first selection board this fall for AROTC

educateme

5-Year Member
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Nov 7, 2009
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Hello, everyone.

I have not logged in for six months or so. Congrats to all the students and their parents for this year's ROTC scholarship.

My son will complete his AROTC application soon (within next week or so).

A few questions:

(1) when is the first selection board meeting this year? I read here and there it might be Oct. Wasn't it the case that last couple of years, it was Sept?

(2) As for the recommendation letters, is there a limit on how many can be submitted? My son has guidance counselor, his favorite teacher, and perhaps a commanding officer at his Civil Air Patrol local unit (100% of EC's are related to this group: over 500 hr of community service. he got a Billy Mitchell Award this spring as a high school junior, and was selected as the best cadet of the year at the yearly, national mountain search and rescue training held at Hawk Mountain, etc). I think it will help him a lot to have the rec letter from his CO be acknowledged and counted.

(for those of you who don't know what CAP means, it's an air force sponsored program for teenagers and young adults (up to age 21) for military training program. Only 15 % of the cadets gets Billy Mitchell award before they age out at 21. Those of get the award, if they enlist, gets automatic 2 rank boost from the start, and its roughly considered on par with Eagle Scount).
 
I cannot speak for the Army board, but since no one has answered, I will say that unless the Army board is widely different, they TRADITIONALLY meet the beginning of Oct. The reason why is the fiscal calendar yr runs Oct 1 through Sept 30th. for every branch, thus the funds for scholarships for FY11 do not get released until Oct 1., and although they have a ballpark number that will be given it is not written in stone until the money is in their hand. Sometimes they will meet the last days of Sept., but also they are very close to the 1st of Oct.

Sometimes people confuse the fact that the close out date means they are meeting on that date. They aren't. It takes time to compile the applicant's packet and get it to the board for review. Thus, if they say No Later Then (NLT) Sept X, that is their close out date to meet the next board. It is usually several days prior to the board meeting. Hence if they say Sept. 23rd, the board could actually be meeting Oct 1.

I do not know about the AROTC recs, but I am sure somewhere in the packet it states how many recs they can have, and who they accept the recs from. I would suggest you go to the AROTC scholarship website and see what they state. If you feel that you still do not have the answer to the question, than HAVE YOUR DS CALL THEIR 800 NUMBER! Notice I said DS. It is very important he takes the lead in this matter, not you. You taking the lead will appear to be a helo parent. Additionally, if he truly wants it he will find the time to do it.

I will say there were times I had to call, but it was a rarity and I only did it because of his schedule. For example, school, work and TKD, knowing that he would leave at 6:30 a.m. and not be home until 10 p.m., but he got an email re: something that needed attention that day. I would explain why I was calling and try to assist, but more importantly, I explained why I was calling and not him....i.e. My DS asked me to call so I could explain that due to his schedule he was unable to return the call.

Make sure one of the contact numbers is his cell phone, and the back up is your house. If you have caller ID and see it is coming from the Army let it go into your VM, don't answer it. This is the time you need to step away as a parent and leave this in their own hands.

Congrats to your DS on the Billy Mitchell, it is a feather in his cap, and you should be awfully proud of him.
 
Pima is right on. The general consensus is the end of September/Beginning of October. That being said, you won't actually hear from the board until 3-4 weeks after the board ends. Last year, the AROTC website changed for me around the beginning on November.

For reference letters, there is a place for them on the application. There is also a additional notes section where an applicant could attach anything they wanted to. I attached a resume, but a reference letter could work too.
 
I cannot and will not speak for the AROTC, but if there are posters that intend to apply for the AFROTC, please be aware sometimes you will meet the board and get a letter that basically says "AT THIS TIME WE ARE UNABLE...WE WILL REVIEW YOU AGAIN AT THE NEXT BOARD." Do not read this as it is negative situation, and you will not receive a scholarship. It could mean that at this time you are on a cusp...Type 1 or Type 2, and they want to compare you against more applicants before they award the scholarship.
 
AROTC: recommendation letters and other supplments?

thanks for the response.

My son was going through the application on line, and he told me that he could NOT find any form/guidance for recommendation letters. As far as he could tell, they were not requiring one and there is no way to submit one. Did he miss something? His Civil Air Patrol CO is willing to provide an outstanding reference, and this should help. My son noticed that there is a place to write additional things, and he is using that to discuss his experience in Mountain Search and Rescue training, and would rather not have that for rec letters. Besides, since it's just on line write up entered by the candidate, a rec letter in that form will lack any credibility for lack of validation..

He also would like to submit his SAT II scores and AP scores. His junior grades were not that good (long story), and his outstanding scores in SAT II and AP's can provide some "balancing info", I hope. Is there a way to submit these scores?

My son called the ROTC advisors' numbers provided by the ARMY to answer questions about ROTC on line applications but they are not answering the calls and they are not returning his calls. We are all rather frustrated.

I am coming to this forum since this is where we get the best answers.

Thanks for your help in advance.
 
IIRC, the Army doesn't take recommendation letters or standardized test scores beside SAT and ACT. It's my understanding that they keep it all uniform on the quantitative measures and the only qualitative evaluation is the interview.
 
Guess I was mistaken about there being a place for them on the app.:frown:

I did snail mail a copy of a rec letter, along with transcripts/etc just in case. You might want to do that for the SAT/AP scores.
 
evidence of activities?

My son also told me that on the application check list, there was something like "evidence of activities".....

For those folks who have gone through the process last year, what did you do with this? Did you fax in the copy of awards, certificates, etc, etc?

He noticed that they were also giving the option of scanning stuff and sending it through email. He will definitely use that option. Seems like a much better option than snail mail or fax: these can get lost - email can always be traced.
 
EDUCATEME, My DD submitted the AP Test Scores and SAT II scores as part of the additional section OC Josh described. It was in bullet points rather than paragraph format for her. She also included her class list for Sr Year to indicate strength of schedule. IMHO the strength of schedule including AP Classes and good scores is a plus if courses like this are offered. If not offered at the high school, college courses, or an indication that a rigorous academic schedule is being pursued is important. She submitted no recommendations.
 
Seems like a much better option than snail mail or fax: these can get lost - email can always be traced.

E-mail is risky too. E-mails sometimes get lost in the multitude. I'd always double/triple check to make sure that Cadet Command gets all of the information you send.

IIRC, the evidence of activities was a form to be given to a counselor at school to verify the student was actually a member of NHS, Varsity, etc...
I could be wrong though.
 
was there a form for verifying activities (evidence of activities)? My son told me that he looked everywhere on the on-line application web site, and he could not find any.

Those of you who got the scholarship, how did you submit evidence for activities?
 
Cadet Command will send out a paper asking the guidance counselor to verify your sons involvement in the activities. I received mine a couple of weeks ago. The counselor just has to annitial next to each box. Thats all :)
 
did they send YOU the form that you give to your guidance counselor to sign off on it, or did they send it directly to the guidance counselor?

In my son's case, the most significant ECs all took place outside of school (Civil Air Patrol (CAP), Mountain Search and Rescue training and certification, etc). He should have the opportunity to have that verified by his commanding officer at CAP.
 
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