A bit of a unique perspective to add to this. When I accepted my Falcon Foundation offer last April, I explained to my high school friends that I would be going to a prep school for a year then (hopefully, still waiting for appointments to come out) the AFA for the four years after that. Lots of my friends were happy for me, even though most had no idea what any of it meant.
Then my friend who joined ROTC at his chosen college chimes in. "Bro why don't you just go to a regular college and do ROTC so you can have fun partying and drinking on the weekends. You're going to be miserable at the academy, wasting the best years if your life." That one always make me chuckle. He is a good guy, just has never been away from home.
(Just to be clear, I am not trying to bash on ROTC with this post, I just wanted to provide context on the person saying this nonsense. I have other friends that are ROTC Mids/Cadets that are going to be amazing officers in the near future. I'm sure this friend will be too, he just has a big mouth at times lol)