No, bizarre parent behavior is posting your name on an anonymous chat board asking people to Google you, and posting your phone number as well asking strangers to call you "if they can help" in any way. (Can't quote directly from profile posts.) Help what? Go back in time to the AFROTC board and change the outcome? It's a bit unhinged, and that's ok. Spend this weekend being unhinged and angry, then compose yourself and help your son put together a plan for the next year.
So he was not simultaneously applying for other scholarships? Did you all just assume he would the AFROTC one? I don’t think something “went wrong” with the board, they look at many factors beyond just grades and test scores.
Absolutely agree. It's been a lot about what the family wants and what the son is qualified for, but very little about what the son wants. That concerns me. The Air Force isn't looking for brainiacs, it's looking for leaders with a passion for what they do. Also, most of my class ended up earning scholarships after they entered the program, and literally no one cares when or even if you get one by the time you graduate.
I thought I was private messaging. I am not perfect like the rest of you. People asked to get in touch with me. I thought I was facilitating that. And no I didn't post my name.
He is ready to serve and wants to do this. Please stop. You don't get ready physically and everything else if you don't want to do this. He has been training for 2 years for this opportunity. Now you question it. Please stop hating.
If your son continues down the Air Force path, I promise you this wont be the first time they get screwed over by the Air Force. Maybe someone at headquarters missed a decimal point on entering their GPA or something, I don't know. If so, that's tragic, but nothing is going to change no matter what you do. While it might seem like your son is special and they've never seen anyone like him, I guarantee they've got a pile of hundreds just like him who applied. That's the hard truth.
Here is what we did wrong. We did a poor job filling out his application. We didn't talk enough about his leadership activities. I am pretty sure that is what made the plane crash. I will have to live with that for the rest of my life that someone that worked super hard for 18 years didn't get what he worked hard for; yes he had leadership and we did a poor job highlighting it; now he has to keep trying and the future is uncertain. Yep it's is my fault. We missed a detail. For other parents you can't do that. We missed a detail.
Exactly. I posted this same exact idea a few pages back now.
Ok, in post #20 you posted what looks like a name and told people to Google it.
I'm so sorry for your daughter's Walmart Masters.
I hope she can still be successful in life.Each of my three points was advice I’d share candidly with a friend. In that way, it wasn’t intended to pile onto your “pain.” Final point... you obviously wanted everyone here to agree and cry in your beer with you. That’s not how life works. I understand this is all still raw for you. I hope you can personally move on and enthusiastically support all the opportunities in front of your kid. Good luck to both of you.
Can you defer and take a gap year so your son doesn't have to reapply again?
This is an overreaction. Your son has great stats that should land him where he would like to be in life. Sacrifices will be made. Lingering on the process rather than exploring future opportunities is how you fail. On paper, what you described may be the reason, however the interview, if he really put out there what he needed to put out there, would've shown that he has strength in leadership, athleticism, and academics where it wasn't on paper. I feel that what is happening here is that you feel an insane amount of emotional pressure from a family history that is surrounded by the military lifestyle and only successful lifestyles...I believe if he wants it bad enough the bad future I'm sure you actually envision, one where your son doesn't continue the cycle, will not come to be. He seems to have a great start, run the great run and finish great but expect some bumps in the road ahead....then again, that comes with everything.
They will probably release an estimate or chart of this eventually, presumably. Sorry that your post got lost in the now 6 pages worth of other posts.
So I would suggest getting him enrolled in AFROTC at Rutgers and you and he can work on highlighting all his attributes, including leadership, in his next application. There is more that one way to skin a cat.
Are you and your son open to doing Naval ROTC or Army ROTC and becoming an officer in either of those two branches? Both have 3-Year Scholarships that college freshmen can apply for and Notre Dame has both of them. From my understanding, the Air Force is dealing with higher retention with pilots, but that is not an issue I anticipate with the Navy or Army. I would reach out to both of those ROTC Branches at Notre Dame—Army ROTC might have campus-based scholarships that might not be too late to apply for. This is not a guarantee, but if you want me to explain this in more detail, feel free to private message me.