AROTC winner vs AFROTC board Feb 2024

[Texashoneybee]

Hi, friends. Newbie parent here. My daughter has been awarded the 4 year, full tuition Army ROTC scholarship. Her experience with Air Force has been a bit bumpy. Something happened with her AFROTC scholarship technician who was completely unresponsive and did not get her materials updated to get her boarded for the October board, despite all of her materials being submitted before the deadline. After 2 months of trying, we finally got someone locally to make inquiries on her behalf. We got some very apologetic emails and now she is boarded for the February AFROTC board.

My question is what to do now. Army gives her 30 days to accept. And they have been nothing short of fantastic to her! I won’t bore you, but they have advised, encouraged, supported and shepherded her through this process. They were not her first choice, but her experience with them has really made her think about her preferences. For space-related careers she’s not sure Army is the best path. I have two questions: 1) any thoughts on Army vs AF for young people interested in space-affiliated careers? And 2) how would you advise her on accepting AROTC vs waiting for AFROTC which isn’t until late February? I’m embarrassed to say I know almost nothing about any of this. So, I don’t want to give her bad advice. She is super excited about ROTC for many reasons, so she definitely wants to do it either way. Many thanks for any advice!

 

[bethf]

Hi, friends. Newbie parent here. My daughter has been awarded the 4 year, full tuition Army ROTC scholarship. Her experience with Air Force has been a bit bumpy. Something happened with her AFROTC scholarship technician who was completely unresponsive and did not get her materials updated to get her boarded for the October board, despite all of her materials being submitted before the deadline. After 2 months of trying, we finally got someone locally to make inquiries on her behalf. We got some very apologetic emails and now she is boarded for the February AFROTC board.

My question is what to do now. Army gives her 30 days to accept. And they have been nothing short of fantastic to her! I won’t bore you, but they have advised, encouraged, supported and shepherded her through this process. They were not her first choice, but her experience with them has really made her think about her preferences. For space-related careers she’s not sure Army is the best path. I have two questions: 1) any thoughts on Army vs AF for young people interested in space-affiliated careers? And 2) how would you advise her on accepting AROTC vs waiting for AFROTC which isn’t until late February? I’m embarrassed to say I know almost nothing about any of this. So, I don’t want to give her bad advice. She is super excited about ROTC for many reasons, so she definitely wants to do it either way. Many thanks for any advice!

She can accept the Army ROTC scholarship and choose the school. She is not obligated to use it. However, it will hold her place and she can decline later. The ROO at one of the universities on my son's list actually advised this, and said to accept all of them, as he's waiting to see if he gets an appointment at one of the Service Academies. Congrats to her!!

 

[Capt MJ]

Your daughter should identify her goal and reverse engineer. If being an Air Force or Space Force officer is her goal and she wants to build a path toward that, then she chooses accordingly. In the Pentagon, we called that “what’s the long pole in your tent.”

She can accept the Army scholarship and later appreciatively decline. The services know these are big decisions for young people who are evaluating several paths, and sometimes they have to marinate the options.

She can attend a college with an AFROTC unit or cross-town affiliate, with or without a scholarship. She can call units at schools of interest and scour the unit website hosted by the college for more info, especially about any scholarships available to current cadets, should she not get an AFROTC scholarship now.

She should equally thoroughly research Army. They too will have unit websites. I picked one at random. Lots of interesting career paths, not a lot of space. She has to look past the 4-year way station to the minimum 5 years of working as an officer in a specific service and field.what does she feel drawn to?

Branch Information | Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC)

UCCS is home to more than 12,000 driven students and over 800 experienced faculty members. Choose from more than 100 options within 50 undergraduate, 24 graduate, and seven doctoral degrees. Take a virtual tour and explore programs and opportunities to support you in your college-decision journey.

armyrotc.uccs.edu

I would urge her to not rule a path in or out based on interactions at this stage. It could easily have been reversed. The military is not immune to admin blunders.

Both Army and Air Force are fine ways to serve as an officer.

Visiting units in person can be valuable at this stage.

 

[NavyUMO]

I agree that she should follow her passion and continue to pursue that as her primary goal. That being said, I must say that the Army ROTC and USMA have been much better than the other ROTC programs and SAs. That is tough for me to admit being a USNA grad but it really has been much smoother on many fronts. But there are certainly snags in all of the processes at times. So I think focus on the long game as that is really where she is going to spend her time in the future.

 

[THmom]

Just be careful in regards to a 4-yr AFROTC scholarship. They really aren’t guaranteed for four years, and cadets can be cut from the program after two. There was a huge issue with this a few years back.