Sleeplessnights
5-Year Member
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2016
- Messages
- 22
I haven't posted before, but I would like to take the time to thank everyone on this forum for their posts. In one sense, I was luckier than most parents. My DS didn't apply to the AFA, nor did he apply for an AFROTC scholarship while in high school. Hence, we never worried about his chances, or his plans A, B, and C. He applied to mostly large state schools, and decided to enter AFROTC after attending an ROTC open house that was held during his college registration period two months before school started. Remaining clueless, we had no idea what the DODMERB was until after he submitted his remedial information, which he got from his pediatrician, and was cleared.
I started to pay more attention when he told me about the field training selection process, and I finally found this forum.
The name "Sleeplessnights" relates to his time at UPT, but that's another tale. He recently graduated from UPT, and is off to his next round of training.
So ultimately, here's some comments for those wanting to be an Air Force Officer, primarily if you didn't get accepted to the AFA or receive a scholarship. The most important thing to remember is that not having an AFROTC scholarship does not effect you chances of getting an EA.
My DS never did win a scholarship (the AF may very few ICSP offers to his cohort). While in AFROTC, he worked very hard on the things he could directly control - his gpa, and his PFA score, while participating in his detachment. After messing up his first college exam, he buckled down, and devoted his freshman and sophomore years to getting an EA. Because of this, college wasn't quite the party he hoped it would be. (However - he more than made up for it at the end.) Like most of the engineering students in his detachment, his program of study ran 5 years, which helped with his gpa. After field training, he asked the "Bank of Dad" to fund PRK surgery so he could try for a pilot slot. This was a leap of faith, as there was no guarantee of a rated slot at the time I paid for the surgery. But again, he knew what he needed to do, he worked for it, and he never lost "sight" of his goal.
So my advice is really simple - pick a college with AFROTC that you can afford, such as a state school, and just go for it!
Good luck to those starting the journey.
I started to pay more attention when he told me about the field training selection process, and I finally found this forum.
The name "Sleeplessnights" relates to his time at UPT, but that's another tale. He recently graduated from UPT, and is off to his next round of training.
So ultimately, here's some comments for those wanting to be an Air Force Officer, primarily if you didn't get accepted to the AFA or receive a scholarship. The most important thing to remember is that not having an AFROTC scholarship does not effect you chances of getting an EA.
My DS never did win a scholarship (the AF may very few ICSP offers to his cohort). While in AFROTC, he worked very hard on the things he could directly control - his gpa, and his PFA score, while participating in his detachment. After messing up his first college exam, he buckled down, and devoted his freshman and sophomore years to getting an EA. Because of this, college wasn't quite the party he hoped it would be. (However - he more than made up for it at the end.) Like most of the engineering students in his detachment, his program of study ran 5 years, which helped with his gpa. After field training, he asked the "Bank of Dad" to fund PRK surgery so he could try for a pilot slot. This was a leap of faith, as there was no guarantee of a rated slot at the time I paid for the surgery. But again, he knew what he needed to do, he worked for it, and he never lost "sight" of his goal.
So my advice is really simple - pick a college with AFROTC that you can afford, such as a state school, and just go for it!
Good luck to those starting the journey.
