JROTC - Valuable or Waste of Time?

I am a rising freshman in high school, and deciding whether or not to take JROTC. I understand if a leadership position is attained, it can look very good to service academies such as West Point. However, I am worried that I will not be able to take other academic classes I wish to take due to lack of room in my schedule. If I decide I do not wish to go to West Point, or if I am denied acceptance, I need a good backup school to go to - do top-tier “civilian” colleges such as Stanford or the University of Southern California approve of JROTC leadership roles in high school? Or does it not matter to them? Any insight is appreciated. Thank you!

Try asking in http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/u-s-service-academies/ or http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/index.php

Look at people who are applying and see if they did JROTC. Find out how important it is compared to other things like Varsity Sports.

Look here: it would appear that only 17% did JROTC compared to 92% of Varsity athletics.
http://www.usna.edu/Admissions/_files/documents/ClassPortrait.pdf

Are you interested in JROTC?

What if you started JROTC and then you could not take the academic class you are interested in…could you drop JROTC?

Any leadership is valuable to any top colleges.

I was in JROTC and rose to the position of Deputy Corps Commander and I got into Cornell. Regardless of prestige, JROTC was the best EC I took in developing my confidence and leadership skills. It shouldn’t have be a big deadweight on your GPA anyway. Overall, I think colleges look at JROTC the same as most other ECs, so it pretty much comes down to what you put into it.

To get into an academy you Must do some kind of athletics. As to what that has to do with JROTC replacing classes, I have no idea. JROTC is an EC, probably looked at more favorably for the academies but not that much more. Do it if you want to.

@ASJU9511 That was very helpful; thank you for disspelling the rumors that prestigious colleges look down on JROTC participants. Also, is it true that you get promoted faster if you are on the drill team? I was thinking about joining, but practice is every morning at 6:00… yikes.

@FutureCadet You’re welcome! In regards to promotion it is different for every unit in the country. For example, in our unit, freshmen cadets are promoted fairly quickly until they reach Junior NCO. This is when cadets have to distinguish themselves from the competition. So, I wouldn’t say that Drill Team is a REQUIREMENT but it is a good way of demonstrating your dedication and ambition to rise in the corps. If I were you, I would ask senior cadets already in ROTC if you know them, they’ll be your best resources.

I am a freshman and I have taken NJROTC this year. I absolutely loved/love it, and you should definitely take it. Other than the fact that colleges like seeing it on your transcripts, it more importantly creates lifelong friendships and you can learn a lot about the military through it. I plan to take it all four years, and I’m hoping to get into USNA.