Applying Early Decision

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KERC33

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Will my son have a decision from the October board in time to apply for a November 1 early decision? He wants to know if he won the scholarship before committing ED.
 
Nobody can give you an accurate answer. He could get an answer before then, and he also might go without an answer until April of 2025.
 
KERC33 said:
Will my son have a decision from the October board in time to apply for a November 1 early decision? He wants to know if he won the scholarship before committing ED.
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It will be really close.

Looks like first board dates are 21-25 October for AROTC.

1 November is the following Friday.

I don’t think notifications will happen in a week. Once the board is complete, the results have to go through a review process and signed off by the CG. As is normal in the Army, there’s like 50 people who have to look at something and review/approve it before it hits the CG’s desk. Any one of those 50 people can kick it back for something as simple as word isn’t capitalized or a comma is in the wrong place.

I wouldn’t count on the results being published before 1 November.

You could consider pulling back the early decision application in the first or second week of November. Tell the school you haven’t heard back from AROTC or didn’t get a scholarship as the reason for pulling it back. You will not have a decision by then anyway. My oldest applied early decision so I understand what it means to do so. It’s not a good approach but at least it’s better than declining an offer of admission after applying early decision.

Your other option, if this is AROTC, is to contact the school’s ROO to get advice on how to approach this. Many ROTC units have good relationships with adcoms.
 
I don't recommend you apply early decision. The vast majority of scholarships are awarded by the later boards.
 
Having been through the ED process with my oldest, we knew the ins and out of it. The ED option was perfect for her.

However, West Pointer did not apply ED as she knew she wanted to attend a SA.

We didn’t see anywhere in the processes that applying ED with preference of attending a SA would be compatible.

My West Pointer applied only EA to a few public state flagship schools as her back-ups in case a SA didn’t work out.
 
KERC33 said:
Will my son have a decision from the October board in time to apply for a November 1 early decision? He wants to know if he won the scholarship before committing ED.
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Probably not, but maybe results will be faster than they were last year. Is your son's ED choice an IVY or highly selective school? From what we could tell last year, those were the vast majority of announcements from the 1st board (my daughter had her packet in prior to 1st board, but wasn't awarded her scholarship until after 2nd board as she didn't have Ivy's or T20 schools on her list.). Good luck!
 
KERC33 said:
Will my son have a decision from the October board in time to apply for a November 1 early decision? He wants to know if he won the scholarship before committing ED.
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Daughter is rising 2/c Mid NROTC (sophomore). She applied ED. Here's a long answer explaining her strategy.

>> First step: NROTC application.
When completing her NROTC application, local coordinator advised her to list any 3 colleges she liked as top 3 choices, then as 4th choice list an in-State public "safety" university which has NROTC, then for 5th choice enter a college from NROTC MSISR list (available online)-- if interested in attending one-- because that's the final Board to select scholarship recipients.

She listed her top 3 options in order of preference. (Criteria for those 3: school-based NROTC, not crosstown affiliate; strong program for major; selective but not "reach" statistics; and in large urban settings.)
Then as #4 she listed the in-State university which has NROTC. Then as #5 she chose University of New Mexico from the MSISR list.

She had her application completed & submitted by August.

>> Second step: college applications.
She applied to her #1 favorite as Early Decision, and also applied to both the in-State university & UNM (the MSISR). She was accepted by the in-state and the MSISR, which opened paths to contingency options if needed.

This was her strategy:
□ Plan A: accepted at #1 favorite as Early Decision + NROTC scholarship + financial aid (Pell & work-study) sufficient for room & board.
□ Plan B: accepted at #1 favorite as Early Decision + without NROTC scholarship, use university tuition scholarship + join NROTC as Programmmer.
□ Plan C: if rejected by #1 favorite university then apply to #2 & #3, see if school offers scholarship in case of need to join NROTC as Programmer without NROTC-paid tuition.
□ Plan D: if rejected by #1, 2 & 3, then decide between State university and UNM depending on whether awarded NROTC scholarship.
□ Plan E: if no scholarships awarded by NROTC nor colleges, therefore not financially able to attend college, enlist in Navy and pursue OCS.

(DD was accepted Early Decision at #1 choice college, GWU; received NROTC scholarship at March Board, got Pell grant & work-study job, and school has NROTC discount for housing. These allow her Plan A to pursue her goal of serving as a Navy officer. But she was ready to adapt to the other contingencies for alternate ways to commission.)
 
I don't understand the problem. Submit the ED application, and then if the scholarship has not been awarded before ED announcement date, withdraw the application or ask for it to be moved to regular decision.
 
KERC33 said:
Will my son have a decision from the October board in time to apply for a November 1 early decision? He wants to know if he won the scholarship before committing ED.
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This was the most stressful part of my older son's application process. He got his application in early and was fortunate to receive a scholarship on the first board, which was late October that year (2019). But for those few weeks after he submitted the application before he was awarded the scholarship, it was a heavy weight not knowing. My younger son did not follow that path. Fortunately his top school was early action non binding. He decided early on he wanted nothing binding and waited until April before enrolling, although he'd been accepted at all of his top schools by mid-December. I was so glad he chose no early decision paths. Best advice is to have frequent communication with unit staff and let them know his and your concerns.
 
Early Decision (ED) is usually a tricky situation on this site with SAs and ROTC. Lots of differing opinions

I only recommend applying ED to a school if you know it’s your clear #1 choice, out of all civilian schools and SAs. ED is binding if admitted. Many schools won’t let you withdraw from it after acceptance even for SA appointments
 
I personally hate ED. I feel like it's a great deal for schools, not so much for students. But that's a thread for another day.

Bottom line, if you have your heart set on a certain school, take advice from @franknd and if you don't have the ROTC decision by Halloween, call the school and explain the situation. I am sure they will gladly move your application to RD.

Regardless, the bottom line is you can't possibly commit to any school ED if the ROTC scholarship is a financial necessity to attend.
 
Ivy22 said:
Early Decision (ED) is usually a tricky situation on this site with SAs and ROTC. Lots of differing opinions

I only recommend applying ED to a school if you know it’s your clear #1 choice, out of all civilian schools and SAs. ED is binding if admitted. Many schools won’t let you withdraw from it after acceptance even for SA appointments
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An ED admission may be more difficult to decline for a student/family who can afford full price tuition, room & board, etc. and doesn't need any financial aid-- however the situation is different if a student needs/qualifies for financial aid:

'... the most prominent entity in the field — the National Association for College Admission Counseling — offers up crystal clear language that schools can (and do) use in their early decision agreements: 'Should a student who applies for financial aid not be offered an award that makes attendance possible, the student may decline the offer of admission and be released from the early decision commitment.'"
www.nytimes.com

Early Decision Isn’t Binding. Let Us Explain. (Published 2021)

If you can’t afford the price a college quotes you, you don’t have to go. We corrected an N.Y.U. blog post and rewrote the Common App for you.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
 
KERC33 said:
Will my son have a decision from the October board in time to apply for a November 1 early decision? He wants to know if he won the scholarship before committing ED.
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1). Will he not join ROTC without a ROTC scholarship?
2). Is your family filling out all the financial aid forms that my parents used to work on at the kitchen table every year?
 
Both my boys got their Type 1 Scholarships in mid October in 21 and 23 respectively for AFROTC.
 
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