VA Tech or Embry Riddle

hockeypals

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Hi,
My son is a rising high school senior and is planning on applying for AFROTC and NROTC scholarships. He is a student pilot and will be ready to take his check ride in August when he turns 17. He wants to fly for the military. He is interested in VA Tech Corps of Cadets and is very interested in Embry Riddle ROTC. He wants to major in aerospace engineering.

Does anyone have any information about which school would have the best chance to get a flying slot after graduation, assuming he does well at either school? Is either school considered to have a better aerospace engineering program?
 
Hi,
My son is a rising high school senior and is planning on applying for AFROTC and NROTC scholarships. He is a student pilot and will be ready to take his check ride in August when he turns 17. He wants to fly for the military. He is interested in VA Tech Corps of Cadets and is very interested in Embry Riddle ROTC. He wants to major in aerospace engineering.

Does anyone have any information about which school would have the best chance to get a flying slot after graduation, assuming he does well at either school? Is either school considered to have a better aerospace engineering program?

Embry Riddle, in my opinion, is one of the better aerospace engineering schools in the country. In fact, it's very well-known for it. VA Tech, and I happen to know because I will be attending it this coming fall semester, is well-known for their AROTC program, and overall, their ROTC program. However, their AROTC just happens to stand out.

If your son is interested in flying and especially aerospace engineering, I would suggest Embry Riddle over VA Tech. Both are still excellent schools however.
 
I agree with Peter. If it is flying you want and only one of those two schools as options, than Embry is the route to go. Tech is reknown for their corps, but it does lean heavier to the Army, just as Embry leans heavier to the AF/Navy. The Tech campus is gorgeous, and the school spirit is very tight knit for the size of the school it is.
 
The Tech campus is gorgeous, and the school spirit is very tight knit for the size of the school it is.

No kidding. I found that out when I attended freshman orientation four days ago, haha.
 
Has he fully decided against the Air Force Academy, or are you looking into the ROTC options in addition to AFA?

If he's dead-set on AF flight jobs, then his statistically smartest best is USAFA. But, if he's opposed to Academy life, then I think the other posters have pointed out some interesting facts.
 
Contact each det commander, and ask the % of cadets that get UPT. Ask their gpa's.

There is a lot more that goes into getting a slot than just which school and which major. Cadets will meet a national board in their jr. yr., and their college resume will be reviewed. GPA's, det positions, commander rec all play into the equation.

Embry may give out the most pilot slots after the AFA, but the question is what is their %. A larger det can be like a double edge sword...higher chance, but at the same time strong competition. If they say 100, but the corp is 400 for the yr group, yet Tech says 50 and their corp yr group is 150, than statistically TECH is a better chance. Numbers need to be read past the selling factor.

He is now a rising sr., at this time regardless of where he attends get his medical records in order. A simple allergy can be months of fighting with Dodmerb.

Either college he attends he will find his niche and be happy.
 
I am biased regarding Tech because our DD is a Hokie, and we are AF....worse yet our DS is a UMDCP AFROTC student (ACC is very intense!)

You have to see the Tech campus, there is just no way you can get it without going there. TPG is correct they are rabid! There is just something there that words can't explain.

In state Tech is very competitive. They had @ 30K applicants this yr for 4K spots. Do not walk in thinking that Tech is easy to get into. At our DS's school if you were not in the IB or AICE program, you got the "thank you, but no thanks".

UVA is the AFROTC program that most VA students apply to for AF. This is why you need to look at the det as much as the school. Tech has a great engineering school, but if it is AF you want AND engineering UVA is probably a better fit.

NOW that being said UVA is known for their attitude...the kids actually wear ties to football games at UVA, at Tech they wear Chicago Red (that is the actual Hokie color) and sing Mr Sandman as the team enters.

In the end you need to have a long conversation with your child.

Ask him:
1. Why Tech or Embry?
~Tech is a large school, but you walk on campus, you feel like it is tiny.
~ Our DS (AFROTC) would never go there because it feels small, our DD loves it because it feels small. Both colleges are the exact same size in population.
~ City person, than TECH is a NO GO. There is no true bus and def. no rail.
2. 2 different types of weather
~ Hate Snow and you will hate TECH
~Hate Heat and you will hate EMBRY
3. What are you going to do if you don't get UPT? You WILL be forced to become AD.
~ Play ultimate frisbee and injure yourself you may lose your UPT slot due to medical.
~ Engineering is hard, low gpa and he may not get a UPT slot. VA has a joke/cliche...UVA hard to get in, easy to stay...VATECH easy to get in hard to stay.

It is great to have your schools in line, but I see Tech and Embry as night and day differences regarding 24/7/365 living. Their academic programs may be similar, but as TPG stated there is more to college than the academics. The quickest way to lose an AFROTC scholarship is hating the school!
 
Sorry, but I only could make it to #7 before I had to go to the bathroom from laughing so hard. My favorite:
Fortunately, Virginia has some of the best Olympic programs in the entire country.

The Director's Cup ranks schools on their overall success in all sports using a ridiculously complicated formula. Virginia finished in the top 10 last season and is likely to do so again in 2010.

Let's remember, that's without basketball or football doing anything at all.

It was even funnier to me because our DD (a hokie) defends them as great in the ACC because of football...our DS (a Terp) tells her only basketball counts:shake: Of course they both agree that UVA is a non-player in both:shake:
 
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It was even funnier to me because our DD (a hokie) defends them as great in the ACC because of football...

Yeah, but being good at football in the ACC is like being the tallest dwarf!

I do think VT is an outstanding school, and UVA has long been known as a school that trades a bit too much on Jefferson's name and serves as a great haven for kids whose Ivy League aspirations were shattered by TWEs. :shake:UVA brags so much about their "class" that it makes them classless, in the end.
 
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Some students have taken the name UVa as being elitist. They forget that people actually worked hard at the university once.

Yes! I don't think I articulated my point well but you fished it out of there, for sure. Having lived a good portion of my life in VA and knowing a handful of UVa folks, I have been struck in recent years by the mock elitism. The ties at football games, the frat boys pretending to be southern gentry, etc. My wife's undergrad roommate went to UVa for medical school, and when we went to visit I was dismayed to find that the med students acted like undergrads, and the undergrads acted as though simply being admitted to UVa was an immediate increase in social status to a point of minor aristocracy. The snobbery, the "cocktail parties" and the use of Foxfields as a chance to drink mint juleps and mojitos to the point of puking on their J. Press seersucker suits....too much vanity for me.

I always cringe when I hear my wife's fellow residents and even some friends at a party say "Oh, I went to the University and smirk as they expect others to immediately know that they mean UVa, and then subsequently fawn all over them for it. I, of course, like to bait them and say "The University of Mary Washington?" or "The University of Maryland?" They hate that. :yllol:
 
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