Posting Data on SMC Commissions & ROTC Scholarships - Let's Keep this Forum Honest

glen

10-Year Member
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Feb 27, 2010
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I believe the purpose of this forum should be to help high school students and their parents make good decisions on their college choice. Posting misleading information from news articles, or trolling members with disinformation is not helpful. Attached are the latest data available on ROTC Commissions and Scholarships at the nations Senior Military Colleges. You will note that collectively, the SMCs pull far above their weight in producing junior officers. However, today many cadets at SMCs have far more opportunities to serve our nation than most of us had in the past. For example, the largest employer of Citadel graduates today after the military services, are the Homeland and National Security Agencies of the federal government. See DOD data attached from the 2019 Senior Military College Association conference.
 

Attachments

  • pdf AMCSUS SMC Total Comm OSD_Briefing-2019 copy.pdf
    617.4 KB · Views: 77
  • pdf AMCSUS_Army Comm - Scholarships-2019 2.pdf
    483.4 KB · Views: 51
  • SMC NROTC Scholarships Enrollment.pdf
    898.3 KB · Views: 45
  • Air Force Scholarships SMCs.pdf
    331.2 KB · Views: 23
Agree with @kinnem - Thanks @glen - It seems there is always someone that is a VMI grad OR a Citadel grad or a Norwich grad......that wants to throw stones. The purpose of this page is to help young men and women, not debate which school commissions more officers OR who has civilian cadets on campus. As I said in an earlier post - isn't it great that we have all of these schools that prepare our next generation of leaders. Once you are in the service of this great country - no one cares where you commissioned from. Again, thanks Glen for the data.
 
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Decent info, but might be helpful to put up a quick glance for each school with enrollment numbers, commissioning numbers, etc.
Remember seeing something like that a long time ago and will put something together over the next few days and post in the “Need some help” thread or a “Help deciding between Norwich, VT, VMI, UNG, Citadel, or Texas A&M” thread.
 
Decent info, but might be helpful to put up a quick glance for each school with enrollment numbers, commissioning numbers, etc.
Remember seeing something like that a long time ago and will put something together over the next few days and post in the “Need some help” thread or a “Help deciding between Norwich, VT, VMI, UNG, Citadel, or Texas A&M” thread.
If every person doing a ROTC program at an SMC intended to commission, then the percent commissioning of total ROTC enrollment might be interesting and useful. But that's not the case. Certainly the total enrollment at the college is of little interest except as a data point. People understand how The Corps of Cadets operates at each of these institutions. Just one man's two cents.
 
I agree - I also reside in the camp that I don't think there is much competition among the 6 SMCs. They are all very different and attract different people for different reasons. I know 30 years ago when I went through it I only looked at VMI, Citadel and Norwich. The commissioning rates had nothing to do with my choice. Norwich was closer to home and had a better financial package. My DS got into all of them and never really considered any school except for Citadel and A&M. Norwich, VA Tech and VMI were to "cold" and he wanted to be in a warmer climate. At the end of the day, commissioning rates are things that we debate on an internet forum but have little bearing on why an 18 year old picks a school. Just my 2 cents...
 
If every person doing a ROTC program at an SMC intended to commission, then the percent commissioning of total ROTC enrollment might be interesting and useful. But that's not the case. Certainly the total enrollment at the college is of little interest except as a data point. People understand how The Corps of Cadets operates at each of these institutions. Just one man's two cents.
Valid point. But for those potential cadets or students who start threads like “Need some help” or “Want more info,” more information could be useful. And commissioning rates might resonate. They do reflect how military service focused the different Corps of Cadets might be... gotta give Virginia Tech and A&M kudos there!👍
 
Queue the broken record.

No one will care.

I am a firm believer that the SA's and SMC's give JO's certain advantages out of the gate, but that's it. MOS, Duty Station, senior rater and the individual him/herself levels things out quickly. My AROTC O-3 never saw any favoritism towards the SA/SMCers, and the NCO's really don't care.

I like to use the metaphor of a physical late bloomer. Stack up two 12-14 year boys (I only have sons) in sports and you really can't predict the outcome at 17-18. The only thing you can predict is that if there is any feeling of entitlement based on past performance, the outcome probably won't be good.
 
sounds like NAS is back under yet another pseudonym; the snide tone is unmistakeable.
 
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