dogdoc,
Depending on the size and type of school 400 applicants seems about right. Remember that number includes every applicant that listed the school on their list. Some may have listed the school as a #1 and some as #7 and everywhere in between. My son was selected on the first board and some of the schools already had over 100 for the first board alone.
Consider that there are on average 10,000 + applicants that start the application process just for West Point, and I understand that most if not all apply for AROTC as a back up. Add to that number the amount off applicants that don't apply to the SA and you can imagine the total number of applicants being well over 20,000 per year, add into that the current economy and it could be even higher. The sheer numbers really highlights that this is not an easy scholarship to receive.
Patentesq,
I don't know for sure about the schedule for getting letters out for this board, I can tell you how it went the first board.
Status changed on Nov. 15th
Letter dated Nov. 19th arrived Nov. 21st
Deadline to accept or decline was Dec. 19th. (Basically 30 days from the date on the letter.)
30 days seemed like a long time until we had to schedule a quick trip to Fla. to visit a school. Glad we had a good trip because he decided not to go to that school.
jagabiti
I don't think there is a way to tell how many scholarships were 3yr and 4yr, at least not at this time. The first board gave 460 scholarship offers, 400 were accepted. From what Marist has posted around 800 offers were made this board, some of the 800 will not accept due to various reasons. The total scholarships so far look to be at a maximum of around 1200, if they stick to there earlier projections that should mean there is a large amount left to be offered, only this year, who knows for sure.