Final Year of High School, have choices to make and would like others opinons

[dugout]

As of August 8th, my senior year of high school starts. Over the past 18 months, I have been working on getting a job at NSA Augusta through the high school work-study program they have for the surrounding area. I made it to the final 20 students but was not one of the 8 students selected. I gained some really valuable info on the process of getting a job with the government and the process of getting a clearance. However, my next step is to try and get an ROTC scholarship. I want to do whatever I can to make myself as good of a candidate as I can. Now that I am enrolled in the counties work study program I have a choice to make. I can continue with the work-study program with a local company such as Unisys, Janus or even the counties network department. The other option is to drop the work-study and continue with my already planned class schedule. If I chose to participate in the work-study I would get experience in the Cyber/IT field (which is what I want to get into when I'm older), but I would have to drop my JROTC class, I would have to switch my government class to online, and I would not be able to run cross country or track (In all honesty, I absolutely despise track and cross country and would love to not run them). My other option is to take all my classes at school and still run cross country and track. Currently, I'm leaning more towards trying to do a work-study mainly because I don't want to run XC, I would make money, and it's in the field I enjoy. However, I know my view on this is completely biased as I hate XC. I want to see others unbiased opinions, as to which option would be best to better my chances at getting a 4 year ROTC scholarship.

Thanks to everyone in advance!

 

[Future Jarhead]

First off, why do you have to do XC? It seems you could do well just quitting XC

 

[Capt MJ]

The really big picture - I see no mention that you want to serve as a military officer, and in what service. Your focus seems to be on an ROTC scholarship.

There is a lot of running/PT in ROTC/military life, so if that’s the part of athletic endeavor you don’t like, that’s a challenge. It’s perfectly fine to not like a sport, but understand military commissioning programs like candidates who play sports, because of the peer leadership, teamwork, time management, physical fitness and ability to push oneself through physical and mental pain.

You devote a lot of time to your enjoyment of cyber/IT. If that is your passion, go for it. All the experiences you mention will add depth to your resume, making you an attractive hire to NSA, other Feds/state, down the road. All the “ABC” agencies have college internship programs.

Pursue ROTC only if you have a desire to serve as a military officer for the required number of years, and understand you may or may not end up doing cyber/IT things. Read everything on your desired ROTC site to understand majors and officer career paths. Visit a unit if you can. Navy and AF prefer STEM majors. Army not so much, ditto Marine option NROTC.

 

[dugout]

First off, why do you have to do XC? It seems you could do well just quitting XC

I feel obligated to finish my 4 years with the team, my friends are on it and my sister did too. It is kind of expected from me.

 

[dugout]

The really big picture - I see no mention that you want to serve as a military officer and in what service. Your focus seems to be on an ROTC scholarship.

There is a lot of running/PT in ROTC/military life, so if that’s the part of athletic endeavor you don’t like, that’s a challenge. It’s perfectly fine to not like a sport, but understand military commissioning programs like candidates who play sports, because of the peer leadership, teamwork, time management, physical fitness and ability to push oneself through the physical and mental pain.

You devote a lot of time to your enjoyment of cyber/IT. If that is your passion, go for it. All the experiences you mention will add depth to your resume, making you an attractive hire to NSA, other Feds/state, down the road. All the “ABC” agencies have college internship programs.

Pursue ROTC only if you have a desire to serve as a military officer for the required number of years, and understand you may or may not end up doing cyber/IT things. Read everything on your desired ROTC site to understand majors and officer career paths. Visit a unit if you can. Navy and AF prefer STEM majors. Army not so much, ditto Marine option NROTC.

I completely see your point, I could have phrased my original question better. I want to become an Army Officer, not just an ROTC cadet. Army runs in my veins, with every family member except my mom being a soldier. It is sort of a family tradition that one must give back to our nation, and I want to do it through the Army. I know I might not end up as a Cyber or Intel Officer, but I know for my own sake I have got to give back. As far as the athletics are concerned, I'm perfectly capable. I do enjoy working out, just not running. I've been able to deal with it for the past 4 years and I'm not bad at it either. I don't think it will be a problem at all. You mentioned visiting a unit too, and I have. I recentlty visited UGA's AROTC and Georgia Southern's AROTC. I plan on visiting North Georgia's this Friday. I see your point though with the fact that the ABC agencies have programs for me too. I think in my future I will end up with one of them, but I also really desire the military experience. So it relates back to my dilemma, I don't know how well the work-study will look for ROTC compared to the other option.

 

[MidCakePa]

Academics come first — it gets the most weight for ROTC scholarships. Are you taking the hardest classes your school has to offer and are you excelling in them? If so, then adding work-study can make sense. But don’t substitute anything that detracts from taking, and excelling in, your school’s hardest classes.

Dropping JROTC and XC going into your senior year would look rather questionable for someone aspiring to an ROTC scholarship. JROTC for obvious reasons. XC, not necessarily because of the fitness aspect, but because sports are considered a great developer of teamwork, determination, resilience and leadership.

Bottom line is, do work-study if it’s in addition to the things that ROTC values most. If it substitutes for, or detracts from, then you need to rethink your priorities and goals.