DS did not receive a scholarship...

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etk401

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Dec 17, 2012
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My DS will be attending Dickinson College in the fall. He did not receive a scholarship for AROTC. Needless to say he is upset, but determined to join the AROTC. Beside the fact that we will be paying his tuition, what will be the differences, that he should expect?
Congrats to all future servicemen and women following the same path!
 
He shouldn't expect any difference except that he won't no one will be on his butt as much as they will be on the cadets who are getting paid. If he comes to campus physically fit, ready to treat his academics as a full time job, and participates fully he should have as good a chance as any to get a campus based scholarship, and if he doesn't then there is no reason why he can't still be an Army Officer, and a successful one at that. Might want to consider the SMP program if that Dickenson tuition is too much to manage. The PA National guard is a good organization and many of the cadets from that area are members.
 
etk401 said:
My DS will be attending Dickinson College in the fall. He did not receive a scholarship for AROTC. Needless to say he is upset, but determined to join the AROTC. Beside the fact that we will be paying his tuition, what will be the differences, that he should expect?
Congrats to all future servicemen and women following the same path!
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No difference in the first two in years of ROTC training, but he might not get a full issue of gear or receive uniforms.
 
It really depends on the battalion. At mine, contracted and non-contracted are treated the exact same and you wouldn't know the difference between cadets. However, I've witnessed other schools operate a different way. You'll have to wait and see but more likely than not your son will not be treated any different than a scholarship cadet.
 
I would also suggest that if the Battalion does treat non contracted Cadets differently you need to carefully consider whether that is an organization you want to be part of. Any young person who is willing to step up and even try Army ROTC should be allowed every opportunity to explore the option. I think your son will have the opportunity at Dickinson to
participate fully. I spent some time with their ROO at a recent course, and it seems like they have a solid program there.
 
non-contracted cadet

Our DS' was not treated any differently as a non-contracted cadet...your DS may want to be certain to participate fully, even those activites labeled "optional."
 
If you think about it, ROTC scholarships are the minority, not the majority. Additionally scholarship cadets on a 4 yr scholarship has no harm, no foul option for the 1st yr.
 
The only real difference your son will have being a non-scholarship cadet is that he will not be contracted. To be contracted before he starts his junior year he would need to either receive a campus scholarship or join the SMP program. SMP's can contract as early as the start of their sophomore year, if he receives a campus scholarship at any time he would then contract at that time.

Being contracted is required to attend CULP or any training such as Airborne and others. If your son remains non-contracted his first two years he would not be eligible for CULP or Summer training.

Like others have said, your son should work towards being able to have a great first APFT when he arrives at school. Participate in all campus ROTC opportunities he can. It is not required to be contracted to be on the Ranger Challenge Team (at least at my son's school). Get good grades his first semester, all of this will help put him in position to receive a campus scholarship if any are available.

Best of luck to your son.
 
Cadets at my DD school are treated equally and provisioned equally. The only reason they know who is Scholarship and who isn't is that at her orientation just before school started, the scholarship cadets have a different paperwork packet to fill out, and for efficiency reasons, I suppose, each of those freshmen were given their paperwork packet as a group, separate from the non-scholarship freshmen present at orientation.

As to how it matters, as jcleppe pointed out, there are some training opportunities the summer after freshman (MSI) year that require that the participant be Contracted, which as an MSI means on scholarship. CULP is the one that is probably the most common that requires a contract to participate.

Otherwise, nobody cares who is scholarship and who isn't. Most cadets only pay attention to who is doing well in PT, and who isn't, since that is in front of everyone. Better to be non-contracted and doing well in PT, than contracted and doing poorly in PT.
 
dunninla said:
Cadets at my DD school are treated equally and provisioned equally. The only reason they know who is Scholarship and who isn't is that at her orientation just before school started, the scholarship cadets have a different paperwork packet to fill out, and for efficiency reasons, I suppose, each of those freshmen were given their paperwork packet as a group, separate from the non-scholarship freshmen present at orientation.

As to how it matters, as jcleppe pointed out, there are some training opportunities the summer after freshman (MSI) year that require that the participant be Contracted, which as an MSI means on scholarship. CULP is the one that is probably the most common that requires a contract to participate.

Otherwise, nobody cares who is scholarship and who isn't. Most cadets only pay attention to who is doing well in PT, and who isn't, since that is in front of everyone. Better to be non-contracted and doing well in PT, than contracted and doing poorly in PT.
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To add to the good points made by the posters above, morning pt and labs are generally mandatory for contracted cadets. One way for a non-contracted cadet to be noticed favorably is to show up and give maximum effort in these activities. If you skip them, that will be noticed also. If you slack off or skip pt, you will also lose the respect of your classmates and upperclass cadets.

If your goal is a campus-based scholarship, you also need to concentrate on getting good grades in your academic classes. While 79.6% of life is a matter of just showing up, it doesn't work that way in ROTC. There are many instances of MS2s who well into their second year have been thanked for their interest and then been informed that that they will not be invited to contract.

Make sure your son contacts the Dickinson cadre to let them know he intends to participate in AROTC so that he can receive any necessary paperwork and the fall orientation schedule. Also, he can find out the schedule for labs (i.e., weekend or weekday) to ensure that it doesn't interfere with his courtse selection .
 
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That drive will help him get noticed.

Biggest thing he can do right now is work out, a lot...and run, a lot.

Getting a great APFT score on his first try will get him noticed quickly, it's the first chance the cadre get to evaluate new cadets. Simply put, if your son gets the highest APFT and the battalion has a campus scholarship available, he has a great chance of getting one. Tell him to train hard and try to get a minimum 270, with 90 points in each section.

Best of luck to your son.
 
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