Hello guys, i've been snooping around the forum for quite a while and wanted to ask a question i couldn't find. I have been awarded the 4yr ROTC scholarship. I am planning to use it at either Cornell or Vmi, not sure yet but my questions are: If i get accepted into USMA what will happen to the ROTC scholarship and if in the event I do not want to go ROTC later down the line this year, would it be alright to nullify the scholarship at the last moment; I am debating whether to go enlisted if i do not get appointed to USMA. Thankss all in advance.
Accept the ROTC scholarship and hang onto it. An appointment to USMA trumps it. It isn't binding anyway until you show up for school.
hang onto it My brother's a yuk at usma, and he got into a couple ROTC programs/the scholarship and USMA. The one thing he's really stressed, though he's happy with his decision, is that a 2LT is a 2LT in the end, and great ones come out of usma and rotc, and bad ones come out of usma and rotc. So definitely, hang onto the scholarship, because either way is a good decision. different, but good The one thing: Everything i've read/my brother's had experience with/general reputation is that VMI and the citadel produce the worst officers who have chips on their shoulder from either not getting into usma or trying to play up their individual schools over usma. As a rule, they are tools/dicks/asses, and everything i've ever heard about the subject supports that. So, if you go rotc, go cornell. its a sick school academically, you must not have a problem with small towns (ithaca or utica, i forget which one cornells at) or else you wouldnt consider usma, vmi, or cornell, and cornell and syracuse are the two main/most renowned rotc programs in NY. so, hang onto the scholarship, consider rotc just as much as you are west point unless you're already dead set, and DEFINITELY go cornell over vmi if thats what it comes down to
I don't mean to hijack this thread when I say I'm curious to know some more opinions about VMI. As of now it's my first choice ROTC school if I don't get an appointment to an academy. However, I kept hearing little bits of info about VMI being full of arrogance (like what jrobs12 posted) and I have yet to hear a personal testimonials of it actually being a great school.
VMI Ya, I have the same issue you do. I'm in the process of applying to USMA (i'm a junior), along with ROTC programs. Initially, one of those programs was the Citadel, along with VMI. I've looked more into the citadel than VMI, but everything i've found has pretty much turned me off to the citadel. There's ny times articles and testimonials from former students or drop outs (which are of course discredited by the school as not "making the cut") about hazing as in carving letters into chests, a company being named after a company in nazi germany, artifacts/tradition glorifying the kkk/nazies (a kid was hazed for not naming off info about the local kkk chapter), and just over the top hazing. Now don't get me wrong, hazing can form cohesiviness as a class, but i just don't see how the the types practiced at the citadel, and vmi, can help you as a future officer. Also, my brother at buckner had a company commander from the regular army who was a grad of either vmi or the citadel (i cant remember offhand), who started ripping heavily on a kid whose brother graduated from that guy's class/school, and he was insulting the kids brother and being really demeaning. Two majors walked by, heard it, and that soldier got in a world of trouble. So basically, i'm sure not everyone from vmi/citadel are like that, but they both have an overwhelming reputation as producing arrogant and secondgrade officers as a result just my two-bits
