholarship financially. Will probably try out the program even if i don't receive a scholarship. If I did end up commissioning I believe 1st choice would be Intel or similar. Willing to work anywhere. I know the guy that got accepted to Annapolis this year at my school in my very competitive district and I have similar stats. Anyone know the relative competitiveness? I've visited USAFA and I liked it but didn't love it. So in answering my original question the allocation of scholarships is based on the needs of the particular branch? Is chance there will be more slots with a new CiC? Who should be my first point of contact regarding the program/scholarship?
Click to expand...
I don't know about the number of ROTC scholarships, that's above my pay grade. Logic would be that if Trump increases the size of the military, then they'd increase the number of ROTC cadets and academy slots. As for commissions, my son is at a smaller detachment and they're close to all going to field training and then later commissioning. Schools and detachments are different.
When you ask about relative competitiveness, one really can't say. Of course there is a base level, but you need to apply and find out. Talk to your counselor about this. They'll know the local ROTC and Academy contacts and you can talk to them. Also, there are too many other factors outside of scores and grades that can't be evaluated here: how well are the letters of rec written, your essays, how you do in the interview, etc. Looking at your activities, it looks like you only have JV golf and scouts. The academies and ROTC might look for more than 2 activities and ones that demonstrate leadership (obviously, scouts has this and represents one area). This could include Senate, clubs, debate, etc. Even for competitive private colleges, those two activities are a little light. But I'm assuming you have more that you didn't point out.
Just keep working hard, study for the ACT and SAT (take these in Spring of this year so you can take again if needed). Try to find a good selective summer program you can add to your resume (too late for the academies' summer seminars though), or get a job even. And then apply where you want. Don't worry about being "chanced."
 
Thanks agian for helping me out. What I've taken from this is there are no cut and dry statistics on this and the only way I'm going to find out if I have a shot is to apply come summer.
 
Pima said:
unknown,

It is not my kids school, but what HQ AFROTC is looking at regarding the sealed transcript. Key word is sealed.
~ Sealed includes a lot more than you think.

Typically for Ivies it would be HYPPSM
~ Harvard, Yale, Princeton, UPenn, Stanford and MIT.

Yes, the others you listed are competitive, hence why they also look at 4 yr Private/Public.

I did not create the system. I am only stating what I know that was told to me by the GC for DS for AFROTC. They ask for a school profile. That profile is even deeper than I posted earliert
~ How many AP/IBs offered. Percentage of students that take AP/IB classes. Pre-reqs needed for AP/IB
~~ They will not ding a student for having 6 APs if they only offer 6 compared to the candidate that has 6 and they offer 15.
~~ They will not ding the candidate that could only take 6 because the school system has a specific pre-req for APs. IE for my DS in NC he could take either Std or Honors Bio, no AP Bio option until he completed std or honors Bio. For my other 2 in VA they could take AP or std or honors, there was no pre-req.
~ They will go back and as I stated earlier use an algorithm to decide what that wcgpa is. 4.6 is not going to be their number because they do not use a 5.0 scale.

My children were AF brats, not one attended less than 8 schools during their educational yrs, K-12. Only 1 of my 3 had the luxury of attending only 1 HS....the other 2 went to 2 different HSs in 2 different states.
~ DS1, ADAF pilot, AFROTC scholarship type 2 commissioned went to a HS where it was a 7 pt grading scale. Did not do AP Bio/Chem because the pre-req for APs was to take the honors Bio 1st. His school was like college...semesters, 4 classes ea semester.
~ DD and DS2 attended HS in another state. ( DS1 is 2 yrs older than DD and 4 yrs older than DS2) He graduated HS and his younger brother entered HS when he entered college as a freshmen. The younger 2 went to a HS that was a 10 pt scale and could take std/honors or AP Bio. IOWS they walked out with more AP classes. Plus since it was a 10 pt scale that 84 was a B for them, whereas for their brother in a different state that 84 was a C.

Again, their schools did not make the rules. HQ AFROTC did. There are over 20 THOUSAND HS in the nation. AFROTC needs to create a balance and not the GC to argue with them. HQ asks them to submit a school profile.

FWIW use my kids as a model. DS1 attended a HS that was the best in the area, but nothing like my younger kids where their school in a different state was ranked top in the state. A school that offers AICE. A school where several got appointed to the SAs. I live in No VA. Avg superscore SAT is 1350+ out of 1600.
~ Are you seeing what I am saying?
~~ Every kid will say I attend a competitive school, but when push comes to shove from a national level (ROTC board) is it really competitive?

Not trying to be rude, mean or unkind, but for the OP uwcpa 4.6 is not a real number since they do not use a 5.0 scale. 7 out of 560 is amazing. 1440 PSAT an NMF is a feather.

They look great!

Let's not divert the thread, if you want to discuss the process more for AFROTC than start a new thread. I hate chance me threads, but I felt the need to respond not only from the I have researched aspect, but also to remind them money matters when it comes to paying the bursar every semester.
Click to expand...

Pima, HQ AFROTC for HSSP does not require "sealed" transcripts now. Just an uploaded copy done by the applicant. They also stopped drug testing for DoDMERB. Funny how times are a changing.
 
I did not think they did drug testing for DoDMERB, but than again my DS did not do drugs. I always was under the impression that the urine exam was for looking at things like too much protein in the urine.
~ Think something along the lines, like pregnant women do a urine check at every pre-natal exam.
 
alphafoxtrot said:
Thanks agian for helping me out. What I've taken from this is there are no cut and dry statistics on this and the only way I'm going to find out if I have a shot is to apply come summer.
Click to expand...

If your school has a JROTC unit stop by their classroom and ask them if they have any stats. At our unit as part AMI and parent night they have a slide show of the JROTC officers and HS accomplishments. They will be able to give you a good prediction how you may fair.

We are Texas suburb as well.
 
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