So in my case, my first semester will be where I am limited to do anything (ie going out to parties, dating) mind you I will be starting this fall most likely as a second semester sophomore when I should be a junior year student. Then the second semester--spring of 2015, is when the level of strictness goes down. Now I assume this depends on my VTCC participation--my end result is to commission as an army officer so does that mean I must participate heavily with VTCC and really not have much of a college life?
Its important to remember that the VTCC and your ROTC unit are two very separate things. Some cadets are very heavily involved in ROTC and much less involved in the VTCC. Some are equally involved in both. I recommend putting the bulk of your focus on academics and your ROTC commitments, since that's where your career is going to come from...not the VTCC. Your ROTC instructors aren't going to "look down" on you for not being heavily involved in the VTCC. But they will look down on you if you don't take ROTC seriously.
I'm not trying to bash the VTCC. There are some useful things to learn there, but in the end it really isn't a military organization that's focused on preparing you for active duty. You have active duty ROTC instructors on campus who can do that much better than some junior or senior cadet in the VTCC.
If you're starting as a second semester academic sophomore, then you will still start as a first semester freshman in the VTCC. At some point they'll have to advance you ahead of your peers in order to get you in line for graduation/commissioning. So you may only spend one semester as a VTCC freshman. Or you may spend the entire year as a freshman and only one semester as a sophomore/junior in the VTCC.
Either way there won't be much room for going out as a first semester freshman. A lot of the reason behind that is academics, where leadership doesn't want new cadets to get distracted by the same things as other students on campus and fall into a hole academically. So really in the first semester, and second semester to a large extent, your free time is stuck in the dorms with nothing to do besides studying. After that, as a sophomore in the VTCC and later, you can start choosing your level of participation. You'll still have to go to formation, wear uniforms, do the occasional parade, event, etc.
But beyond that, if you want to be more involved you can with other Corps activities like Skipper Crew, Color Guard, the rifle drill team, etc. Or try for leadership/cadre positions in the VTCC. Some people are really into those. But you're not forced into them. Instead, you have the freedom as an upperclassman to join a frat, make non-VTCC friends, go to parties, go downtown (after you're 21), do intramurals, etc. You can still enjoy your time in college as an upperclassman, whether that enjoyment is based on doing VTCC stuff or more traditional college stuff is up to you. Either way you'll still end up graduating and commissioning in the end, assuming you don't get into trouble.