goaliedad said:
Given that you've miscalculated your experience at this school, what makes you think you haven't miscalculated the other school's experience (unless you spied on their orientation while they weren't looking)?
Bottom line is that the grass isn't necessarily greener on the other side; You can always second guess a good decision and end up dissatisfied. Get used to things not being as advertised - The Army has plenty of those situations waiting for you and once you've contracted, the Army holds ALL of the cards - so get used to making the best of the situation you are in.
You will need to understand this if you are going to be successful in life.
Excellent advice.
I might be missing this somewhere, somehow, but the last I have experienced with my kids is ROTC transfer is really not the issue right now, transferring to your dream school is a player now, even if it did have ROTC.
Most colleges, unless you paid the deposit fee for both, would not accept you as an incoming FULL TIME freshman at this late date. Hence, this conversation is truly moot! You made your bed from an academic position, ROTC was just the side issue.
We all understand your stress, but we also have the luxury from not only looking the outside in, but also from experience.
One thing everyone who has ever attended college will tell you, that it is just like HS. Cliques are made very quickly, and the longer you wait to transfer the harder it will be to say goodbye AND to find new friends at the next college. A semester or yr from now, these kids have already bonded over orientation, moving into dorms, eating dinner together, going to FB games, etc. It is even harder since many colleges no longer guarantee housing after freshman yr. If that is the case, where will you live? You will have to move in with strangers. Even if the school has housing, think about it...the current students will dorm together, and you will be left as the fill in. You will be the new kid on the block, and that grass which was so green now turns out to be green because it was just weeds.
As goaliedad stated if this is a problem, just wait until you commission into the Army. They may give you options of where you will be posted, but the last word is theirs, not yours. Unlike college where you can say "I am outta here" if you don't like it, you can't when you are AD. That is why we all pound into every candidate/cadet/mid poster SERVICE BEFORE SELF. It isn't just a line, it is a way of life for the military.
I am not inferring or implying you don't get that, I am saying to accept it as fact. Two different things.
A pet peeve for many, including and especially the military ties back to that adage. When they give a date, it is not a suggestion date with wiggle room, it is basically an order. The fact that you missed the date by a month, does not look good upon your character as a future officer in the military. Yes, you are 18, but so are thousands of other cadets that followed the directions set forth upon receiving a scholarship.
I guarantee you there are many attending their non-dream college, but decided to do so because they understood this is only 4 yrs at tops (maybe a yr if they transfer), and their AD life would be much longer than their college yrs.
Finally, if I am correct you are going to ECU. ECU has a phenomenal AROTC program. I think you are making a snap judgement on the college without spending anytime with the unit. Due to ROTC you will spend a lot of waking hours at the unit, especially as yrs pass and you gain more responsibility. It is highly likely that your close friends in 4 yrs from now are not the people you met or will meet in your dorm this yr., but the ones that understand how different the life of a ROTC student at ECU is compared to the ECU student.
Lesson to candidates of 2017, VISIT the unit! If you don't you can find yourself in this scenario. If you visit the school, not thrilled with the campus, but can deal with it, and LOVE the unit, the school becomes a non-issue.
Vise a verse. Love the school, hate the unit, the school becomes a non-issue there too.
Good luck.
PS, I know ECU, since before moving to VA, ECU was considered down the road from where we lived, a ton of HS grads went there. DS's GF attends ECU. I agree from a campus perspective it is more of a city with a college there, and not a college in a city feel. Much different than Appalachian, Elon, or UNCCH since it feels more like a commuter college, but really isn't once you are there.