I am familiar with Army, Navy and Marine Option application process. I am ignorant of the Air Force ROTC process. So out of curiosity I would like to know how they do it. Such as: In the Army you have this email address you can send your questions. You have no idea who is going to answer on the other side. They also don't seem very timely. In the Army you interview at the college of your choice. This sounds good, but if you drive 500 miles for the interview and they lose the evaluation you are screwed. Make sure you know when the interviewer is scheduled for vacation. He almost ran us over when we were leaving. He called us a month later to schedule an interview. In the Navy you will be assigned a local recruiter who specializes specifically in NROTC applications. You can readily call the recruiter and get answers. He/she will also come to you with paper work, if something is missing. We switched to Marine Option at this point, so I am not so sure who does the interview. I am thinking it is the same chief petty officer. In the Marines the XO of the recruiting district is assigned to help you complete your application. He is GOD. Do not tick him off or he will put you threw the place you don't want to go. The same XO in the Marines performs your interview. You are supposed to have two interviews, but he will hand you a phone and have you speak with someone. It could be his uncle or his Karate instructor for all you know. How do they do it in the Air Force?
Barretta...did you have an unpleasant experience with the ROTC process. I would caution you about generalizing. If you would have put Clarkson on your list you would have gotten regular emails from me reminding you of deadlines and requirements. I would have answered your emails, usually within the hour. If you would have interviewed in the North Country I would have made sure the Boss got the interview in the system. Of course the person you talked to at Cadet Command was a little unresponsive...there are 6 people that process more than 10K applications. That's why there is an Enrollment Officer at every Battalion...Sorry things didn't go well with your process.
Are you refering to the AFROTC high school scholarship application process? If so I can only offer my small experience. I didn't have too many questions before completing the actual application. When I needed to know if being a full time dual enrollment honors student excluded me from applying, I called the scholarship hotline, you press a number to connect you to the scholarship technician who covers your last name, get connected to a person, and ask your question. I was not contacted directly about anything until my application was completed and I was deemed a qualified candidate. Then I received a notice on my scholarship tracker, a letter in the mail letting me know someone should contact me to set up an interview in at least 30 days, received an email from the person assigned to me maybe a week and a half after my status changed. Since the scholarships are not campus based, you interview with whoever in the vicinity is assigned to you. My interviewer was an Academy grad (now a civilian volunteer) who did interviews for both academy and rotc applicants. Since his gov job sent him all over the country for work (Think he was in Oregon at the time) and worked long hours, we set up an 8 am phone call. Informal interview, we vibed really well, lasted almost an hour and a half. Was frank with me at the end that he thought I was a perfect candidate and wouldn't hesitate to give it to me, but it is a very competitive scholarship, many ppl who would be great officers don't get it so he wanted me to not to give up if I didn't get it. He sent in his findings from my interview the next day, but told me that after that he was blind to the process. They usually don't get notified who got it or not until the applicant tells them. After that I really just had my application tracker and google until I found this website. During the process, I only received 1 email reminding me to turn in required materials before the due date. That was sent a week after the actual application was due so it mentioned a few supporting documents that were due in 5 weeks. After that there was a reminder attached to the top of the tracker, but that was it. I assumed that they thought that a responsible applicant would make sure they're organized and on top of things. Anybody who really wanted it would set reminders for themselves. It's like college, nobody is on you reminding you to finish the online HW before 3pm or what day a paper is due. There are resources for you to access if you need help or have questions, but they're not going to babysit you. I'm glad they don't too, it narrows the competition a bit when ppl start an application but miss the deadline. Sounds mean maybe, but hey, this is your life. Take charge or be taken charge of. How can someone lead and motivate a group of ppl to be efficient if they cant even motivate themselves? The true testament of person's character is not what they do when everyone's watching and checking up on them, but what they do when no one's around to tell them what to do and when to do it.
As Non Ducor Duco stated AFROTC will assign you an ALO this usually occurs later on for ROTC only applicants, AFA candidates typically get assigned an ALO starting end of June. Typically if you do both the ALO will be your go to person for both too. There are some candidates that will interview at a college, but understand it is just for the scholarship process and has no bearing on your college choices. That interview will be part of your WCS just like it is for A/NROTC. The AFROTC system is different in the selection process. Candidates get nervous because when they apply they will have a pull down tab where you must select 3 colleges you are interested in attending. They are not locking you into this college at all and will have no impact on receiving a scholarship. This is more for AFROTC internal manpower needs. Instructors at AFROTC are AD, as such they move every few years. It takes about 6 months to move these people from start to finish. For AFROTC if they are seeing an increase at one unit and a decrease at another, they may decide to add another instructor or leave a vacancy. AFROTC does not like to move these people mid-yr. They want them in place in the summer, thus they move them May-July/early Aug. AFROTC is like NROTC, @80% of the scholarships will go to Tech majors. This is why they request your intended major. Do not try to game the system by telling them you will go engineering and thinking once there and the scholarship is activated you can just switch over to a non-tech major. It does not work that way. If you try to switch you will need their approval to keep the scholarship. Non-tech to tech usually not a problem. Tech to non-tech rarely will happen. AFROTC scholarships are called Types, and if awarded each one will equal a different monetary value, but all of them are the same...it only goes to tuition. Even if you are under the max., they will not say place the remainder to room and board, or cut a check to the cadet for the difference. The key word is not the 18K for Type 2, it is UP TO 18K. Like their sister branches, there is a limited pot of money and once it is gone it is gone. Like their sisters, they also will re-board a candidate if they feel that at this time they are not positive and need a large applicant pool to see what type, if any, should be awarded. Good luck
