The opportunities are amazing.

D

doireann

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Jan 4, 2018
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As an immigrant, I am astounded by the opportunities here for kids who receive 4 year scholarships. My son is one of the lucky kids. He is the only 4 year winner in his college, and boy the opportunities ahead of him are just fantastic. From the CULP program, to zero college loans, I am just amazed.
Its so frustrating to hear so many kids and parents complain about college tuition when there is another option that few take advantage of.
It sounds like being a 4 year winner, catapults him to a different category ; am I correct in thinking this? Our other son is NG and also in college so I am only aware of the NG route and learning all about the other sons route.
 
There are amazing opportunities ! Please keep in mind that the scholarship pays tuition and fees OR room and board, not both. So there are still room and board costs. Some schools provide free room and board to ROTC scholarship winners, there is a list on this site somewhere, you can search it.
 
@doireann, congratulations to your scholarship winner and thanks to both your sons for choosing to serve our great country. Offering a couple counterpoints:

— As parents, we all have every right to be frustrated and to complain about the extremely high cost of college. No other sector of the American economy has undergone this level of inflation, unchecked for several decades now. To the point where many people are legitimately questioning the value of a college education.

— I disagree that only “a few take advantage” of ROTC scholarships. These are very competitive awards, and most applicants do not win a scholarship. Besides that, the commitment to serve after graduation is a natural limiter. The military is not for everyone. We need fully committed officers, not ones who are there just because they got college paid for.
 
turtlerunnernc said:
There are amazing opportunities ! Please keep in mind that the scholarship pays tuition and fees OR room and board, not both. So there are still room and board costs. Some schools provide free room and board to ROTC scholarship winners, there is a list on this site somewhere, you can search it.
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That’s not exactly true. There are a number of schools that grant room and board after they see the ROTC scholarship.
 
doireann said:
As an immigrant, I am astounded by the opportunities here for kids who receive 4 year scholarships. My son is one of the lucky kids. He is the only 4 year winner in his college, and boy the opportunities ahead of him are just fantastic. From the CULP program, to zero college loans, I am just amazed.
Its so frustrating to hear so many kids and parents complain about college tuition when there is another option that few take advantage of.
It sounds like being a 4 year winner, catapults him to a different category ; am I correct in thinking this? Our other son is NG and also in college so I am only aware of the NG route and learning all about the other sons route.
Click to expand...

Congratulations to your son and your family. Just remember that once his commitment goes hard (i.e., Day 1 of his MS2 year), it is just as much a loan as it is a scholarship. He will have to work toward getting commissioned then meet the service requirement. Make sure you and he are familiar with the terms of the scholarship contract.

The fact that he is a scholarship winner gives him the opportunity to participate in summer programs like CULP, Air Assault, Airborne etc. which are unavailable to cadets who are not contracted - if his cadre considers him to be qualified. (And these are wonderful opportunities) However, he will not get special treatment from cadre or be considered elite compared to his peers in any way. Any success he enjoys in ROTC will be a function of his discipline and his efforts, not the fact that he has a scholarship.
 
doireann said:
It sounds like being a 4 year winner, catapults him to a different category
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@doireann ,

The opportunities are indeed amazing and they continue well past commissioning to those who who are smart, in shape, resourceful and do not feel entitled to anything by virtue of their scholarship--or the fact that they are wearing bars instead of stripes.

Your DS will be lined up next to a kid who barely managed a 3.0 GPA in HS, worked two jobs to pay for his/her first year of college and works everyday for an on campus scholarship. The E-6 in charge of the ROTC cadets/mids, just returned from his second Afghanistan deployment, will definitely categorize your DS at the first display of entitlement. It is a bad category.

Best of luck to your DS. It is a magical time.
 
Congrats to your DS, it is something to be very proud of for him.

I would not necessarily agree that catapults him into a different category. My DS was an AFROTC scholarship recipient. At his school, they do not ever discuss who is on scholarship and who is not. The only way you knew it was mid and end of month when they got paid and were flush with money. That and as a recipient they did a summer tour between their freshmen and sophomore year.

The slate is wiped clean the minute they step through the doors of the ROTC det. The cadre does not care or show preferential treatment to a scholarship recipient. If anything I would tell him to make sure he does well. There will be cadets that will apply for a scholarship as a freshmen so those cadets/mids will be busting their hump very hard to get some money from that pot of gold.
~ Also just because it states you need a 2.0 or 2.5 min to keep your scholarship, realize there will be kids like my DS, where he also had merit from the college. The college stated that he had to keep a min of 3.2, thus, his cgpa never fell below 3.3, the AFROTC cgpa did not matter since it was lower than the college min.. It is not unusual that even ROTC non-scholarship cadets have merit, which in turn means if your DS only has ROTC, and the other cadets have merit, they may land up pulling a higher cgpa, while also performing better within the unit because now they want that scholarship too.

I am not trying to be Debbie Downer, just to give you my opinion, that as wonderful as it is to be a recipient, it is not the end all be all.

PS additionally military life is not for everyone. My kids were AF brats, DH served 21 yrs. The least amount of schools they attended from kindergarten to graduation was 8. Eldest attended 11 in 5 different states. My 2 youngest did not apply for a ROTC scholarship. The cost of the school compared to the cost post graduation was not worth the ROTC scholarship. They knew all too well the statement SERVICE BEFORE SELF as a military child. They did not want any branch to tell them what their job would be and where they would be stationed for 4 yrs just because they needed the scholarship to attend that dream college.
~ You will find on this site in the next 6-9 months kids caught between a rock and a hard place. Love the school, but hates ROTC. Yet, if they drop ROTC they can't afford to stay. Then of course, there will be kids that love ROTC, but can't handle the academics and are placed on academic probation....again can't afford to stay with no scholarship.
 
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