Commissioning as an AF Officer?

No scholarship is necessary to join AFROTC or to commission. However, you do need to be selected for an Enrollment Allocation after your sophomore year to attend field training, which is quite competitive. And ROTC, of course, is not the only way to commission. There's USAFA and OTS too.
 
No. You can participate and commission through any ROTC without a scholarship. There are multiple ways to commission as an officer, ROTC being one of them. You can also go through a service academy. Through the Army, you can also enlist and then go to OCS to become an officer, but I'm not sure about this Air Force.
 
You can go through OTS. When you are a junior in college meet with a recruiter. The OCS boards meet twice a year. January and July. There two different boards, rated and non-rated. If picked up for the July board you will know before you enter your senior year that you are going to OTS. They will give you a report date 6-9 months out. Like ROTC grads you may wait a few months before going to OTS.
~ Our friends DS graduated in May and had to report early July.

The downside for going OTS is that you need to see it as a bridge for personnel numbers. If the AF has enough commissioning via AFA and AFROTC, than they may decide to cancel one of their boards.
~ They have done that in the recent past.

Secondly, if you want pilot it is more difficult to get that via OCS. Mainly because the reward for dedicating 4 years at an AFA or in AFROTC is first dibs at going pilot. They only have a specific amount of pilot slots.
~ Our friends DS got CSO and asked for pilot, but was told only 4% of those boarded got pilot and 95% of those went to prior E.

As stated you can go ROTC without a scholarship. Actually on avg maybe 18% are on scholarship across the nation.. The scholarship has no impact if you are selected for EA.

ballsy,
You don't have to go the enlisted route to go OTS. Many enlisted do go this route because they did not enter with a college degree, but for AF there are a ton that decided while in college they wanted to go into the military.
 
You don't have to go the enlisted route to go OTS. Many enlisted do go this route because they did not enter with a college degree, but for AF there are a ton that decided while in college they wanted to go into the military.

This is confusing. How can you go to OTS without enlisting? In the Army, you can enlist an an 09S (officer candidate) - you go to basic and then OCS. Or are you saying you don't have to serve as enlisted first?
 
In the AF a student in college can apply to OTS, they will be enlisted while still in college, but they know come graduation they are going to OTS.
 
This is confusing. How can you go to OTS without enlisting? In the Army, you can enlist an an 09S (officer candidate) - you go to basic and then OCS. Or are you saying you don't have to serve as enlisted first?

You can go to OCS straight out of college in the Army too. http://www.goarmy.com/ocs.html.
Officer Candidate School (OCS) is the U.S. Army’s main training academy for prospective Army Officers. The school is generally open to qualified enlisted Noncommissioned Officers, along with civilians who hold at least a four-year college degree.

All branches recruit college students not in ROTC to go through OTS/OCS after graduation. In my Radiation Physics class, the Navy came to recruit Nuclear Engineering majors. Talked about the signing bonus and OCS after graduation. It's not just for enlisted, though they make up the bulk of OCS/OTS classes.
 
You can go to OCS straight out of college in the Army too. http://www.goarmy.com/ocs.html.


All branches recruit college students not in ROTC to go through OTS/OCS after graduation. In my Radiation Physics class, the Navy came to recruit Nuclear Engineering majors. Talked about the signing bonus and OCS after graduation. It's not just for enlisted, though they make up the bulk of OCS/OTS classes.

Yes, but you still have to enlist. If you wash out of OCS you finish out your contract as enlisted. Important point.
 
That is true for AF too. However, the question becomes how many wash out of basic?
~ Not a lot.

The same is true if you make it passed the freshmen year as a scholarship recipient in ROTC, you are on the hook...they can force them to go enlisted.
~ I don't know any AFROTC cadet even given the option, instead they were handed a bill!

AF is teeny tiny compared to the Army. They don't need to hold onto them. ROTC cadets are not offered the option of Guard or Reserve. You will go AD.
~ ADAF is @330,000 and Guard/Reserve make up another 175 K. Army on the other hand are what? . 2 Million?
~~ Just saying it is a different world. No offense.
~~~ AFROTC has a make or break in college, last year the selection rate was 55%. Scholarships are not placed into the equation. They let go of scholarship cadets. No payback.
~~~~ Gojira has proved for NROTC they don't give the eblistmebt option for NROTC.

Just saying when it comes to AF I highly doubt they will force enlistment. That aren't forcing it for ROTC scholarship recipients that ask to go enlisted for four years enlisted as payback.
 
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