Double Major and ROTC??

J

Jaime1030

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Hello,
I am currently a senior in high school and I am a fourth year cadet at the Air Force Junior ROTC program at my high school. In college, I am wanting to pursue a double major in architecture (5 year program) and finance (4 year program). I will not be able to afford to pay for this education. So I thought hey, I am a strong leader, a cadet officer, and know everything there is to know about the Air Force already, I should do AFROTC, where the Air Force will pay for the rest of my college and all I have to do is commit to serving the Air Force at least four years as an officer after I graduate. I know I won't get any scholarship benefits my freshmen year from AFROTC because I already missed the deadlines. But if I pursue AFROTC, I will apply for the following years. I don't know. Should I just go for it and do AFROTC while pursuing a double major? Should I even do a double major, do you think the majors I chose are too challenging that I could not do them both at the same time, because I don't. Double major and AFROTC, is it possible?
Please help. Need advice.
Thanks.
 
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The mods need to move this thread to the ROTC forums, but until they do here is my opinion.

Architecture is not an easy major if you are attending a competitive college renown for their architecture program. I am not sure why you would combine those 2 majors especially if you intend to commission via AFROTC. It is extremely doubtful you will find an AFSC that will utilize your skills as an architect and if you think about it 4 years from graduation without true work experience in your career field when you can walk, what company will hire you as an architect?

I am not saying don't go for architecture, but be honest with yourself if having the AF pay for your degree will be worth it from a future employment aspect.
~Finance sure, because you can work in Accounting & Finance for the AF, however, chances of getting selected for Summer Field Training (SFT) as a non-tech/non-rated is not as high as tech/rated(highest selection rate) and non-tech/rated is going to be higher than non-tech/non-rated.
~~ No SFT = no commissioning. No SFT = high probability of disenrollment. Disenrollment = loss of scholarship. SFT occurs as a rising junior.

There are many that double major, and are successful in AFROTC, it is doable, but again I am not sure that if in 10 years from now when you leave the AF because you did ROTC and owed 4 years, how competitive you would be from an employment aspect in the architecture field. Civil Engineer with finance would seem to me a better route because you can use those skills as an ADAF officer, but the last time I checked the AF contracts architecture companies to create and build any new building, be it a squadron or renovating base housing.

I did love some of your comments, I am sure they were tongue and cheek, but still they were funny to read.
Jaime1030 said:
So I thought hey, I am a strong leader, a cadet officer, and know everything there is to know about the Air Force already
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POC cadets love cadets that believe JROTC is on par with ROTC.
Jaime1030 said:
all I have to do is commit to serving the Air Force at least four years as an officer after I graduate.
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Yep, all you have to do is commit to spending 4 years in Minot or Alamogordo, maybe Clovis, or Mt. Home, best yet... Del Rio
~ Since you know everything about the AF already, I am sure you know these sayings...
~~ Why not Minot? Freezin is the reason
~~ Oh My God No...Alamogordo
~~ Dell Rio aka He!! Rio
~~ Mt. Home, the hub of Elmore County... population @10K

Sure, there are some great bases, like San Antonio, Elmendorf, Hickam, Eglin, Luke, etc. However, there are a lot more bases like Pope, Seymour Johnson, Grand Forks, McGuire, Dyess, etc., than those dream places. Reason why is they are the AIR FORCE and for some funny reason people don't want to live around a loud, noisy base that has airplanes flying over their home Monday- Friday, 15-18 hours a day!
 
You should probably move this to the ROTC section of the forum.
 
Thread has been moved to the ROTC forum.

Stealth_81
 
I won't say a double major is impossible but it would be extremely difficult combined with any ROTC program. I know by the end my DS was spending about 20 hours a week on NROTC stuff. I recently heard from a previous forum participant who is now in his junior year. His PM talked about how busy he was and he only wrote because it's spring break, so he had some time available.

I'm sure it's doable for some people but others will struggle with it.
 
Mmmmm - honestly, I would say it all depends on what the double major is.

In the OP's example --- heck yeah, the 2 majors couldn't be any more different. Might as well go for a PhD at that point ...

But if you take a look at double majoring in similar fields - Ie: Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering or Crim & Sociology - they're not so different. At least for my school, I believe they only vary by a handful of credits (a couple classes). So something like that, could definitely be doable. But yeah ... architecture AND finance .... don't think so. Sorry.

OP - please don't go to your ROTC unit thinking you know EVERYTHING. EVERYONE hates an egotistic, "know it all" JROTC cadet ..........

My two biggest piecees of advice to you, and not just for ROTC, is to go into it with an open mind.

Second ... don't put all your eggs in one basket; I see this way too often. Speaking for the Army side of the house, I see a lot of people major in BS majors (history, english, underwater basket weaving, etc). Their goal is to, for lack of better words, cruise their way through college - with the end goal of doing something super Hooah (read: combat arms - specifically Infantry). GRANTED - I know this isn't EVERY person's case, but I'm sure those that have been around here long enough, can't deny that some people do this.

Here's the problem - so yeah, say you do major in history, with the end goal of you becoming an Active Duty Infantry officer. That's great and all UP TO THE POINT that it isn't. In other words, if you bank on getting an Active Duty slot, and for Infantry, you may be sorely disappointed. What if, say you don't get AD and instead you get Reserve/Guard? Then what? ... good luck getting a job with a history degree.

Catch my drift?


Good luck.

kinnem said:
I recently heard from a previous forum participant who is now in his junior year. His PM talked about how busy he was and he only wrote because it's spring break, so he had some time available.
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Wow - sucks for him. LOL.
 
I am a double major; it can be done and will be much more feasible if
  • You bring in a lot of AP/ Dual Enrollment Credit that your university will accept and apply towards your degree
  • The two majors share a similar core curriculum (very easy to find out by looking at university's catalog; accounting and finance would share a similar business core while finance and nuclear engineering would not ).

As for time, I take 16-18 hours a semester which is nothing compared to my peers in engineering, some of whom brave 22+ hours at times. Granted, my majors are both social sciences and overlap quite a bit; I am not able to discuss to what extent this advantage would apply to your preferences of finance and architecture.

On another note, I too did four years of JROTC and having spent time in college ROTC can affirm with the utmost confidence that you do not"know everything there is to know about the Air Force already". I am not trying to harp, troll, etc. I simply want you to understand that your background as a high school Cadet doesn't count for much once enrolled at university and will only carry you so far, a lesson some learn the hard way.

Feel free to message me with any questions but not before you read and reread the posts above; Pima, Thompson and kinnem have once again given some great insight that should not be ignored.
 
Seawings18 said:
  • You bring in a lot of AP/ Dual Enrollment Credit that your university will accept and apply towards your degree
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You raise some good points. But to specifically address this point, just be careful about this. When I sat down with my cadre to go over my academic plan he noticed that I had some AP credits. I didn't have a lot, but something to consider is - if you have enough AP credits to already put you 1 semester ahead, that may or may not affect commissioning or something to that extent. I don't remember exactly what I was told (this was 3 years ago) but it was important enough that I still remember having that conversation.

Now, I'm not saying don't take AP classes. I'm just saying keep this in mind.

Good luck.
 
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Lol at JROTC. Ive only known one cadet who did JROTC who was an all-star in AFROTC. Most of them end up walking in like they know everything (and they continue to do so). You never know everything, have a bit of humility.

As for the double major, why not just have one challenging major, like any sort of engineering. Tech degrees go pretty far even if ROTC doesn't work out, and in ROTC there are typically higher acceptance rates for FT when you are a tech major.
 
I just wanted to point out that ignoring everything else, architecture is a tech major for AFROTC. Obviously there are other things that could play a role in major selection (see Pima's wonderful post above).
 
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