Info on specific AROTC battalions?

Z

ZAROTCZ33

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Hello everyone thank you for taking the time to read this post. I am currently an ROTC four year scholarship applicant who is waiting through this nerve racking process, but instead of talking about my insecurities of being awarded a scholarship i rather ask a few questions pertaining specifically to the two university's which are on the top of my list. I was wondering about how good the programs are at Louisiana State University and the University of Kentucky for Army ROTC. If possible if anyone knows how large their programs are it would be helpful also.

Thank you for all input.
 
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ZAROTCZ33 said:
Hello everyone thank you for taking the time to read this post. I am currently an ROTC four year scholarship applicant who is waiting through this nerve racking process, but instead of talking about my insecurities of being awarded a scholarship i rather ask a few questions pertaining specifically to the two university's which are on the top of my list. I was wondering about how good the programs are at Louisiana State University and the University of Kentucky for Army ROTC. If possible if anyone knows how large their programs are it would be helpful also.

Thank you for all input.
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I'm not familiar with those programs, but in case you haven't found these:

http://appl003.lsu.edu/artsci/milscience.nsf/index

http://armyrotc.as.uky.edu/
 
Since cadre and cadets constantly rotate out of schools it is almost impossible to determine the quality of a program. Perhaps the top 8 schools who are awarded the MacArthur Award every year might be a gauge of quality but even that changes often.

ROTC is very similar wherever you go because the training is standardized. Just got to the school that fits you best.
 
ZAROTCZ33 said:
Hello everyone thank you for taking the time to read this post. I am currently an ROTC four year scholarship applicant who is waiting through this nerve racking process, but instead of talking about my insecurities of being awarded a scholarship i rather ask a few questions pertaining specifically to the two university's which are on the top of my list. I was wondering about how good the programs are at Louisiana State University and the University of Kentucky for Army ROTC. If possible if anyone knows how large their programs are it would be helpful also.

Thank you for all input.
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After doing a Search function on the ROTC forum, I found 4 members whose children have scholarships to UK. Two who would be freshmen this year and the other 2 would be sophomores. You might PM these members and ask about how things are with their cadets.

LSU didn't turn up any resuluts.

BTW, ROTC (the general program - classes PT etc) is very similar at all units. It is the other stuff - events the unit participates in that you will want to ask about. And a great deal of your experience has to do with the current cadets (especially the underclassmen who will be running things when you arrive) and the enlisted members of the cadre who you will interact a lot with in your first years.

More importantly, your college experience is more important. Are you comfortable in that school. Football or Basketball? So many things...
 
Thank you all for the valid information. I mean alot that spikes my curiosity is the percentile of students at these school recieving scholarship money from the national scholarship board. I understand theirs no set way of knowing that but just an estimation of sorts would be helpful. Because i know after talking to a PMS in my home state that certain funding issues vary on how many scholarships each school gets on a federal level. The PMS informed me at there school their would be only one or two federal scholarships available at their disposal due to the conjunction of state scholarships and benefits through the guard and other programs available. Basically i'm curious if at these large public university's will their be a greater abundance of national scholarship money up for grabs?
 
My DS is a AFROTC Scholarship recipient (freshman) at UK. He loves the University and has made alot of friends in the Army side of the house. UK is a beautiful campus and easy to navigate around on. UK also has a ROTC Living and Learning Community made up of both Air Force and Army cadets. They all share a floor together in Blanding Tower. A perk to UK is that the University gives a room and board scholarship to all 4 year ROTC scholarship recipients. The AROTC Batallian there would probably be considered a mid size battalian and according to DS is very highly regarded. The University itself is really military friendly as are most of the Universities throughout Kentucky. I would plan a campus visit there if you are seriously considering it and schedule an appointment with the PMS. I am sure you will fall in love with the campus and the people there too. Good Luck! :wink:
 
Zarot -- First I'll try to answer your question, then I'll make a comment about your spelling/grammar :)

First, I haven't found a way to know how many cadets are on a campus short of reading the Unit's website ( sometimes that size of the Battalion is mentioned), or phoning and asking the ROO (Recruiting Operations Officer) directly about the Battalion. Ask things like -- how many of the cadets are students at your host campus vs. students at Cross-town schools who commute?; How many of the first year cadets are on Scholarship vs. how many are not? What % of the non-scholarship cadets eventually earn an on-campus scholarship? and lastly, how many of the non-scholarship cadets make it through to Contract at the beginning of their Junior (MSIII) year?

As to how much scholarship money is available on a given campus, that is a two-step process. First, you need to earn a scholarship. Then, Cadet Command looks at your list of seven campuses listed on your Application to see, in order from #1 to #7, which of these Battalions has scholarship budget still available for a Scholarship awardee. It is true that generally, many more scholarships are available to be used at in-state Public universities than there are at Out-of-State Publics, or Private Universities. It's an issue of the in-State Public costing the Army on average about $10,000 in Tuition, vs. $25,000 in Tuition for Out of State Publics, vs. about $41,000 for Privates. The Army prefers to spend the majority of its tuition dollars on In-State Publics. That means that the Scholarship Award to Out of State Public needs to go to an especially strong Applicant, and the Scholarship Award to an expensive Private is reserved for truly exceptional Applicants...applicants that one might expect to also gain an appointment to the Academy given the right circumstances.

Second, the spelling/grammar. It would be good for you to start to understand that the Army is all about getting the details right. Spelling/grammar is part of that, even on a website, especially since you would like to be an Officer.

- Their is not the same as they're or there.
- Theirs is not the same as there's
- University's is not the same as Universities
- Percentile is not the same as percentage
- Valid is not the same as useful or interesting

Those are very small things, but they stick out among a group of students who aspire to earn a Scholarship, and who aspire to become an Officer in a few years. If you haven't submitted your Scholarship Application yet, make sure that before you do, you carefully edit the essay and any other comments for errors like those I listed above... those errors are in your two posts.
 
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Thank you for the information. I'm sorry about my stupid grammar mistakes I posted these questions in to much of rush. I did get all my required documentation in for the first board. I had 3 separate english teachers read my personal statement and additional information to edit for all the grammar mistakes. Those questions will be very helpful in addressing the ROO at those two schools. I am an out of state student for both those colleges, but they are ranked 1 and 2 on my list hopefully if i get a high enough ranking by the board i will be able to get one of these two schools. If i am awarded any scholarship at all i will be greatful and take it in a heartbeat. Thank you both for giving me a more in depth analysis of the schools in itself and in general how the funding is appropriated to scholarship winners.
 
you should read up on this Board about possible strategies on the listing of schools. I think it is not too late to reconfigure your list #1 - #7.

Here's the reason: If you are a competitive candidate for an in-state public (low cost), and not very competitive for an Out of State Public (medium cost) or a Private (high cost), then you might want to consider listing an In-State Public among your top three choices. But only if you would actually be happy attending your In-State Public. It doesn't have to be your "dream school", but it should be a school you could see yourself attending without feeling like a loser (not that I agree with those feelings, but I do hear them from time to time about some of the schools lower down the prestige heirarchy in my state, CA.) As far as I'm concerned, any State sponsored 4 year college will provide a quality education if the student him/herself takes their classes seriously and aims to be toward the top of each class.
 
I had put down an in state public as my number three orginally. I revised it after being told by the PMS that their school is only getting one national board scholarship max two. The PMS told me they give alot of scholarships at the school to second year cadets who show promise. In my state the national guard pays 100% tuition for in-state public universities. My thought process was to put down schools which i had more of a desire to get into out of state and if i was not awarded a scholarship to look at some of the options available through going in state. I made a rationalized assumption that the schools at the top of my list are offering a larger number of scholarships through the national scholarship then one or two. It also does not hurt that my two top schools have room and board included with the four year national scholarship.
 
Another thing you may look into if you are out of state is whether or not the schools you are interested in offer other (non-financial aid) scholarships or tuition reductions for which you may qualify. While my DS did not initially receive his AROTC scholarship to his #1 choice (an OOS public university), he was able to transfer it there. As part of his transfer request he pointed out that the actual delta between the ISS and the OOS was much smaller than it would normally have been because he had been awarded reduced tuition at the OOS school based on his academics. While I cannot tell you for sure if that helped his transfer request, I believe it did not hurt.

Good luck!
 
^ that sounds like a good strategy... shoot for the moon with the National High School Scholarship, and let your fallback position be an in-State school with National Guard and/or the SMP with ROTC assisting with tuition.

Understand that you aren't the only one who would target a high cost Private school on their school list, and even moreso a Private that offers all or partial R&B to ROTC cadets. Those exact schools probably have more applicants place them in the top 3 than any other type of school... in other words, the compettition for a Scholarship Award for use at a high cost Private that throws in all/part R&B will be fierce, and the Scholar/AThlete/Leader score would have to be near the very top of all applicants -- probably among the top 100-150 of all 5,000 plus Scholarship applicants... meaning people who would have a great chance of getting into an Academy as well. That usually means 4.0 or close to it unweighted GPA, 1400+ 2 part SAT, and Captain of a large Varsity team or Student Council President, plus some impressive extracurriculars.
 
Room and Board

Semi-off topic, but wanted to put in a reminder that Room and Board being covered by the school for ROTC cadets is not free. The cadet or his/her parents will be paying taxes on that. Only awards that cover tuition, books and fees are tax free. Just a friendly reminder for cadets and their parents who aren't familiar with all the tax ramifications. I would hate to be a parent who unwittingly ended up doing this :help: at tax time.

OTOH the taxes will be far more affordable than R&B.
 
Dunninla just a reminder these are large publics not Emory or a school on that scale. Kinnem you made a very good point I had never considered the Room and Board not being tax free. I'm definitely not a top tier competitor for the ROTC Scholarship. The PMS I interviewed happened to be on the board the previous year and told me I was very competitive. The PMS told me I got the green light to be reviewed by the board so there must be potential seen. I'm just hoping the early bird gets the worm mentality may be advantageous to me getting a scholarship. I also have another question which I'm curious about. I'm pretty sure Kentucky and Louisiana both have similar tuition assistance programs through the guard as my home state. Is it possible to join the guard as an out of state citizen and be given in state tuition and take part in SMP? If parts of that question don't make sense I apologize now. Research for ROTC was a lot easier to find compared to individual states National Guard benefits at specific universities.
 
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