<p>Glorified? My DS defending your liberty would disagree. He is proud to serve. </p>
<p>But not everyone is cut out for defending their country.</p>
<p>^^^^</p>
<p>“Glorified” and “pride” are not mutually exclusive terms.</p>
<p>The poster made a valid point. All of the commercials and brochures for ROTC or other military institutions show only crisp uniforms and gleaming swords. They never show bodies coming back in bags or bodies “lucky” enough to come back in various mangled states.</p>
<p>There is no getting around the fact that war sucks in many, many countless ways.</p>
<p>And, again, there are many ways to “defend” one’s country other than just holding a rifle.</p>
<p>There are thousands of very dedicated and hard working people (many at personal risk) defending your freedom who do so completely under the public’s radar and unappreciated. It would be nice to give a shout out and a thank-you to them too every once in a while.</p>
<p>You really should do some actual research about ROTC. The Navy Midshipmen are shown everything I assure you in the MANY additional courses they have to take. There is no sugar coating that they are going into harms way.</p>
<p>As a member of the Corp, OP will learn about his life in the military, and as an EMT already, he has probably been exposed to civilian medical emergencies. I see this as an issue of snobbery and ignorance on the part of his mother and her side of the family. this is not a doe-eyed child who is dreaming of travel and seduced by the free education. This is a young person with a passion for healthcare and duty to country that wants to work in a fast-paced environment. Serving in this unique program is a great way to join the service while in school, and it is a big part of campus history and culture. He is already ED to VT and I feel like that ship has sailed for his mother to complain. After all, ED doesn’t happen without parent consent and the Corp admission actually is part of the admission office.</p>
<p>@SteelOxide - in joining the Corps, you still don’t actually commit to military service until you “contract” with the government, and that doesn’t happen until you accept an ROTC (not Corps or school) scholarship, or until after your sophomore year without a scholarship. You can remain in the Corps after 2 years even if you do not contract, and a significant portion do that. Does your Mom know this? Have you done spend-the-night or had an on-campus interview? That would be a great idea, and even more so if your Mom could attend. Nobody in the Corps will sugarcoat the experience for you or your Mom.</p>
<p>@some of the others - land grant colleges (including VA Tech) have a historical mission to help train citizen-soldiers, including officers. Think through the alternatives. Military officers remain important and, far from being anachronisms, the Corps at both VA Tech and Texas A&M have enrollments increasing over the past several years.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the responses.</p>
<p>To reply to many, I do understand there are a lot of unsettling issues about the military, and I (hopefully) am not being doe-eyed.
A good family friend of mine’s brother served in the same division as my Grandfather, 2nd Marines, and was part of the 1st Battle of Fallujah. I remembered greatly that he came back disoriented from his tour, and followed a long, difficult struggle with alcoholism, drug addiction, and PTSD. As a family friend, we’ve helped him with his personal struggle in pulling through PTSD. </p>
<p>I am motivated to do my part to serve my country, even with the circumstance. I don’t know, Blind patriotism? That could probably be the label. </p>
<p>And yes, I have looked at how the ROTC programs function, and I’ve had the great benefit of having a friend who is currently part of the NROTC program explain how it functions (currently my friend is in Junior Year of NROTC, looking into Naval Aviation). I’ve also done my research, probably more than the average joe at times. (I know this sounds slightly cocky in refuting some opinions, and I apologize for that. I know I should probably make a better argument, though, being florid in words was never my strong point). </p>
<p>I do want to say, since I did not want nor do want antagonize anyone, I respect and accept every opinion on the board, as you all (I believe) are older than I am, and have more of the experience than I could gain at this moment.</p>
<p>Am I the only one who is disturbed by a mother controlling and manipulating her son by throwing him out of the house for poor grades and/ or arguing with her? She needs psychotherapy. The sooner this kid gets out from under her thumb, the better!</p>
<p>I commend the OP for wanting to serve his country. There are plenty of us who support servicemen and women for their commitment and service. it sounds like the OP has family members who could counsel him on his options.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for their opinion.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the discussion with my parents and the explanation did not go well, and they have demanded I immediately revoke my Early Decision not to the Corps of Cadets, but to Virginia Tech entirely.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear that. Can you afford the school without their help? If so, you are an adult and do not need to bend to their wishes. If not, it could be difficult.</p>
<p>I always hate it when parents try to run their kids lives long past when they should. You have my sympathy.</p>
<p>ps See if your guidance counselor at school has any suggestions.</p>
<p>SteelOxide, I’m sorry that the discussion did not go as you had hoped. You are a well spoken and polite young man. I would be so proud of you for your thoughts, and passion for serving. I was an officer in the Army Nurse Corps, my husband served and was wounded in Vietnam. He was bitter about a great many things service related, yet felt the need to serve in a different capacity and a number of years later, joined and spent 25 years in the reserves in civil affairs. A number of posters mentioned other ways to serve and at other times in your life. You have conviction and passion and I know that you will do well. Don’t become disheartened, look at another path for now as weaving a stronger fabric of your life.</p>
<p>I am planning to have a Guidance counselor have a really, level discussion because I felt that because I was in their “home”, I could not assert or speak as level as I wanted to. </p>
<p>Regardless, I know they will not be paying, which is why I wanted to actively finish my ROTC application as soon as possible. If I know I had the ROTC option present, then I have no financial pressure, and against their wishes. </p>
<p>And there’s always the scholarships. I am currently finishing my application for the Asian American and Pacific Islander one, as well as the solid scholarship of Emerging Leadership that I received from VTCC. They’re small ones, but hopefully, I can also complete a few scholarships along the way soon. </p>
<p>It’s a tough route. but hopefully it may work with a guidance counselor mediated conference.</p>
<p>I’ve also been in contact with the VTCC recruiting officer, who will be available during the conference. Hopefully it may go well from there. </p>
<p>Unintentionally, it was heavily implied from my dad during our discussion, and from what I gathered from my neighbor (who had been around ever since my parents moved in) and a few relatives and family friends was that my dad enlisted in the USMC during the 1980’s. And from what was implied, he endured a lot in that time. I never heard my dad ever talk about his service, never mentioned, and I do feel that it the reason why he did not want me to serve, was because he kept the memories of his training and his service.</p>
<p>I must be missing something, because I thought that parents had to sign ED application agreements.</p>
<p>you can get your parents to pay for school, and then go to officer candidate school after graduation.</p>
<p>Ironically, if your parents now refuse to pay for college at all because you might enter ROTC at whatever college you attend, then one of your options at affording college is to enlist in the military and then attend college after your military service (when financial aid no longer expects a family contribution, and you will have some GI Bill money).</p>
<p>When push comes to shove, until you are 24, married, or a military veteran, your parents have veto power over your college plans, since financial aid assumes that they will contribute – their refusal to contribute is their veto power. The other way around it is to find a full ride scholarship, like some of those here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html</a></p>
<p>“For my personal plans, I personally want to serve my country. Some wonder why, but, its just something inside me . . .”</p>
<p>You have to listen to the voice inside you. If you take all the steps required to earn a commission and serve this country, you will not regret it. You will gain tremendous responsibility at a very young age and you will learn how to function in a very large organization. This skills will serve you well in the future.</p>
<p>There are no “commissioned officers in the medical field” in the USMC. All the medical and dental for the Marines are Navy. There are very few slots in the military for medical school. If you want to serve your country in the armed forces, go for it. If your passion is medical school, you may want to go to medical school first and then take a commission. Your Officer Selection Officer can provide more detailed information on that.</p>
<p>There is a lot to do int he military other than infantry - communications, logistics, transportation, etc. There is a lot of very expensive equipment that needs to be maintained on a meticuloulsly recorded schedule.</p>
<p>I applaud your love of country and willingness to serve.</p>
<p>As for mom, you will just have to “man-up” - look her in the eye, thank her for being such a great mom, tell her that you love her and then tell her that you are joining the armed forces to serve the country. You won’t be the first.</p>
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<p>I agree - great post.</p>
<p>To the OP… perhaps you should consider enlisting first. Either your folks may change their mind at that prospect, or you could earn your way into college and Officer Training School. If the scholarships/finances don’t work out, it’s worth a consideration.</p>
<p>Kudos to you for being yourself even when those around you try to re-make you.</p>
<p>You are an impressive young man with a great heart. Best of luck to you and thank you in advance for serving our country.</p>
<p>Good luck with the GC meeting. Let us know how it turns out.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses.</p>
<p>And in reply to the previous postings, yes, I have done my research and understand the process and the different types of branches. My big plan at the beginning was to follow my uncle, a VT alumni who went the same path, went to VT for his first four years of pre-med, did VTCC, entered VCU med.school, and then finished residency at Reed. </p>
<p>He was in 1st Calvary Div. from 1990 - 2000. </p>
<p>I also know USMC has no medical field, hence the establishment of “Corpsmen”. It’s somewhat interesting, but understandable since the USMC is under the US Navy. It just seems so expansive in my opinion they might’ve well gotten around establishing a small medical specialty in the USMC. </p>
<p>For a major, I definitely want to go pursue medicine and Medical School. The only real fallback I know is possibly in intelligence work, which was an option brought up by a friend’s dad, who was CSM of 3rd US Infantry “Old Guard”, discharged in 2005, did 10 years with 75th Rangers, reason being was because of my fluency in multiple languages.</p>
<p>For intelligence work, if you are good at math, consider majoring in math with emphasis on algebra, number theory, and cryptography, with some CS. Note that you can also take the pre-med courses alongside a math major.</p>
<p>But your parents’ veto against your college/ROTC plans is your more immediate issue.</p>