How difficult is it to get a AROTC Scholarship to Texas A&M?

Jwmiller6

5-Year Member
Joined
Oct 24, 2012
Messages
122
Hello everyone,

Texas A&M is my first choice on my AROTC scholarship application, and I was just wondering how hard it is to get a scholarship there? I'm assuming it's fairly difficult, but cannot find any solid information on it.

Here's a quick overview of my stats:

Academics: Class rank - 2/141, GPA 4.0 (unweighted), have taken college and honors courses, and 1810 SAT (math - 620, CR - 590, writing - 600).

Extracurricular/Leadership: Student Council Treasurer, dramatics leading role and staff participations, Boys' State, Boys' State Governor, Boys' Nation, and Civil Air Patrol.

Athletics/Physical Fitness: one varsity basketball letter (I would have two, along with a varsity soccer letter, but AROTC only wants activities from 10th grade on), first place in my division of Jiu Jitsu state tournament, push-ups - 69, sit-ups - 60, and mile run - 6:14.
 
Hello everyone,
(I would have two, along with a varsity soccer letter, but AROTC only wants activities from 10th grade on)
... I thought it was 9-11th???

Congrats on Boys Nations :)

But anyways; you're looking pretty solid - it would have been nice to see some AP; but I suppose the college courses will compensate.

You're best bet is to contact the PMS, and if you live close (to an extent) go visit the BTN, get to know the cadre & speak with cadets.

Godspeed.
 
... I thought it was 9-11th???

Congrats on Boys Nations :)

But anyways; you're looking pretty solid - it would have been nice to see some AP; but I suppose the college courses will compensate.

You're best bet is to contact the PMS, and if you live close (to an extent) go visit the BTN, get to know the cadre & speak with cadets.

Godspeed.

I just double checked, it is 10th-12th grade. It's fairly confusing because USMA is from 9th-12th. I really do not understand why they wouldn't just make it 9th-12th.

Thank you. It was an amazing experience that I will never forget!

Unfortunately, my school does not offer AP courses, which is why I ended up taking college couses.

I live in Alaska, so this would be very hard to do, and expensive. So, I think it is out of the question.

Thanks for the response!
 
Jw,

I don't know how you will fare because TAMU is not only a state school, but 1 of the 7 SMCs in the nation. Your SAT appears to me to be low.

That being said, if you look at the sticky above regarding room and board you will see that TAMU also offers:
texas a & m university - corpus christi
12 room and board and 12 room scholarships available for rotc scholarship cadets.

Texas a & m university - kingsville
12 room and board and 12 room scholarships available for rotc scholarship cadets.

SO that may help.

Thompson,
I think your 9-11th confusion is because AFROTC only accepts 9-11th, they do not accept anything, except SATs from your sr. yr. for scholarships.
 
If you are looking at TAMU I’m sure you’ve gone to the website. http://corps.tamu.edu/ . The Army ROTC detachment there has a Facebook page, https://en-gb.facebook.com/tamuarmyrotc . Pima’s advice is spot on, contact the unit. The Army ROTC telephone number at TAMU is 979.845.2814. There are backdoors to TAMU as well, including the BLINN Team and TAMU Galveston. You can talk to Corps members by e-mailing them or calling them, see http://corps.tamu.edu/contact-us ; this includes links to the ROTC detachments, the Corps itself, and related units. In a separate tab under the “Connect” tab you can find a link to e-mail questions to Corps members (students) as well as Corps staff (paid staff members, principally retired service members). I also send you a private message. Good luck.
 
Jwmiller 6, you didn't put your current class. Are you a Senior who has already applied for the AROTC scholarship or a Junior who is about to apply?

If you are a senior, A&M's scholarship allotment fills up within the first couple of boards. I know the first board has already met. I'm not sure about the second board. Visiting A&M, and specifically the Corps of Cadets admission events, is also very important. A&M wants to see a true demonstrated interest in their school as opposed to someone who just added it to the list of 10 other schools they are applying to. We actually flew out from the west coast for my son to do his scholarship interview with the AROTC PMS at A&M in time to be on the first board. I know the scholarship decisions are done at the national level now, but I got the impression that the PMS had some say in whether A&M wanted him for a scholarship slot at their school.

Your stats look solid. The class rank is impressive as well as your extracurriculars. A&M only admits about 3-4% of their freshman class from out-of-state, but that percentage goes a bit higher within the Corps. Putting interest in the Corps on your application will not increase your chances of admission alone. However, if you get an AROTC scholarship, it's a virtual guarantee of admission to A&M.
 
I would think that since the OP is from AK he will not be flying to TX and TAMU would understand why he hasn't step foot on the campus.

That being said, as a Mom, I would say if you can fly there, do it. Colleges have a personality, and so do the dets. There are many kids that fall in love with a campus via the glossy brochures and websites, but once there the feel for the campus doesn't match their expectations.

It is like everyone raving about a movie and how you have to see it, but you walk out 2 hrs later and saying it was just okay. College is not just academics it is also social. As a ROTC cadet, it will be part academics, part ROTC, and part social.

I would join the sites that lawman suggested. You will get a better feel for the unit.

CadetMom,
Interesting that they only take 3% from OOS. To me that means it is insanely competitive. Our DD attends VT (not ROTC) and I can say that the avg SAT for IS is 1280, and they take 25% OOS. IS is usually lower than OOS stats due to competition from a national level for fewer admissions slots.

OBTW Jwmiller I don't know about TAMU, but I do know VT has a caveat for ROTC cadets. ROTC cadets must be in the Corps, Corps cadets don't have to be in ROTC. They do give an admissions edge for those that state they will join the Corps. If they drop out of the Corps before a certain point freshman yr, VT has the right to show them the door, and dis-enroll them from the school. I believe it is 6-9 weeks.

The reason why they do this is due to the fact they don't want applicants saying they will be in the Corps to get into VT. I would check with the school to see if this is a condition for admittance.
 
If you are a senior, A&M's scholarship allotment fills up within the first couple of boards. I know the first board has already met. I'm not sure about the second board. Visiting A&M, and specifically the Corps of Cadets admission events, is also very important. A&M wants to see a true demonstrated interest in their school as opposed to someone who just added it to the list of 10 other schools they are applying to. We actually flew out from the west coast for my son to do his scholarship interview with the AROTC PMS at A&M in time to be on the first board. I know the scholarship decisions are done at the national level now, but I got the impression that the PMS had some say in whether A&M wanted him for a scholarship slot at their school.

I second this. At A&M I think the visit is very important. If you can't visit I would certainly be on the phone talking to them.
 
I don't know about TAMU, but I do know VT has a caveat for ROTC cadets. ROTC cadets must be in the Corps, Corps cadets don't have to be in ROTC. They do give an admissions edge for those that state they will join the Corps. If they drop out of the Corps before a certain point freshman yr, VT has the right to show them the door, and dis-enroll them from the school. I believe it is 6-9 weeks.


That is how it works at TAMU as well, at least in terms of you have to be accepted to TAMU first. TAMU cadets, contracted or otherwise, have to take ROTC for at least two years. Unlike Tech, it you leave the Corps you aren't disenrolled, but you do have to find a new place to live. The only people with guaranteed housing are cadets in the Corps.
 
Jwmiller6,

This will be a bit late for your situation but for new applicants that may read this it may help.

When you fill out your application include what you anticipate you will be doing in your senior year such as Varsity Sports, Clubs, EC's, Leadership positions. Don't list awards you think you may receive but if you know your going to be a president of a club, or a Varsity Team member then list it on the application.

Don't leave the year 12 blank.

If you were varsity or had leadership positions in 9th grade you can list those in the Additional Remarks section of the application.
 
Pima, you are right in your observation about the small percentage of out-of-state students accepted to A&M. I was shocked the first time I saw that statistic. My supposition on the reason is two-fold. First, Texas has such a huge population that they need to accommodate so many more residents. Secondly, Texas A&M and University of Texas are the top two public schools in the state, so they have their pick of the state's students. I read another statistic that about 70% of accepted students are in the top quarter of their high school classes, and a full 90% are in the top half. Last year there were over 30,000 applications for a bit over 8,000 freshman spots.
 
CadetMom,

Personally, I think the reason you are seeing such a rise in competition and stats is because of the economy. Many people can't afford to send their kids to private or OOS, thus they are going IS, especially if the colleges are nationally reknown.

VA is the same in that manner as TX because you have VT and UVA. Still though 3% from OOS is an OMG competition. Doing the math that is only 250-300 from OOS.:eek:
 
CadetMom,

Personally, I think the reason you are seeing such a rise in competition and stats is because of the economy. Many people can't afford to send their kids to private or OOS, thus they are going IS, especially if the colleges are nationally reknown.

VA is the same in that manner as TX because you have VT and UVA. Still though 3% from OOS is an OMG competition. Doing the math that is only 250-300 from OOS.:eek:

I'm not sure if I agree on the 250-300 figure. My math says more like 400-500 (accepted) as their yield on admissions isn't that high IIRC.

I agree that the OOS numbers are very small though and generally more competitive.
 
goalie,

I just did the multiplication when I stated that number...3-4% out of 8000 accepted = 240-320. Even a 400-500 number is still OMG from an OOS perspective...basically a 5% chance.

In this case from an OOS perspective your chances are better with an SA, which runs at a 10%+ chance.
 
goalie,

I just did the multiplication when I stated that number...3-4% out of 8000 accepted = 240-320. Even a 400-500 number is still OMG from an OOS perspective...basically a 5% chance.

In this case from an OOS perspective your chances are better with an SA, which runs at a 10%+ chance.

I believe the 8000 number is the matriculation number. ~16K is the accepted number with a yield of 50%.

I don't have the specific stats for OOS vs. IS regarding acceptance/yield numbers.
 
@jwmiller6 - have you been admitted to A&M yet? If you are, an out-of-state member of the Corps is practically guaranteed a waiver to pay in-state tuition, which helps a lot even if you don't get the AROTC scholarship. If you haven't been admitted yet, I suggest that you keep re-taking the SAT and ACT until you are either admitted, or time runs out. It would also be a great idea to Spend the Night with the Corps (SNWC) sometime this spring, just to get some idea of what Texas, the school and the Corps are like. My son did SNWC at A&M, but did his PMS interview elsewhere. I'm sure they knew he was interested, and he did get the scholarship at A&M, but the first step is to be admitted.

@Pima and others - the key to OOS admissions at A&M is to meet the criteria for academic admission, which is 1300 SAT (including 600 reading and 600 math) plus rank in the top 25% of the high school class. Or, get a 30 on the ACT (including 27 reading and 27 math). The in-state students can also be automatically admitted if they rank in the top 10%, regardless of test scores. It's also possible to be a "review admit" without meeting those stats, to start at Galveston, or to start at Blinn. But we were told, at SNWC, that the Corps doesn't actually influence the admissions decision.

If there are only 3-4% OOS at A&M, I think that's because the OOS applications are not that high. In Pennsylvania, we would not have thought about A&M until my son did the research and learned about SMCs. I think UT-Austin ranks higher in US News and that might be influencing students who want to attend college in Texas.
 
In order to head-off a big debate on specific numbers, I think we should just suffice it to say that A&M has a fairly small number of OOS vs. IS students compared to many universities. And, to get back to the original question of the thread, you probably need to be awarded a scholarship on the first or second board to get one of the allotted AROTC scholarships for the Corps of Cadets. Does that mean you can't transfer another scholarship to A&M later? No. They do open up for various reasons. But, there is no guarantee if you don't get the initial offer.
 
In order to head-off a big debate on specific numbers, I think we should just suffice it to say that A&M has a fairly small number of OOS vs. IS students compared to many universities. And, to get back to the original question of the thread, you probably need to be awarded a scholarship on the first or second board to get one of the allotted AROTC scholarships for the Corps of Cadets. Does that mean you can't transfer another scholarship to A&M later? No. They do open up for various reasons. But, there is no guarantee if you don't get the initial offer.

Didn't mean to get into a semantics debate (admitted vs. matriculated). My apologies.

Agree that the odds of a transfer of scholarship are slim (1st Brigade is the SMCs IIRC, so that is where the best odds are - I imagine some folks change their minds among the SMCs, but bringing another brigade's scholarship over is much tougher).

My best advice to those looking to ascertain their odds of a AROTC scholarship at a specific school is to ask the ROO the statistics of the previous year's scholarship recipients. Yes, past performance is no guarantee of future results, but clearly if a candidate's SAT score is below the low end of this year's awardees, I would say the candidate should be planning accordingly.

I think the admissions part would also follow the same rule - finding out the GPA/SAT statistics for OOS cadets in the current freshman class is the best metric to use to measure one's own chances.
 
I don't know if the OP has Naviance at their HS, but if they do it might be wise to use it to see if students from previous yrs were accepted.
 
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