Waters are getting muddy now, and I think it is best that you go to the SMC forums for guidance.
Again, this is why I think this is best for this question be moved to the SMC. Traditional college cadets for AROTC are not guaranteed AD Army commissions; OML is the make or break.
AFROTC cadets that are commissioned upon graduation automatically go AD. There is no IRR, OML is used for career field tracking, and that is regardless of the college. In other words graduate from VMI (SMC), or UMDCP they go AD.
The way I am reading your post is that for the Army if they go to VMI, they get the same as WP, a guaranteed AD.
I am not in anyway implying you are incorrect with your facts. Your child attends there, ours does not and I bow to you for guidance in how it rolls.
I am implying that each branch is unique via my example that for AFROTC, NO SFT EQUATES TO NO COMMISSIONING...SCHOLARSHIP HAS NO PULL IN THE DECISION. SFT is 2 yrs in.
I would not begin to assume that AFROTC is like NROTC, but to bring this back to point, the true issue for you right now should not be scholarship only. As you stated an SMC has different regs compared to a college with NROTC.
From the bottom of my heart, here is my guidance:
Go to the Public/Private Funded Military Colleges and ask the big question.
WHAT IF DS DOES NOT GET A SCHOLARSHIP WHILE ATTENDING VMI?
As a parent that is truly what you need to concern yourself with at this point. Not career paths, clarify the ifs.
Honestly, I googled 10 USC 211a, but this is what I got:
http://uscode.house.gov/uscode-cgi/fastweb.exe?getdoc+uscview+t09t12+37+408++(10) %2
Again, this is why I am writing it is best to go to the SMC forum for instruction.
The SMCs are not traditional, your best guidance is to go there. SMCs are not SA's and they are not traditional colleges, they are unique.
I hope you get I am trying to be offensive, I am trying to assist you in finding the peg to fit the hole.
Good luck. I wish and hope the best for you and your family
Thanks Pima: I got to run for an appt. but here is the whole section (2111a):
10 U.S.C.A. § 2111a. The relevant parts are subsections (d) and (e).
United States Code Annotated Currentness
Title 10. Armed Forces (Refs & Annos)
Subtitle A. General Military Law (Refs & Annos)
Part III. Training and Education
Chapter 103. Senior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (Refs & Annos)
§ 2111a. Support for senior military colleges
(a) Detail of officers to serve as Commandant or Assistant Commandant of Cadets.--(1) Upon the request of a senior military college, the Secretary of Defense may detail an officer on the active-duty list to serve as Commandant of Cadets at that college or (in the case of a college with an Assistant Commandant of Cadets) detail an officer on the active-duty list to serve as Assistant Commandant of Cadets at that college (but not both).
(2) In the case of an officer detailed as Commandant of Cadets, the officer may, upon the request of the college, be assigned from among the Professor of Military Science, the Professor of Naval Science (if any), and the Professor of Aerospace Science (if any) at that college or may be in addition to any other officer detailed to that college in support of the program.
(3) In the case of an officer detailed as Assistant Commandant of Cadets, the officer may, upon the request of the college, be assigned from among officers otherwise detailed to duty at that college in support of the program or may be in addition to any other officer detailed to that college in support of the program.
(b) Designation of officers as tactical officers.--Upon the request of a senior military college, the Secretary of Defense may authorize officers (other than officers covered by subsection (a)) who are detailed to duty as instructors at that college to act simultaneously as tactical officers (with or without compensation) for the Corps of Cadets at that college.
(c) Detail of officers.--The Secretary of a military department shall designate officers for detail to the program at a senior military college in accordance with criteria provided by the college. An officer may not be detailed to a senior military college without the approval of that college.
(d) Termination or reduction of program prohibited.--The Secretary of Defense and the Secretaries of the military departments may not take or authorize any action to terminate or reduce a unit of the Senior Reserve Officers' Training Corps at a senior military college unless the termination or reduction is specifically requested by the college.
(e) Assignment to active duty.--(1) The Secretary of the Army shall ensure that a graduate of a senior military college who desires to serve as a commissioned officer on active duty upon graduation from the college, who is medically and physically qualified for active duty, and who is recommended for such duty by the professor of military science at the college, shall be assigned to active duty.
(2) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit the Secretary of the Army from requiring a member of the program who graduates from a senior military college to serve on active duty.
(f) Senior military colleges.--The senior military colleges are the following:
(1) Texas A & M University.
(2) Norwich University.
(3) The Virginia Military Institute.
(4) The Citadel.
(5) Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
(6) North Georgia College and State University.
CREDIT(S)
(Added Pub.L. 104-106, Div. A, Title V, § 545(a), Feb. 10, 1996, 110 Stat. 317, and amended Pub.L. 105-85, Div. A, Title V, § 544(d), (e), (f), Nov. 18, 1997, 111 Stat. 1745, 1746; Pub.L. 106-65, Div. A, Title V, § 541(c), Oct. 5, 1999, 113 Stat. 607.)
It really is good to know.