AROTC Scholarship and Vision Eligibility Question

FloridaTish

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My daughter is currently a high school junior and is a member of her high school's NJROTC and she has started to put more thought into joining Army ROTC in college, as it is what is offered at her top choices. However, her vision in her left eye isn't great. As a child she suffered from Strabismus (her left eye turned in a bit) with amblyopia (reduced vision in one eye at a very young age, in connection to her lazy eye). She wore glasses from ages 1 to 12, and while her "lazy eye" strengthened as she wore glasses throughout her childhood and the muscles grew stronger, corrected the issue and her eye is "normal", her vision in her left eye never improved.

She has put serious thought into joining the service after college and when ROTC in college was brought up to her by her NJROTC sergeant, she began to give it more thought. Wanting to see what her vision was currently at and wanting to speak with her eye doctor who she has seen throughout the years, I looked online and saw that for ROTC, if wearing corrective lenses, eyesight must meet certain correction standards.

Her eyesight without glasses is 20/20 in her right eye, 20/200 in her left.

With lenses, the best it can be corrected to in her left eye is 20/70, per her testing yesterday. Would this disqualify her from ROTC entirely? Do they offer waivers? If she can't do ROTC, if she wanted to apply to Officers Candidate School after college, would her vision prevent her from joining?

Otherwise she is in great health, her eye doctor said her eye is healthy as can be, but her vision in her left eye just didn't develop like it should when she was young. When it comes to her eyes, you wouldn’t know she has bad vision unless she mentioned it. On her first marksmanship attempt, where she fired 7 times, each time she hit the center, nearly dead on, without glasses. Her sergeant was impressed and has been talking to her about continuing on with ROTC in college. Over the years, her right eye learned to compensate for the poor vision in her left. Because her poor vision is due to amblyopia at a very young age, she is not a candidate for lasik or PTK surgery, unfortunately. Just glasses to correct with lenses, which only gets her to the 20/70 point in her left eye. She is 20/20 in her right without lenses.

If she were to be eligible, she would like to apply for an AROTC scholarship. She’s worked very hard in high school, takes honors and AP classes, she is a member of the Engineering and Technology Academy cohort at her school, National Honor Society, Spanish National Honor Society, plays 1 varsity sport and another city league (slowpitch softball for 8 seasons), works part time, volunteers as a foster mom for a local shelter, has a 4.3 GPA and is in the top 3% of her class as a junior. With an IQ somewhere between 140 and 150, she’s no slouch and likes to be challenged. She is scheduled to take the SAT for the 1st time next weekend, as well as in December. Her practice SAT scores she has been doing for prep, have her averaging a 1250. She is just not a superb standardized test taker. She can be too overly analytical and overthinks things at times, probably to her detriment, in a timed test environment.

Is the ACT required in addition to the SAT or is it more preferred on applications? Are females given the same consideration for scholarships as men? I'm asking that not as s sexist issue, but rather I honestly have no clue if there are actual ratios about how many are given out to men over women. We were looking online to try and find what recent 4 year winner scores and stats were, but there is so much out there, recent info was hard to find. She know she needs to improve on her cardio, as running was never her strong suit, but she can knock out her situps and pushups like a champ!

Sorry to ask so many questions, but there are so many differing things online regarding vision DQ's). Any answers you might have would be greatly appreciated!
 
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Quick recommendation - perhaps a moderator might recommend a move of this to the DOD-MERB thread for the medical issue q?

OP, best of luck to your daughter and thanks to her and you for her willingness to serve.

Impressive stats and right in-line with the scholar athlete leader that appeals to these branches. Recommend she outline in her applications where she led vs. participated. Can she be a captain of her sport team, etc. an officer in NHS? Hard working, results achieving, willing/ interested to serve - you should be very proud. You mention cardio could be better - She can work on her cardio starting now so she can max out her fitness tests. You mention SAT could be better - She can also pursue free or paid SAT prep coursework to get her test results a bit higher - like the Khan academy et al.

Does she have a diagnosed limited field of vision/ occlusion as part of her vision issues? Also confirm each branch's corrected vision / uncorrected vision limits with the experts. Better to know now what you might need or can do. I'm sorry if it ends up being an issue. Ultimately there are many paths to serve including homeland, FBI, Justice, Jag Corps, CIA, NSA, etc- just keep that in mind if ROTC doesn't end up being her path.

Great that you're looking into this so soon - I recommend she explore every path to serve - Army, Navy, Air Force ROTC. Academies including Merchant Marine, Annapolis, USMA. Coast Guard. It doesn't stink to have multiple options on which to accept if that ends up happening - just not a bad problem to have.

Keep your questions flowing and we'll do our best to answer. Best of luck.
 
Quick recommendation - perhaps a moderator might recommend a move of this to the DOD-MERB thread for the medical issue q?

OP, best of luck to your daughter and thanks to her and you for her willingness to serve.

Impressive stats and right in-line with the scholar athlete leader that appeals to these branches. Recommend she outline in her applications where she led vs. participated. Can she be a captain of her sport team, etc. an officer in NHS? Hard working, results achieving, willing/ interested to serve - you should be very proud. You mention cardio could be better - She can work on her cardio starting now so she can max out her fitness tests. You mention SAT could be better - She can also pursue free or paid SAT prep coursework to get her test results a bit higher - like the Khan academy et al.

Does she have a diagnosed limited field of vision/ occlusion as part of her vision issues? Also confirm each branch's corrected vision / uncorrected vision limits with the experts. Better to know now what you might need or can do. I'm sorry if it ends up being an issue. Ultimately there are many paths to serve including direct service, homeland, FBI, justice, etc- just keep that in mind if ROTC doesn't end up being her path.

Great that you're looking into this so soon - I recommend she explore every path to serve - Army, Navy, Air Force ROTC. Academies including Merchant Marine, Annapolis, USMA. Coast Guard. It doesn't stink to have multiple options on which to accept if that ends up happening - just not a bad problem to have.

Keep your questions flowing and we'll do our best to answer. Best of luck.
Thanks so much for your response. Unfortunately, COVID-19 really put the kibosh on things her sophomore year this past Spring. It was her first year of throwing on the Varsity Track & Field Team (Discus, Shot Put), but she was the trop distance thrower in her events. She was inducted into NHS, but the public schools shut down and went all virtual in March, so they have done nothing of consequence. She was the historian for the academic tech & engineering cohort she is a part of in school, and she is now her squad leader in NJROTC and on the Basic Drill Team.

Otherwise she has been focused on working part time, volunteering and all summer she was working on her SAT prep with Khan Academy. Two sittings of the SAT's she was scheduled for were cancelled, so let's hope next week is still a go. Her practice tests through Khan were averaging a 1250. Not bad, but not kick you in the crotch fantastic.

Running has never been her strong suit. She knows she needs to improve so she's started a plan to increase her abilities, using the elliptical each evening, building up her endurance.

Before she thought about military service, she was looking at applying to be a Foreign Service Officer with the State Department and that has not completely fallen off the radar. Right now we are just trying to do as much research as possible on her options.

And no limited field of vision or other issues that were mentioned.

I really do thank you for your time!
 
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