Ivy AFROTC

[jeffinNC]

Hello All,

My daughter has decided to go with USAFA as her primary plan A and will start her application March 1st! We have decided that for plan B to apply to 4 other schools and 3 of those for AFROTC. We have already picked three schools for plan B but my daughter was undecided on the one Ivy school to apply for. Just asking for personal preferences here on what is the best AFROTC at one of the eight Ivy League schools? Preferably one that has a detachment at the school. Thanks!

 

[franknd]

Not what you asked exactly, but Notre Dame hosts all ROTC programs and has always been very hospitable -- unlike the Ivies -- to ROTC. So if your daughter considers ND close enough to "Ivy," that's what I'd recommend.

Aside from that, I'd guess you can't go wrong with MIT, which hosts Harvard's AFROTC program.

 

[thibaud]

Yale is the only Ivy League school that hosts an AFROTC detachment on its campus. All others are crosstown schools that require the AFROTC cadet to commute very early in the morning, sometimes more than an hour and a half each way, to the host school.

 

[Herman_Snerd]

I believe Cornell University Detachment 520 is hosted at Cornell as well. "Students from five universities participate in Air Force ROTC via Detachment 520. Although our training and academic courses are hosted at Cornell University, students from Ithaca College, SUNY Cortland, Elmira College, and Binghamton University are also eligible to participate."

I don't believe Dartmouth College participates in AFROTC. No results when searching the Air Force detachments. They do participate in Army ROTC.

 

[jeffinNC]

Yale is the only Ivy League school that hosts an AFROTC detachment on its campus. All others are crosstown schools that require the AFROTC cadet to commute very early in the morning, sometimes more than an hour and a half each way, to the host school.

O ok. I thought Cornell had it on campus as well. She really liked Dartmouth the best but no AFROTC there.

 

[jeffinNC]

I believe Cornell University Detachment 520 is hosted at Cornell as well. "Students from five universities participate in Air Force ROTC via Detachment 520. Although our training and academic courses are hosted at Cornell University, students from Ithaca College, SUNY Cortland, Elmira College, and Binghamton University are also eligible to participate."

I don't believe Dartmouth College participates in AFROTC. No results when searching the Air Force detachments. They do participate in Army ROTC.

Yes ok so it is between Yale and Cornell. I will pass along to my daughter!

 

[jeffinNC]

Not what you asked exactly, but Notre Dame hosts all ROTC programs and has always been very hospitable -- unlike the Ivies -- to ROTC. So if your daughter considers ND close enough to "Ivy," that's what I'd recommend.

Aside from that, I'd guess you can't go wrong with MIT, which hosts Harvard's AFROTC program.

Ok I just saw Harvard didn't host. MIT is not a bad crosstown school..haha! lol!

 

[Herman_Snerd]

Yes ok so it is between Yale and Cornell. I will pass along to my daughter!

Recommend your daughter if interested to serve look at all service academies and branch ROTCs. Not just Air Force. She may find the mission, opportunities to be of interest and there is no guarantee of getting into specific schools or branches with a scholarship. Good luck to her and your family.

 

[jaglvr]

Penn is too far cross town at St. Joe’s which hosts like 20+ crosstowns..

 

[unkown1961]

Why limit selective schools to the Ivies. MIT has a fantastic AFROTC detachment and is a top 1 or 2 school in the world based on what source you're looking at. Speaking of which, MIT hosts Harvard (along with Tufts and Wellsley) and it is not hard to get to MIT from Harvard, so you might want to consider Harvard as an Ivy choice. Plus Boston/Cambridge is a great area to attend college.
Also, I'd suggest spreading out the risk and consider applying to more than 4 selective schools.

 

[thibaud]

"Ivy" is an elastic term to begin with... there are plenty of schools that most knowledgeable people would consider better than most of the ivies -- MIT, CalTech, Chicago for starters.

More importantly, what does your daughter want to study? If it's a technical discipline, then certainly the Ivies will be inferior to most of the top engineering schools. For example, none of the ivies offers an Aerospace Engineering curriculum that compares with any of this country's many outstanding flagship public universities: Purdue, Georgia Tech, Michigan are better for A.E. than any ivy.

At this point, the ivies offer networks, period. Incredibly valuable if you're going in to politics, Wall Street or Big Tech (same thing, these days), but not of much value outside those clubby fields.

 

[jeffinNC]

Why limit selective schools to the Ivies. MIT has a fantastic AFROTC detachment and is a top 1 or 2 school in the world based on what source you're looking at. Speaking of which, MIT hosts Harvard (along with Tufts and Wellsley) and it is not hard to get to MIT from Harvard, so you might want to consider Harvard as an Ivy choice. Plus Boston/Cambridge is a great area to attend college.
Also, I'd suggest spreading out the risk and consider applying to more than 4 selective schools.

We are applying to 5 schools besides the USAFA. We are picking only one Ivy of those 5. Because of this forum my daughter is dropping Cornell and replacing it with Yale AFROTC. She is going to put MIT in her 5 now. So as it stands now We are going USAFA, MIT, Yale, Duke and NC State. We have connections at NC State and would be accepted there almost with certainty.

 

[jeffinNC]

"Ivy" is an elastic term to begin with... there are plenty of schools that most knowledgeable people would consider better than most of the ivies -- MIT, CalTech, Chicago for starters.

More importantly, what does your daughter want to study? If it's a technical discipline, then certainly the Ivies will be inferior to most of the top engineering schools. For example, none of the ivies offers an Aerospace Engineering curriculum that compares with any of this country's many outstanding flagship public universities: Purdue, Georgia Tech, Michigan are better for A.E. than any ivy.

At this point, the ivies offer networks, period. Incredibly valuable if you're going in to politics, Wall Street or Big Tech (same thing, these days), but not of much value outside those clubby fields.

Going MIT now as one of four plan B's. Her two main areas of study are either Biochem or global languages. Possibly doctor route. Or foreign affairs/diplomacy/foreign area officer. But she really wants to be a leader first and foremost and wants to go to a school with a dedicated student body. Her career field I suspect could change once she gets to college. She does not know yet which of those two she will do. She speaks, reads and writes French and German fluently. Been in European languages immersion schools since kindergarten. She has just won her Spaatz award at 16 years old in CAP (4 1/2 years of constant hard work) and is cadet commander over a large squadron so she prefers going the Air Force route over the other branches.

 

[unkown1961]

Going MIT now as one of four plan B's. Her two main areas of study are either Biochem or global languages. Possibly doctor route. Or foreign affairs/diplomacy/foreign area officer. But she really wants to be a leader first and foremost and wants to go to a school with a dedicated student body. Her career field I suspect could change once she gets to college. She does not know yet which of those two she will do. She speaks, reads and writes French and German fluently. Been in European languages immersion schools since kindergarten. She has just won her Spaatz award at 16 years old in CAP (4 1/2 years of constant hard work) and is cadet commander over a large squadron so she prefers going the Air Force route over the other branches.

For IR, has she looked at Tufts or Georgetown? My oldest received an AFROTC Foreign Language scholarship and went to Boston U to double major in Russian and IR. They are also a great school for this, and a very ROTC-friendly school (they top off partial AFROTC scholarships). For you and your daughter's interest in foreign languages, check out Project Go for ROTC cadet. It's a summer language and cultural immersion program (link).

 

[unkown1961]

Going MIT now as one of four plan B's. Her two main areas of study are either Biochem or global languages. Possibly doctor route. Or foreign affairs/diplomacy/foreign area officer. But she really wants to be a leader first and foremost and wants to go to a school with a dedicated student body. Her career field I suspect could change once she gets to college. She does not know yet which of those two she will do. She speaks, reads and writes French and German fluently. Been in European languages immersion schools since kindergarten. She has just won her Spaatz award at 16 years old in CAP (4 1/2 years of constant hard work) and is cadet commander over a large squadron so she prefers going the Air Force route over the other branches.

If you go to this site, plug in the name of a school, then click "See More" you can see if there are any supplemental funds from the school for AFROTC cadets: https://www.afrotc.com/college-locator/

 

[jeffinNC]

For IR, has she looked at Tufts or Georgetown? My oldest received an AFROTC Foreign Language scholarship and went to Boston U to double major in Russian and IR. They are also a great school for this, and a very ROTC-friendly school (they top off partial AFROTC scholarships). For you and your daughter's interest in foreign languages, check out Project Go for ROTC cadet. It's a summer language and cultural immersion program (link).

We will surely check that out! Cool information about your DS!!!

 

[FrauTeufelshund]

I would suggest your child pursues the language route as minors. Sadly, German and French are not as important in the world as they used to be. Biochem (possibly with the foreign language) will probably get her farther in life than the language/IR route alone. Signed, a German/IR double major, now an office assistant

EDIT: Not saying your child can't go places with languages/IR! It's all up to her. My german major served me well as I lived in Germany for 23 years after college! Good luck in whatever route she decides.

 

[unkown1961]

I would suggest your child pursues the language route as minors. Sadly, German and French are not as important in the world as they used to be. Biochem (possibly with the foreign language) will probably get her farther in life than the language/IR route alone. Signed, a German/IR double major, now an office assistant

EDIT: Not saying your child can't go places with languages/IR! It's all up to her. My german major served me well as I lived in Germany for 23 years after college! Good luck in whatever route she decides.

Good point but I think it all depends on what you want to do. IR/language can lead to Intel, one of the three-letter agencies, international business, consulting, etc.

 

[jeffinNC]

I would suggest your child pursues the language route as minors. Sadly, German and French are not as important in the world as they used to be. Biochem (possibly with the foreign language) will probably get her farther in life than the language/IR route alone. Signed, a German/IR double major, now an office assistant

EDIT: Not saying your child can't go places with languages/IR! It's all up to her. My german major served me well as I lived in Germany for 23 years after college! Good luck in whatever route she decides.

Yes ma'am making her tri-lingual was always to compliment her trade like becoming a medical doctor with being able to speak three languages as a feather in her cap. So if she did solely foreign languages as a major the end goal would be to help compliment her career as an air force officer regardless of field of work.

 

[Herman_Snerd]

We are applying to 5 schools besides the USAFA. We are picking only one Ivy of those 5. Because of this forum my daughter is dropping Cornell and replacing it with Yale AFROTC. She is going to put MIT in her 5 now. So as it stands now We are going USAFA, MIT, Yale, Duke and NC State. We have connections at NC State and would be accepted there almost with certainty.

Curious what data point caused you to remove Cornell in favor of Yale for AFROTC. Both are on-campus programs. Better for her potential majors?

Congrats on earning the SPAATZ through Civil Air Patrol- quite an accomplishment at age 16.

Couple of data points to FYI share.
1. I'll just point out that even with walk on water statistics, top letters, the languages, the Spaatz, especially this/ next year that 4-5 schools on your list are not a guarantee admission. MIT is THE top school in many rankings. Although I think the academies would be a high probability of success - again may wish to apply to more than 1.
2, This/ next year's students will be competing against some top talent who opted to not go to the dream school until Covid restrictions are less intense but ride out a local school then go for it. Colgate for example this year broke their record with number of applicants- over 19k applicants.
3. Just so you don't ride in overconfident based on all of her strengths and find yourself with regret. You again may want to add a couple of schools/ more academies even though on paper she'll have no issue. Also some top leaders in NJROTC and CAP in the last 2 years have struggled in some ROTC programs. Many washed out of Navy NSI or their first semester including at the Citadel. Shocking I know, but I saw a correlation between the highest ranks from CAP/ NJROTC struggling in ROTC in some but not all cases.

Good luck.