AROTC Scholarship Applicants - Please Read

EEBTTF

Member
Joined
Oct 17, 2019
Messages
1,574
This is the time of year that many candidates are rushing to check all of the boxes and get their AROTC Scholarship application submitted. Before hitting the submit button, please take a few hours and research the posts on this forum about the importance of not submitting your application until it is the absolute best package possible. This means that your standardized tests scores are where they need to be, your PFT is where it needs to be (maxed out) all of your essays have been proofed and re-proofed, and you are prepared for your interview.....

YOU ARE ONLY BOARDED ONE TIME IN AROTC - Although there are 3 boards, your application is only reviewed and scored 1 time. Yes - you can resubmit a test score or a pft score, but you only get minimal change in points. The 1st Board is very competitive and you are putting yourself at a disadvantage if you submit a package without it being your best effort. The vast majority of the scholarships are awarded on Boards 2 & 3. If you are not an absolute superstar of a candidate - wait until Board 2 or 3 to submit. If you are not happy with your SAT/ACT, don't submit the application. Re-take the test and get the score you need - then submit the application. Research what the test score ranges have been in years past.

Please take your time in answering the questions in the CBEF. This is a VERY important part of your application and is not something to race through just to get the green check mark in your portal. Research the CBEF and give it adequate time to complete.

Lastly - read the multiple posts by @Montana State Army ROTC about the importance of waiting to submit until you have the best package. Many candidates submit sub-standard files for the 1st Board and never get a scholarship.

Good luck to everyone submitting this cycle.
 
Last edited:
If you're unhappy with your SAT/ACT, get an official test book and practice. Most importantly, START READING. Read good stuff: essays, biographies, memoirs, histories -- just get in the habit of READING EVERY DAY, for an hour or more. Below is a reading list for you to get started -- these are all relevant, beautifully-written models of how to write concisely and well. Pay attention to how these gifted writers express and develop ideas -- this will help you enormously in the Reading & Writing portions of the SAT/ACT as well as your interview.

Wrt the rest of the application, don't worry. The interview will make or break you. Plenty of threads here on how best to prep for the interview. With a small amount of preparation and practice, you can dramatically improve your interview performance.

Relax. You'll be fine. Good luck!

RECOMMENDED READING -- pay attention to prose style, word choice etc:
Ulysses S. Grant, Memoirs
Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff
...................The Bonfire of the Vanities
E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime
Leo Tolstoy, Hadji Murat
Gore Vidal, Lincoln
Rudyard Kipling, The Man Who Would Be King
Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy
Robert Kagan, On the Origins of War and the Preservation of the Peace
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It
Gerald Green, I Remember Brooklyn
 
Back
Top