Non-GRFD requesting RFD

[nnelg]

Hey all, I have one more quick question. I went to talk to my cadre today and because of my scholarship, he said I need to put AD as my first choice, although I might not get it. From what I got from that, by the time accessions comes around, I could not chose the reserve component if that was what I would rather do? My cadre member said I could request it under certain circumstances but it is not normal. I usually like to do research first before talking to cadre and in the powerpoint I found here:

(actually, this forum will not let me post links, if you google search purdue accessions process, it will be the first link. It will download it as a powerpoint)

There is a section that says "Non-GRFD requesting RFD" out of each years cohort. For each year, there are over 500 cadets. Who are these cadets and how do they get RFD if they are GRFD scholarship cadets? I feel like I am getting conflicting information from my cadre from what I find online. I am not sure where in the army I want to serve, but I want to know my options and if I would qualify for RFD at all.

Thank you

 

[Jcleppe]

Hopefully Clarkson will see this and provide some information.

Unless there is a deadline to select RFD I am surprised your Cadre said you have to select AD. There were a few cadets in my son's battalion that were not GRFD that requested RFD and received it., this year the #2 cadet in the country in my son's battalion was a National 4 year scholarship cadet and requested RFD and had no problem getting it. With his ranking he would have been AD had he been required to list AD as his first choice.

 

[clarksonarmy]

I think there is a little confusion.

So, here's what I'm seeing...you are a 2.5 year winner, I'm assuming you are going to LDAC this year? and you will be a senior and access next fall. You have two options if you want to go into the Guard or Reserves. You can request to convert your scholarship to a GRFD. That will require you to begin drilling and will preclude you from going active duty. Your other option is to hold what you've got and request Reserves or Guard when you fill out your dream sheet. I think you may have misunderstood what your cadre was telling you. There is no reason why you can't ask for Guard/Reserves and it is certainly not "not normal" to ask to go Guard/Reserves. At Clarkson, many of our Cadets graduate with engineering degrees, all of them have good job offers when they graduate, and most of the engineers just got their school paid for by Uncle Sam. Nothing is stopping them from taking that job offer and paying back that scholarship part time. Absolutely nothing wrong with that option.

Back in the day scholarship winners had to go active duty, but that hasn't been the case for a long time. That 500 on the old UPitt accessions slide are the ones who choose to go Guard/Reserves even though they could have gone active.

 

[nnelg]

They you all for the responses. I have gotten really confusing answers from 2 of the cadre members but this clears it up. The next time I meet with them I will try and get a solid answer.