@ncbill - the advice above is spot on, talk to current cadre. My DD’s transfer was for the same school but different scholarship type, however the cadre did not hold anything against her wanting to change. But it was not easy. Before starting the process there were several meetings, including letting her know the consequences and risks of going forward with the transfer, and then checking yet again if she wanted to actually do it. The cadre still waited to put the paperwork through until she was really sure. She was actually always sure, however, I appreciate that when dealing with a 20 year old they did not jump the gun at all and gave her time to theoretically get her crap together. And the PMS took awhile to decide if he was going to recommend it or not, it was a stressful time for her.
It is the Army, and so the consequences are real and also are based on a lot of different policies, standards and regulations. There are missions involved at each campus for how many officers they are to produce each year. My DD changed from a nursing national scholarship, which required her to become a nurse, to a line scholarship, which allowed her to study something else. It took time, and although the paperwork was submitted to the brigade spring semester, she arrived on campus to her new major this fall not knowing if it transferred. It did, however she incurred a one semester administrative suspension. Her scholarship did not cover this semester, but as long as she is in good standing, pass APFT, and all the usual, it will reinstate spring of this year (she is a junior).
Now for your DS’s situation. Maybe
@clarksonarmy can chime in (he will be way more concise than me, I promise!j, but here are some things to consider:
1. While the scholarship is a campus base, the money comes from the brigade and had to be approved by the brigade for that school, so definitely like said above, same brigade makes it easier (easier than what I do not know)
2. Scholarships are awarded to schools partly based on their mission, so it will depend if they get to recoup that for someone else or not. In my daughter’s case, the school had to be okay with “losing a nurse” toward their mission, and gaining a line cadet towards their commissioning mission. So it also might be dependent on whether they have room for another scholarship cadet at the new school. My guess is one school will want to hold onto that money for another cadet since it is for a freshman, they probably have other cadets that could use it. In my daughters case, there were no other non scholarship nurses in ROTC going into clinicals, so the likelihood they could use it for a 2020 graduate was slim. They were also behind on their mission for line officers for 2020, this all comes into play into these decisions.
Again, I don’t know if it is possible. My guess is they will say good luck and once he is on the new campus, he might have to start over. Also, nothing can happen without the recommendation of his current cadre, so starting there is key.
One more thing - I don’t know if he is your oldest or if you have older kids who have been a freshman in college or not, but freshman year is really hard. It might not be that he even says it is hard, but wanting something different because it isn’t what he imagined, is so normal! All three of mine went to a school for a reason - one for ROTC, and two for soccer. All three had different levels of “I want to come home” or I “chose a large public and want small private”, or vice versa. The sophomore year for all 3 was when they really started to feel like they belonged where they chose. Some kids do need a change, but not wanting something different is pretty common. My ROTC cadet chose a small, private, liberal arts school. She visited her friends at our local state school during a break and came home in tears wishing she had gone there instead. As a junior, she now has more leadership responsibilities, and has great friends in her battalion. She actually lives with 5 other girls, and 4 of 5em are MS4’s and she loves her academic and ROTC communities. But the first year was a challenge as a parent, and definitely a challenge for her. It might just be too early, spring might bring a different perspective.
