Marist, the OP is AFROTC, and they are correct, for this past yr IS was canceled. Currently there is no concise info out there if IS will be available next yr and to the extent of how many will be offered if they come back. I think that will all depend on how many contract this yr converting the 7 into a 2, because that becomes a budget issue for them since they pay out more. Not every kid can use the type 7 based on the college they select. IS colleges can be much cheaper than OOS or private. Thus, the cadet who gets a 7 this yr and converts into a 2 will cost the AF nothing for this yr, but more for yrs 2,3 and 4. Enough of them electing this process would hit the AFROTC's wallet.
Additionally the other issue for AFROTC is that the AFA took fewer candidates this yr and many of them apply AFROTC as plan B, so this may actually create a bubble for this particular yr. Reason why is they expect a historical amount to turn down the scholarship and they give out more than they expect to accept. If the AFA candidates are getting higher amounts of TWEs, it would be strange if they rejected the scholarship. A number the AFROTC was not prepared for. AFROTC does not talk to the AFA. They run in different circles. AFROTC may have had some notification that this mau happen, but my guess would be when they started sending out scholarships last fall that was not in their minds. If you go on the AFA site, there are still candidates awaiting to be notified, thus, they are still holding onto their scholarship. This may explain also why the later boards had fewer scholarships given out. Also why you apply early.
It is hard to predict now what they will do next yr. Especially since budgets run from Oct 1 to Sept 30th. The AF currently does not know what their budget will be like Oct 2011, which would include the IS scholarships. The only thing they do know is that the DoD budget will not be 515 B. it will now be 513 B. I am not someone who believes ROTC will take a huge hit for hs tracking,, but I would think that OCS and IS will be taking the hit, since they are at full capacity for commissioning yrs 2012-2014.
