NWP vs ROTC

[Karek]

A few people have mentioned college credit which NWP does not provide but other Military prep schools do such as MMI or NMMI. While true many of those applying to a SA do already have AP credits and many colleges require testing for some classes on placement. Even though my DS lost a semester of college credit at NWP, at an accredited 4 year college he is now taking because of placement tests and AP credit Sophmore and Junior level courses in all disciplines. Hence, while losing a semester of credit he is actually not in a worse position but positioned very well as a first semester college student.

All of this is relative and depends on your goals. Those fortunate have direct entry, those not as fortunate the stars may be aligned for you to pursue a different path to take you to a SA if that is your goal. To be an officer as others have stated, ROTC is a great option but as others have also stated has its own drawbacks right now as well with budget cuts.

As I have said to my DS many times, a short term decision can pay big dividends long term depending on your goal. Should you spend an extra year and take graduate level courses to achieve your MBA? What is a year in a lifetime really. Those of us that live with looking back on our regrets of sacrificing a short term situation as end of life vs taking a short term decision because utlimately that short term sacrifice will focus me/and possibly achieve my long term goal.

That is really what each young person should consider at this point and live the dream that is right for your future. Each should, as I am sure your parents are encouraging you, take a step back and reflect and do some soul searching. Your path will be there as obvious if you step back and give yourself some time to consider the options and the pros and cons of each.

Best of Luck to all...... There have been some great stories in thsi post taht truly shows the amazing attributes of all of you and how you have grown as adults!

 

[philparker]

I was a nwp free agent as well and just to elaborate on what frisbforce said, even if I wasn't going to usna next year (yes I was one of the few that didn't want usafa), I would have still valued my time at nwp. So don't think of it as a waste of time and money if you don't get into an academy from nwp because the lessons about life you learn there that are way more important than what any of the academies think about you. Am I happy that I'm fulfilling my dream of being at the naval academy? Hell yes. Would I be upset if I had gotten rejected? No. I am happy for my time there and all the brothers and sisters that I now have.

 

[thealt]

Another Consideration

Another consideration is whether your goal is to be a pilot. If it is, then I would tend to lean more toward going to a prep school with a Falcon Scholarship than ROTC. The reason is that they give approximately 500 pilot slots to a graduating class at AFA for about 1000 graduates. The AF also gives 500 pilot slots for ROTC, however there are typically about 2200 graduates in a given year nationwide. Statisically, 1 in 2 versus 1 in 4.

 

[Christcorp]

Another consideration is whether your goal is to be a pilot. If it is, then I would tend to lean more toward going to a prep school with a Falcon Scholarship than ROTC. The reason is that they give approximately 500 pilot slots to a graduating class at AFA for about 1000 graduates. The AF also gives 500 pilot slots for ROTC, however there are typically about 2200 graduates in a given year nationwide. Statisically, 1 in 2 versus 1 in 4.

You're assuming 1 in 2 ..... or 1 in 4 wants to be a pilot. Teenagers change their mind on average of 3483 times per year. The biggest shocker once at the academy, is it goes from 90+% of applicants wanting to fly, to less than half. The reason the air force academy gives out about 500 pilot slots, is because THAT"S ALL THE AMOUNT OF QUALIFIED CADETS WHO WANT IT. Once you throw in the 10 year commitment; the additional immediate school requirement; the number of washouts in UPT; etc... Many cadets change their mind and pursue another course.

I agree that the academy is a much easier place and route to go if you want to be a pilot. Basically; pass the academy and pass the PQ medical, and you can be a pilot if you want to be. Doesn't matter if your major at the academy is aeronautical engineering or you're a History major. If you want pilot, and you graduate and are qualified, you can have UPT. But almost half of those coming to the academy change their mind. ROTC is a bit harder, because they will tend to give preference to majors and grades. So the competition is higher. But the way you wrote your post, it sounded like EVERYBODY AT THE ACADEMY and ROTC, wants to be a pilot; and the academy gives you a 1 in 2 chance, and ROTC gives you a 1 in 4. Not everyone at the academy or ROTC wants to be a pilot. Especially after they've been there a couple years. And FWIW: Actually; the academy gives you a 95.937848% chance of getting a UPT slot if you are qualified.

 

[flyerdreamer]

You can join ROTC and still be commissioned. Scholarship or no scholarship.
OTS is not an issue.
IF you get to 300 level you will get an AFSC. Again scholarship or no scholarship is not a factor re: C300. SFT is the factor.
Again for AFROTC the SFT board does not look to see if the candidate is a scholarship recipient.
It is all about the cadet, gpa, PFT,, AFOQT, etc.

Thanks for clearing that up. When I read about the slots being cut, I wondered how that would go down for commissioning purposes.

 

[Pima]

I concur with CC, kids change their mind re:careers as they progress. There will always be some who want to fly and that is all they want.

I would say for this yr, the rated selection rate for ROTC was overall very high. I know for our DS's det., every cadet that asked for a rated slot, got a rated slot. I know VT and ERAU also had 100% selection or darn close to it. According to a friend's son at OSU, their det also had 100% selection.

The place it gets a little funky is some got CSO and not UPT, but usually that had to do more with the cadet not being pq for vision.

Now a days many cadets do not want to go UPT because of the time commitment. Basically, you will be in the AF until you are close to being 32+. Telling that to an 18 yr old is very daunting. Many come to realize if they take this path they are going to stay for the full 20, since they would have 10 AD in on a good day, mix in PCSing, promotions, bonuses, TA and they see that 10 is not a reality, more like 15+ (bonuses will make you stay that long),, and heck if you have 15 in might as well stay 5 more and get retirement pay.

Conversely taking a job as an engineer or A & F officer or SP you are out in 5 and that sounds more palatable at 18, 19 or 20.

I believe at our DS's det he stated that only 1/3 of the cadets asked for a rated slot, others wanted intel, engineering or foreign language.

Mike is correct gpa matters for ROTC cadets, but let's be real you are not going to get UPT as an AFA cadet if you wash out of the AFA.

This is truly a personal decision and nobody can or should say go one way or another. Some kids want to start the military life asap while they wait for next yr, thus prep is a great option. Some want to start a college life, and have a secured back up plan if they don't get picked up the following yr., thus they opt ROTC.

Neither is better, neither is worse. It is all about your personal desires.

FWIW I have never heard/read anyone ever say they regretted doing NWP. That is a large compliment.

Good luck

 

[Pima]

flyerdreamer,

You are probably confusing the cuts. What has happened to AFROTC over the past 2 yrs is they had too many coming down the pipeline. The way to cut the size was by reducing the amount of SFT slots. It was brutal this yr for non-tech majors...I believe the % was @45. For tech majors it was @98%.

As Mike stated majors matter. If your intention is to go non-tech ROTC be prepared to fight tooth and nail for the 4 yrs in ROTC.

You can do it, DS is proof, but he made sure that he had every square filled at a higher level than the tech cadets.

Most AFROTC parents believe that the class of 2013 was the last hard hit class for SFT because they stopped IS scholarships for 13 and 14, also 14 was the 1st yr with less scholarships for hs. In other words they got the numbers back down to their projected needs for FY 12/13 AD officers.

 

[thealt]

You're assuming 1 in 2 ..... or 1 in 4 wants to be a pilot. Teenagers change their mind on average of 3483 times per year. The biggest shocker once at the academy, is it goes from 90+% of applicants wanting to fly, to less than half. The reason the air force academy gives out about 500 pilot slots, is because THAT"S ALL THE AMOUNT OF QUALIFIED CADETS WHO WANT IT. Once you throw in the 10 year commitment; the additional immediate school requirement; the number of washouts in UPT; etc... Many cadets change their mind and pursue another course.

I agree that the academy is a much easier place and route to go if you want to be a pilot. Basically; pass the academy and pass the PQ medical, and you can be a pilot if you want to be. Doesn't matter if your major at the academy is aeronautical engineering or you're a History major. If you want pilot, and you graduate and are qualified, you can have UPT. But almost half of those coming to the academy change their mind. ROTC is a bit harder, because they will tend to give preference to majors and grades. So the competition is higher. But the way you wrote your post, it sounded like EVERYBODY AT THE ACADEMY and ROTC, wants to be a pilot; and the academy gives you a 1 in 2 chance, and ROTC gives you a 1 in 4. Not everyone at the academy or ROTC wants to be a pilot. Especially after they've been there a couple years. And FWIW: Actually; the academy gives you a 95.937848% chance of getting a UPT slot if you are qualified.

■Approximately 58-60% of Academy graduates enter flight training after graduation

So it's not quite 1 out of 2. My point was (agreeing with your points about changing minds) is whatever the actually ratio is, if you want to be a pilot, you have a better percentage chance at AFA than ROTC because of the same amount of pilot slots allotted to both and there are more ROTC graduates every year versus AFA graduates.

 

[flyerdreamer]

flyerdreamer,

You are probably confusing the cuts.

I saw this posted on the boards the other day:

Just a heads up. My DS is on full AFROTC at Notre Dame. All students who went to ND ROTC expecting to earn a scholarship at school were told, sorry no money available for ANY scholarships. Some students who were already on scholarship just lost their scholarships due to reduced field training slots and didn't get a slot. Out of 27 cadets only 14 were given slots for field training. IT IS TOUGH OUT THERE!!

Cuts is cuts. Or, am I just cornfused as you said?