<p>Having just gone through the whole college application/admission process with S1 without much knowledge and experience, I vowed to be better prepared for the S2. My S2 is an ROTC hopeful. He is a sophomore, but I would like to start gathering information.</p>
<p>I understand that Georgetown (GT), George Washington (GW), and American U (AU) in the DC area have shared ROTC program. I believe candidates from all three schools participate in the program hosted by GT.</p>
<p>Do you have any opinions (your own or hearsay) on these schools vis-a-vis ROTC programs, cadets? We need to balance the general considerations and ROTC factors.....</p>
<p>S2 has not taken a PSAT yet, so it's hard to say, but I believe GT might be a slight reach, GW a match, and AU a safety. I am not hung up on school prestige or ranks so much. He will serve as an officer 5-6 years post graduate, and when he either applies to a professional school (law) or enters a civilian work force, his qualification will be affected less by the school rank - less so than freshly minted college graduates. I do know that for law school admission, GPA is very important, perhaps more so than the school ranks within a certain range....</p>
<p>A bit of friendly advice…it’s not a good idea to broadcast these plans, for several reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Your 15 year old son, or even 25 year old son, may be very firmly committed to this timeline. Right up until something changes. A few of our friends had plans similiar to your sons, then decide they wanted to stay in and it was too late. </p></li>
<li><p>By sharing this piece of information, your son will not be taken as seriously. The officer corps is very competitive to start with and only gets more so the higher they rise in rank. Why would a commanding officer put their weight behind someone who is already heading for the exit? They don’t. </p></li>
<li><p>Having been a good officer is an excellent thing to have on a resume but no job where peoples lives will be in ones hands should be treated as stepping stone. It’s too important, demanding and dangerous of a job. </p></li>
<li><p>If he does decide to get out, he should not share that until he is 100% sure. You can’t come back from annoucing you are leaving the military. They don’t want officers who wound up disappointed with their civilian plans. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>To sum it up, it cannot hurt to put all of ones efforts into being an officer and planning on making a career of it. Then if your son does decide to get out, he’ll have the best of recommendations. Some things need to stay private, this is one of them.</p>
<p>Just curious, why are you limiting your ROTC exploration to just those 3 schools? If you expand your radius by 100 miles you’ll also include UMd, Loyola, Gettysburg, Dickinson, Richmond, UVa, just to name a few.</p>
<p>pugmakate is correct. One doesn’t become a military officer just to have a nice life. You really, really want to have to do it, and do it well. And i would approach it from that perspective. </p>
<p>And note the Army (along with the Marines) is less oriented to civilian employment than the Navy and Air Force. To succeed there really does take a commitment and mindset. </p>
<p>If things don’t work out - e.g., assignments and billets look less than promising, then an officer can leave. But I would keep it close to the vest.</p>
<p>mam1959, Good point about the services. It’s difficult to describe the intensity of life in the Marine Corps or Army. </p>
<p>Also, when Mr. PMK got stationed at flight school as an instructor, it was shocking to me at first to hear other officers speaking freely of being done with their careers and ready to transition to civilian life as a pilot. I noticed it was Navy and Air Force officers (not all of them, of course.) </p>
<p>Even so, when 9/11 happened those plans were suddenly not valid and while staying in the Navy or Air Force was still a possiblity for many of them, they’d closed the doors on many career paths in the military.</p>
<p>OP, I can’t say for sure about Army but know the NROTC application requires each applicant to list 5 schools (in order of preference) they would be interested in going to for NROTC. At least one of them (among the top three choices) had to be a public state u. Your S will probably need to cast his potential college net a little wider.</p>
<p>Also, if he chooses a college that is affiliated with the ROTC program at another college, he should really check into how often he will have to be going back and forth to that sch. </p>
<p>ROTC has kept S1 very busy on his own campus. I can imagine that it could be headache if he were having to run back and forth all the time to another campus.
PT starts at 6 a.m. If you have to factor a lot of travel time into that, it will make for a lot of very early mornings plus having to schedule classes that will allow him time to get back to campus, shower and get to class on time.</p>
<p>My son is a senior at Georgetown (Army-ROTC) and one school which you did not mention is Catholic University of America. CUA is a part of the ROTC program with AU, GW and Gtown.</p>
<p>I thank everybody for their advice. I really appreciate your input. Especially, the advice to keep quiet about his potential future plan for post-army civilian life. Advice well taken.</p>
<p>He is not just thinking about these three schools I mentioned. We are open:schools located in north of Virginia in the NE area, some large mid western state flagship universities, etc. I don’t think he will go far West or South. he is interested in government, international relations, poli sci, etc. The reason why I asked about these schools is because I wanted to get advice/input piece meal: one region at a time - I figured by asking questions about specific group of school, I am likely to get more pointed input, rather than generic answers.</p>
<p>If you have input on NE and Mid West candidates, that will be wonderful. He is being raised as a Jew, and we are a bit reluctant to send him to a school overwhelmingly affiliated with a particular religion (his opinion also): that’s why a school like Nortre Dame with good ROTC reputation is not really taken seriously by him. (yes: GT is also affiliated with a religion, but I think GT’s student body is cosmopolitan enough located in DC with an international reputation, while I don’t get that impression about Norte Dame).</p>
<p>Since you said you’re interested in midwest schools, the James Madison College at Michigan State has a wonderful reputation. The AROTC program is outstanding and he could have the advantage of ROTC on campus. Also there are several ROTC students in the JMC. It’s a small college within a Big 10 university with fabulous opportunities. In addition there is a very active Hillel on this non-denominational campus. This could be worth researching.</p>