Anytime! I apologize for the late response as I don't have the opportunity to get on this site near as much as I used to, but I'll definitely respond as often as I can. Thank you for your congratulations! Here goes my answers to your questions.
1. No matter how "hard" or "easy" the 4th class system happens to be compared to when it was at whenever time, it is going to be a challenge for anyone, except for perhaps those who have already completed Basic Training, Boot Camp, or what the Air Force or Coast Guard may call their initial training. Regardless of whatever level of difficulty happens, it is still a "basic training environment". You get hollered at, made to do a million tasks, have to do pushups, memorize a bunch of stuff, probably won't sleep a whole lot, etc, in addition to your academic workload and standard cadet duties that every cadet regardless of class has to do. Even at it's easiest incarnation, from what I've observed everyone has a hard time adapting to it because one most likely hasn't experienced that kind of chaos and sensory overload before, in any capacity, and have nothing to compare it to, especially in the midst of it. Now, how one looks back at it and says "it wasn't that hard" or "hell, I have absolutely no idea how I didn't quit after a week", has everything to do with the individual and how they look back on that particular kind of challenge. Now, the elephant in the room here is The Citadel and hazing. I can only speak from my experience and the anecdotal experiences of alumni I've spoken to, who were able to go more in depth and in detail with the conversation moreso than the typical "I can't even begin to explain how easy these kids these days have it". My fourth class year, the written rules were relatively strict, however they did not completely neuter the discretion of upperclass cadets in regards to being able to giving the 4th class extra duties, physical training, or other tasks as corrective training. Most of these tasks were not "hazing" in the generally accepted sense of being beaten or demeaned á la Lords of Discipline or your typical extreme pledging stories. During my first couple of years, there was a sense of openness between lower level military administration and cadet cadre which allowed for the administration to intervene when necessary, such as when a kid was hit or made not allowed to eat or something that generally wasn't kosher, but cadet cadre were allowed plenty of freedom to "train" their cadets as strictly or as leniantly as they wanted. It was also expected for cadet leadership to be held accountable for how their selected cadre treated lowerclass cadets. If a sophomore or junior was crossing the line, the senior class in that company was expected to fire them from whatever position they were holding, and the social circles and such would ensure they wouldn't have contact with knobs should the incident be serious or if they were just generally a bully.
Now, as time progressed, whether it was due to any specific incidences or experiences of leadership or not, things did in fact change. Enforcement of rules governing "what was allowed" was much stricter, and how much cadre were allowed to do was in fact much reduced, as new and evolved leadership and new cadets came through the pipeline. I was never one of the ones to get really upset because of the whole system becoming easier for lower classes militarily and it being easier to get in trouble as an upperclassman for being "too mean", in short. Just wasn't my forte, but alot of people were really riled up about it and many of my classmates are still all bitter. I was just more live and let live from the get go regarding the changes.
Now, this all being said, my conversations with alumni say this is all a pendulum. It gets easier and harder depending on the times and who's in charge. I probably came out of a rough era because I was a knob right after the height of the GWOT. I wouldn't worry about it being easy and missing out, but I also wouldn't worry about getting treated like a Viet Cong prisoner either. Long story short, it has gotten easier and much more structured, but by the time your kid graduates it could be completely different. I apologize for the long winded response to that one and I probably caused more questions than answered them, but I just wanted to be as honest as I could from my perspective, and not beat around the bush.
2. Scholarships, aside from the Academic full ride which I believe may be a separate application (?) and the ROTC scholarships are kind of scarce. You might get alot, but they are almost entirely privately funded by alumni and aren't a whole lot of money, especially if out of state. Almost everyone I know used loans or was ROTC, and a few received the academic/honors scholarship, in addition to a few $400 here and there small earned scholarships.
3. I feel like I was very prepared compared to other cadets at CLC and LT's at BOLC. You have many more FTX's than other programs from what I've noticed (we had 2 per semester) and the ROTC program is very well funded and equipped compared to other schools. The size contributes to the number and diversity of instructors which I felt was a very big benefit, as well as how the program was run (very much a well ran crawl, walk, run method for the first 3 years). That being said, ROTC is ROTC and not the real army. You graduate, in theory, pretty good at small unit tactics and FM 3-21.8. In Layman's terms, it means you're good at small scale infantry stuff. I commissioned as an Ordnance officer, and right now I'm a Specialty Shop Maintenance Platoon Leader which has a pretty different roll on the battlefield than to take positions and engage bad guys. Since the majority of people commissioned do things OTHER than infantry, I will always add that I wish ROTC did at least brush on the subjects such as battlefield communications and strategic logistics.
4. If they made a pocket dictionary for some of the wierd languages y'all spoke for me to carry around it would've made life a little easier but I like to think I got along with the yankees I went with
. Haha, it'll be fine. We'll make fun of each other and all if it gets brought up but nobody is actually "upset" about northerners at The Citadel. I can promise we will win the debate on who has better tea though faster than live squirrel landing on a griddle.
5. I wouldn't change a thing.
