Rotc Engineering Question

[SpecialK]

I have question about college degrees for ROTC. Does the board prefer a type of engineering over another? Would it be more wise to put mechanical engineering or civil engineering down on my application? Would my chances be affected if I put one down opposed to the other, and vice-versa? What about if I put one down, but felt I needed to switch during college? Thank you for your answers.

 

[Jcleppe]

I have question about college degrees for ROTC. Does the board prefer a type of engineering over another? Would it be more wise to put mechanical engineering or civil engineering down on my application? Would my chances be affected if I put one down opposed to the other, and vice-versa? What about if I put one down, but felt I needed to switch during college? Thank you for your answers.

As long as you remain in the same ADM Category, switching is not a big issue.

The biggest point is that you should only go into a major that you truly want, don't try and game the system by choosing what you think will look better. Engineering is hard enough, going into a program that you don't like makes it even harder. As far as the difference between the two engineering majors you mentioned, both will be in the same ADM and will be looked at the same.

 

[SpecialK]

Ok thanks a lot!!


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[BAMA ROTC]

Don't game the system, it will cause issues down the road.

 

[BlindROTC]

Once on campus, you would have to fill out an academic program to graduate on Form 104-R, and sign it. There might a limit on how many times you can update this form with a change of major. That is the case for my son, but I don't know if it's the case everywhere.

 

[NewCollegeParent]

Special K

You heard this before, don't game the system. If you choose engineering know that you are unlikely to complete in 4 yeas. The accreditation of engineering schools ABET does not allow for ROTC classes to count towards the degree along with the general education requirements of most schools. So you will likely be looking at 128-132 semester hours plus 28 for ROTC. Note that some schools have allowed up to 6 hours to count as general elective, but still leaves you with a mountain of semester hours.

I don't know how the Army views different engineering, but what I know is that your first academic year will be essentially the same for any ABET engineering discipline and the second year will not be much different between Mechanical and Civil.

My recommendation is the bigger the engineering school and department the better you may be. As my DS found in the MS III and IV years, the ROTC responsibility and Labs start to conflict timing wise with the Engineering Lab times. This can be a problem if you are at a smaller program without multiple times power class.

Good Luck

 

[NewCollegeParent]

Sorry another point that may help. Your school may not allow you to declare the exact major until after you have completed a certain level. I know many engineering schools where the individual engineering school is competitive among the engineering undergrads. Example, Mechanical, Electrical, are more competitive than others. Again, its not a big deal because the core is so similar the first 2 years.

 

[BlindROTC]

The expected completion time for an engineering degree (with ROTC) differs from school to school. VT and TAMU are examples where more than 4 years are expected. But at Clarkson, and some others, they expect even the engineering majors to finish in 4 years. It really pays to talk with specific ROTC units on questions like this.

 

[Thompson]

At bigger programs, you'll want to be concerned with the process of getting into the College of Engineering (or whatever it is called).

For example at PSU - just because you get admitted for engineering, doesn't mean you get into the CoE. The first 2 years, you are in pre-engineering major status. The spring of your sophomore year, you pick your top 3 disciplines to get into the CoE.

At PSU - unfortunately not everyone will get into the CoE. Most of the popular ones (ME, CE, NE, AE, etc) are under administrative control. What this means is only X students are admitted into the college - simply because there's just not enough resources to support every single kid trying to go engineering.

This is where GPA becomes even more critical. Say if the CoE is only picking up 150 students for ME, they will organize everyone by GPA, and will take the first 150 and all others with the same GPA as the 150th student.

As CollegeParent said, not all schools will allow you to count ROTC towards gen eds. I get 6 "general credits" for ROTC - that's it. My major is about 130 credits + 30'ish credits for ROTC, yielding me around 160 credits. Fortunately Army's giving me 4.5 years to complete the program.