GENERIC CROSSTOWN QUESTION

GrilledCheese94

GrilledCheese94

NAPS '90 & USNA '94
5-Year Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2016
Messages
296
My son is starting to weigh the pros/cons of on campus vs crosstown ROTC programs as he weighs his acceptance options.

Having a POV on campus is generally out of the question for Freshman Year.

My wife and I are concerned about the amount of time that he might have to spend commuting between two separate campuses multiple times per week. Even if he's not driving, there are a number of schools he's been accepted to that have what I would call significant commuting distances between campuses.

We'd appreciate anyone willing to share their crosstown transportation stories.
 
GrilledCheese94 said:
My son is starting to weigh the pros/cons of on campus vs crosstown ROTC programs as he weighs his acceptance options.

Having a POV on campus is generally out of the question for Freshman Year.

My wife and I are concerned about the amount of time that he might have to spend commuting between two separate campuses multiple times per week. Even if he's not driving, there are a number of schools he's been accepted to that have what I would call significant commuting distances between campuses.

We'd appreciate anyone willing to share their crosstown transportation stories.
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These are great questions for your son to ask the unit recruiting officer during a visit, phone call or email.
 
My son is attending Univ of Tampa which is a crosstown of Univ of South Florida. Freshmen at UT are not allowed vehicles if living on campus. He was an exception because he is in NROTC. Check with your son's college to see if there is a waiver for ROTC students. My son had to submit a letter to student affairs at UT and they submitted an approval to campus security authorizing him to get his UT parking sticker. The process took about a month because of the backlog of upperclassmen requesting parking stickers.

Also, my son has a carpool network of UT students that travel to USF 3 days per week. At 5am It takes him about 20 minutes to travel from UT to USF.

If you do decide to attend a crosstown, have your son get with his academic advisor to schedule classes around the ROTC schedule.
 
I would check with each university to confirm if freshmen who need to travel off campus for ROTC or other specific activities (like flight students needing to travel to a local airport if it's not on campus) are allowed to get an on campus parking tag (or not) - I'd also confirm how far that lot is away from the students classes/ dorms, and the cost. At Ohio State for example, which admittedly is just a behemoth campus, they would grant my son a parking pass (ROTC is on campus, but he was a potential flight student and would have needed to go off-campus for flights) but it would literally take 20 mins to walk to the on campus parking area in Timbuktu, and it was pricey- maybe 1k per year. 40 mins a day to walk to your car? Gee, no thanks. Also confirm if the school provides any transportation - some universities may provide a van for the students to travel in on these days, and with minimal training a few of those students will qualify to be the drivers. Not uncommon for the ROTC students to carpool together to cover gas costs - significantly cheaper than insurance, upkeep, depreciation we all deal with who choose to be drivers.

sidenote: the parking lot of our local HS is chock FULL of cars for most 17 year olds - my kids are/ were exceptions. the insurance and costs for this age are typically ridiculously high in many states. I'll just point out that if you can avoid having a car on campus especially your first couple of years, that could be a financial benefit. Premiums, depreciation, upkeep - when for many campuses it's just not needed. Food for thought.

I'll be honest - I believe time management and major/ program rigor/ number of credits are probably more impactful than the commute time overall unless you're at a high distance cross town (some SF, SD area schools for example). If your student is a master of time management can multi-task like read on the BART train or in the car etc. they'll get through the commute time. But how much "spare" time will they have if they are grinding through a top 5 engineering program with a known tough curriculum, 18 credits etc.

I do think being one of 5 ROTC students in a large detachment where most are from the host campus is less than ideal for being part of an integrated community. I like the idea of the on campus ROTC detachment vs remote. But you choose the fish you wish that is best for you - good luck. If my dream school had a cross-town detachment, then I would deal with it.

Hope those ideas may help. good luck!
 
My son has a crosstown only 9 miles away and it is sometimes a little of a pain. The sometimes provide a van. Cadets carpool with with MS3 and MS4 who have cars. My son has been lobby us to take his car. But he is opposite coast from us. He also has zipcar on campus. Lots of ubers as well but that is mostly non ROTC stuff. Definitely a case by case basis and I would ask detailed questions. I get the impression my sons school is one of the easier crosstowns. They have their own on campus Mils classes and PT. Ranger Challenge PT is arranged by host school. The other consideration is first and last day of classes run off of host school in our instance. So Freshman year he was still home in PA while ROTC was starting up a week or 10 days earlier.
 
I've heard of some schools in the northeast providing their cross-town students with a ZipCar subscription to drive themselves over to the other school for ROTC stuff.
 
As a ROTC Scholarship student, I decided against cross-town after talking with a few different detachments and heard the same thing.
  1. How far away is the cross-town campus? Remember to add time for traffic, accidents, and weather.
  2. Where do you have to park to get to PT or class?
  3. Have to be there at least twice a week early in the AM for PT.
  4. Have to be there for the ROTC class which can usually be scheduled after PT but maybe a different day.
  5. Do you have to go back for leadership training?
  6. Limited time to really become a part of the battalion since you are only engaging during PT and class.
  7. We have a lounge and area where we hang out during the day and can study with other ROTC members.
  8. If you want to engage more, you have to go back to that campus.
  9. Can limit your study time if you have to commute back and forward several times for other events.
 
Thanks for all of the replies, they've been helpful.

The crosstown school my son is looking at has Army ROTC on campus, Air Force ROTC is 90 minutes away one way.

He reached out to the detachment and has been in touch with a cadet from the school he's looking at attending to talk logistics.

The detachment only provides an on campus parking pass for the host school; other than that, cadets are on their own. Currently less than 10 cadets total from all 4 years participating via crosstown.

My son is a city kid and hasn't needed (let alone wanted) to get his drivers license yet.
 
Consider the distances for crosstown affiliates carefully. For Marquette AROTC, MSOE (Milwaukee School of Engineering) is only 8-12 city blocks away and easily doable, but UWM (U of Wisconsin Milwaukee) is on the other side of the city and is at least 15 minutes by car sometimes longer.

Also, with all the lawsuits related to the Greek systems nationwide, many cadets want to get that same sense of belonging from ROTC, and that is near impossible with crosstown affiliates, or even at host units that pull from many schools.

On the positive side, our cadet battalion commander from 94-95 was from MSOE, but he decided to live at Marquette off-campus his senior year and commute back to MSOE. He is now a COL at West Point!
 
I was a crosstown student for my entire time in NROTC and LOVE LOVE LOVEDDD it. It is especially manageable if there are other crosstown students; we had a carpooling schedule down to a science; for four years whenever I wasn't driving, I got to nap when it was 0500 and dark out on the way to PT, and napped on every single car ride back!

Besides transportation, I cannot say good enough things:
- a separation between military and college life; when I was on my college campus, I was a student, doing every non military extra curricular. When I was on my ROTC campus, I was fully locked into the "military mode."
- someone up there mentioned "many cadets want to get that same sense of belonging from ROTC, and that is near impossible with crosstown affiliates, or even at host units that pull from many schools" --> it was a tradition that MIDN from my host unit would come over a few times a semester to either go to parties, events, etc at my school. The host MIDN loved coming over and seeing a different lifestyle, and vice versa!


Feel free to contact me privately if you want to talk more, I'm happy to talk logistics for my situation, etc. I commissioned two years ago so it's all pretty fresh!
 
FastFood44 said:
I was a crosstown student for my entire time in NROTC and LOVE LOVE LOVEDDD it. It is especially manageable if there are other crosstown students; we had a carpooling schedule down to a science; for four years whenever I wasn't driving, I got to nap when it was 0500 and dark out on the way to PT, and napped on every single car ride back!

Besides transportation, I cannot say good enough things:
- a separation between military and college life; when I was on my college campus, I was a student, doing every non military extra curricular. When I was on my ROTC campus, I was fully locked into the "military mode."
- someone up there mentioned "many cadets want to get that same sense of belonging from ROTC, and that is near impossible with crosstown affiliates, or even at host units that pull from many schools" --> it was a tradition that MIDN from my host unit would come over a few times a semester to either go to parties, events, etc at my school. The host MIDN loved coming over and seeing a different lifestyle, and vice versa!


Feel free to contact me privately if you want to talk more, I'm happy to talk logistics for my situation, etc. I commissioned two years ago so it's all pretty fresh!
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This is great perspective! My DS's top choice is to be an ARTOC cadet at a crosstown school affiliated with a SMC. He loves the idea of having his ROTC training in the SMC environment, with all the opportunities it brings and so many people with awesome military backgrounds/experience. At the same time, he does NOT want to be immersed into a military environment 24/7 as his college experience. Being a cadet from a crosstown school is potentially the perfect blend, as you note, of being "fully immersed" in the military environment when you are there for ROTC activities but then also being able to return to your own campus and be a "regular college kid" at other times.

The ROO at the program did mention during my DS's interview that crosstown cadets are generally popular in the program, as students at the SMC are not allowed to have personal vehicles there. So, if you are a crosstown cadet with a vehicle, I guess you have a regular opportunity to help fellow cadets get out and about when they have leave. I think it would be great for my DS to form friendships with these SMC cadets and give them an opportunity to decompress a bit by visiting his crosstown campus or just jumping in the car together on a weekend and going out to do some fun stuff.

One of the coolest things about ROTC, IMO, is that there are so many potential paths to take, from being a cadet at Ivy League institution, to a major state university, to a small, private, liberal arts school in the country to even doing ROTC at an SMC. Then, of course, there are the thousands of "crosstown" schools layered onto that. ROTC truly gives students the opportunity to tailor a college/military experience to their liking in terms of location, school size and type, etc.
 
pa-outdoorsman said:
At the same time, he does NOT want to be immersed into a military environment 24/7 as his college experience. Being a cadet from a crosstown school is potentially the perfect blend, as you note, of being "fully immersed" in the military environment when you are there for ROTC activities but then also being able to return to your own campus and be a "regular college kid" at other times.
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This was my number one reason to do crosstown... best decision of my life! Reach out to me privately if you'd like me to speak with you/ your DS about anything crosstown related. happy to help.
 
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