<p>
</p>
<p>As the spouse of a Marine Naval Aviator, I really know what you are talking about!</p>
<p>Timely, UPT/UNT is really the only exception for the 6 mos+ rule regarding BOQ, since the students are never considered “permanent”. They allow this because of wash out rate. If you wash out, you might be out of the AF within days or PCS’d, they don’t allow you to hang around, which makes rentals on the economy hard to come by since there is always the military option when signing a lease. </p>
<p>DS on non-tech does not have to take CALC, but he has to take 2 sciences and 2 advanced Maths (i.e. Stats). They also require foreign language, I think 3 semesters.
Becareful on scheduling, because if you are in a non-tech field and the school does not require it for your major, you may find yourself carrying heavy course loads to fulfill the ROTC requirements. DS in scholars and ROTC, he needs to carry 18-19 credits as a non-tech because of the requirements don’t match up…for him, all this means is he will graduate with a dual major and a core concentration.</p>
<p>Vision is a 20/70 correctable to 20/20. The problem is if you have a vision issue and the pipeline slows down, they are not going to put you into UPT if they need to fix it.</p>
<p>Timely, I am surprised that they allowed you to do this privately, because typically it is done when they are contracted, and that means they own you.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Bullet use to say he felt it comforting to know after a mission in the bad lands the runway was just where he left it when he took off :D</p>
<p>S (NROTC) had a non-tech major but still had to do the Calc. and Physics. Of course that was before the 85% tech majors rule came into play.</p>
<p>I think S was drawn to SpecOps partially because that community seems to reside on the less than sane side too. When he returned fr. a month at Little Creek with them last summer, he said he had found his people.</p>
<p>I had a long Q & A phone call with one of the Army ROTC scholarship application advisors. A lot of it was a confirmation of information and data we already shared on this thread. Some additional factoids I gathered: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>First/very early board scholarship award ratio is about 15%. In their point system, the cut off point last year was about 570. During the later/last round of selection board, the odds go up to 60%. The cut off point drops to about 500. When I asked about how the point system works, as in how the points are calculated, he said, he has no idea since he had not sat in the selection board. This kind of question is best answered by a PMS who served in the selection board. I know the factors in the mix are: academics (GPA, SAT), athletics, and leadership Note that an important part of the total point system is the PMS interview results. How much, I don’t know: I intent to do more research on this.</p></li>
<li><p>Since it’s the rolling system, it’s still a VERY GOOD idea to submit application as early as possible. If you have better scores and improved grades to report, you can already update your online application. You can add/delete schools from the list (of 7) you submitted originally. You can reshuffle the priority also. Besides, some popular battalion spots are gone within a couple of selection board meetings. Hence, if you are applying to a school served by a very popular/highly sought after battalion, and you did not submit the ROTC application in time for early consideration, there may not even be a position left for you to fill.</p></li>
<li><p>The selection board will solicit input from PMS of the battalions that serve the schools you listed. If the PMS says no, then scholarship will not be granted to that school no matter how high your total point is. This is why the number of schools that scholarship is awarded to varies for each candidate (1-5). If your point is above the cut-off point, but three PMSs say no, then you will get a notification for scholarship award to four potential schools, out of which, you should choose 1.</p></li>
<li><p>Common reasons for PMSs to say no (has a lot to do with “yield”. Just like school
adcoms, they don’t want to “use up” their spot to a candidate who, for whatever
reason, will not come to his battalion.</p>
<p>a. He does not think your stats are good enough to gain admission to the school
you are applying to.</p>
<p>b. He does not think his battalion/his school is your high priority (you put that school
on a low priority)</p>
<p>c. For whatever reason, he does not believe you are the right fit. I guess this will be
the case if you interviewed with him, and he did not give you a flying high mark.</p></li>
<li><p>The point system cut off is done before the schools the candidate listed are considered. As such, there is not penalty to list schools with expensive tuitions.</p></li>
<li><p>Scholarship transfer from school A to school B when both schools are served by the same battalion should not be a problem because the spot is already there. HOWEVER, if there is a huge difference between the two school in terms of tuition (meaning, school B is a much more expensive school), that would enter into the decision process on the part of the Army to say yes or no to allow the transfer. </p></li>
<li><p>Scholarship transfer from school A to school B when these schools are served by different battalion needs support from the PMS of the school B, even if there is a still an open spot in school B. Again, the PMS has a lot of power.</p></li>
<li><p>After the selection board meeting, they notify the awardees within 2-3 weeks. Last year, after some board meetings, they let the students know within 5 days. This is great news. This means that if you get selected during the first board meeting, you can apply to ED with the knowledge that the scholarship has been already committed to that school. Furthermore, this is a great feather on the cap for admission consideration too. If you get selected during the second and third board meeting, again, you can use the results to up your chance for RD acceptance.</p></li>
<li><p>After you chose your school (if you are lucky enough to be selected for scholarship), you can ask for scholarship transfer as early as possible. For instance, if you choose school A in November, and learned in December that you did not get their early action acceptance from school A, but from school B, you should request scholarship transfer immediately, rather than waiting till April and May. That way, you have a much better chance of having that transfer request honored.</p></li>
<li><p>The advisor strongly recommended that I contact the battalion PMS my son is interested in as early as possible for more school specific information.</p></li>
</ol>
<hr>
<p>All in all, based on this, and other phone calls I made, it is becoming VERY CLEAR that the battalion PMS has a great deal of influence throughout the whole process. It is important that the candidate somehow manages to be on the good side of the PMS of the battalion he is interested in. Hence, my strategy to take my HS junior son to a campus visit next spring, and make sure that he has an interview with the PMS, though this will not be a scholarship candidate interview, but an early introduction.</p>
<p>I hope this helps. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, if anyone has an idea of how the point system works, please share with us.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info, hyeonjlee.</p>
<p>
The Army won’t tell you specifically how points are calculated. There is a reason for this - they don’t want kids playing a sport or getting their Eagle just for the points for a scholarship.</p>
<p>The Army has some acaemic qualifications with regards to SAT and GPA. Those are a 920 (M +Cr) SAT or 19 ACT and a 2.5 GPA.<br>
After that they are looking for students who are scholar/leader/athletes in their high school years. If you are weak in one area you can make it up in another area. In other words, low academics can be offset by being a leader in your school or community and a varisty athlete.
Candidate who meet the scholar/leader/athlete criteria will most assuredly be offered a scholarship - unless of course they only apply to reach schools.</p>
<p>The Interview - this absolutly can make or break an application. The interview is not “competitive” but rather a “date”. This is so both sides can take a look at each other and decide they are still interested. The PMS is looking for a future officer. He is looking for a student who can be developed into a leader and wants to join the Army.
While family support is encouraged - an overbearing parent is a red flag. They are looking for a future cadet who is capable of independent thinking and making up his/her own mind. This is why the interview is so important.
I think the candidate should be honest and forthright with the PMS and not worry about getting on his good side.</p>
<p>One PMS I talked to over the phone mentioned something in passing that I did not put much thought to at that time. He said, “if the applicant has 600 SAT score in each section of CR and M, he is in the game” something like that. At that time, I considered that to be “for scholarship, we are looking AT LEAST 600…”. Now that I know more about the minimum, perhaps he meant that with 600, the candidate can get maximum points on this dimension… I am not sure. </p>
<p>This matters to S2. He probably can get SAT between 1300-1350 (CR+M) without killing himself. If that’s sufficient, then he should really spend more time for his high school courses and GPA for the school he want to apply to and there is one giant, very time consuming EC he would like to do next spring (Mountain Search and Rescue certification training sponsored by Air Force). If this range of SAT is not good enough, then he may have to give up on that EC and devote more energy to get his SAT score up further. That’s why we need to get more information… </p>
<p>Regarding “being on the good side of PMS”, I was just saying, rhetorically, meaning “do you best in interviews and follow up”. Just like the majority of parents on this board trying to get as much information as possible to come up with the best way to help our kids land in the ideal place for him/her with regard to colleges, choosing the ROTC battalion that suits the kids best also needs good research. </p>
<p>Until I started to look into all this, I did not realize how much difference there is among the ROTC battalions in terms of the support they provide, the kind of options they have for the cadets, and the reputation of the battalion itself that is also translated into real benefit to the cadets. For instance, one battalion PMS told me that he actively encourages cadets to study abroad and personally arranges internships with government agencies for the cadets, while another from a different battalion sounded very reserved about the ideas of studying abroad, and mentioned that there is only one cadet in his entire battalion who has government related internship.</p>
<p>S2 is completely in charge of his academic work, ECs, sports, and other plans. In my family, we never intervened in the kids’ time management what so ever. That’s off limits to me. I am playing the role of a strategic consultant. I hope my research done well in advance will help him with the best strategy to come up with an ideal combination of the best battalion and the best school for his future plans.</p>
<p>SAT’s: If your son is competitive to get into the college of his choice then SAT’s won’t be a problem. If he is on the low end of his chosen college then it may be more difficult.
Was this PMS from a very selective college?
Lots and lots of kids are awarded a Army scholarship with SAT’s lower than a 1200.</p>
<p>
This, I only partly agree with. Study abroad is not an Army program and it’s prevalence varies from school to school. If your child is at a school where study abroad is the norm then they would probably get support. Graduating on time is probably more of a priority to the PMS than supporting a study abroad for an entire semester.
As far as Army options for cadets - all cadets have the same opportunity regardless of which battalion they are a part of. I don’t believe the Army says - we will give this cadet Airborne because they are from X battalion. The Army used to rank battalions but no longer does. They all teach the same course and have the same requirements.
That said - you need to remember that the PMS - who is a LtCol (or sometimes Col) -does not spend a career as a PMS. They are typically there for a few years and then they move on. The PMS you interview with today may not be there in a year.</p>
<p>Some questions to ask are what summer training opportunities are available? How many cadets get their first choice in their summer training selection? How well do your cadets perform at LDAC?
How many cadets get their first, second and third choice of branch at selection time?</p>
<p>IMO - branch selection is a function of points - most of the points come from GPA and their LDAC score. If they do well at LDAC they have a good chance at getting their first choice.<br>
LDAC is Leader Developement & Assessment Course. This is a five week course that every ROTC student will take out at Ft Lewis, Washington the summer before their junior year. Everything a cadet does in the classroom, during field training excercises and summer training prepares them for LDAC.</p>
<p>some information I got recently:</p>
<p>I heard from two PMSs during last few days or so that they are expecting smaller number of scholarships to be awarded this year. I talked to PMSs in the Army battalions so I don’t know whether this is applicable to other branches. I would guess it is applicable, given that Army still has the most generous ROTC scholarships (higher number given)</p>
<p>During last 5-6 years, every battalion showed a dramatic increase in scholarship cadets. In recent years some well regarded battalions were even able to immediately give out 4 year campus scholarships to all “walk ins” who qualify (in the fall, kids who are already attending the university) on top of all the national scholarships awarded before the fall college freshman year starts. In those battalions, EVERY single one of the ROTC students had a full tuition scholarships either national or campus. That said, even during these “hay days”, this did not apply to every battalion: in some battalions only 1/3 or 1/4 of cadets had a full 4 year scholarship, and they either could not give any campus scholarship to walk ins or only one a year. The difference is how well regarded the battalion is in the eyes of the central command. The better they are regarded, the more money they are given to dispense to cadets. This is the kind of perk you get by being part of a very well regarded battalion: you may be able to get 2, 3, or even 4 year scholarship in the fall of college freshman year even if you miss the national scholarship boat.</p>
<p>(note: national scholarship is transferable to other battalions/campuses, campus scholarship is not). </p>
<p>Now, the PMS of the battalion who used to be able to accommodate the walk ins with full 4 year campus scholarship (not national) believe that from this year on, he may not be able to do that. Instead, he may be able to give 2 or 3 year campus scholarship that will be applied from 2 or 3rd year of college on that campus with that battalion for the cadets who joined the ROTC as a freshman. Another PMS from a different battalion mentioned the possibility that they may reduce the number of full 4 year national scholarship, and give 3 year national scholarship that will start paying the tuition from the 2nd year on, but you HAVE join ROTC as a freshman. </p>
<p>So, what’s the takeaway here? The reaches-matches-safeties caution for college admission applies to ROTC scholarship application process. If you list 7 schools (7 battalions) that are highly popular among applicants and serving schools that have a very competitive admission scene, you may end up getting no scholarship. The same candidate may have gotten scholarship if s/he included a school and battalion combination that is a better, safer match given the stats and other qualifications. Now, knowing the the odds have gotten worse for winning this scholarship lottery, all candidates must play a bit safer: fewer reaches and more matches/safeties. </p>
<p>Also, don’t forget: the ROTC battalion officers do “yield management”, just like college adcoms. With each battalion working with fewer scholarship spots/allocation, they don’t want to say “yay” to a candidate sent from the central command for their input if they noticed that his battalion/school was listed as a low priority. They wouldn’t want to use up the spot early on for candidates who eventually will not come. As such, when you prepare a 7 school list (for Army), I suggest you put 1 reach, 1 match, and 1 safety as part of the top 3 choices. Just my two cents. </p>
<p>Remember that even if you already submitted the scholarship application, you can always change the school list: add/remove/change priority. </p>
<p>Good luck to all candidates applying this year. If this information was helpful to you, will you “pay back” 
by sharing your experience with me at the end of this whole process next spring? My son will be applying next fall (he is a HS junior). Just like college admission process, the better you understand how the whole process works out, the better the odds are for getting what you want.</p>
<p>I would think the reason for is due to the economy. When the economy is humming along they have a hard time getting ROTC candidates, when it is like it is now, people are searching for any and every scholarship. 5 yrs AD with a guaranteed job at graduation doesn’t seem half bad.</p>
<p>Economics play into the issue.</p>
<p>One thing I was wondering is if they still had the 2 and 3 year college scholarships. Back in the good old days when I went through-I just showed up at the local AF ROTC detachment and asked some questions about being a pilot…and before I knew it they had me taking tests and gave me a navigator scholarship (later changed to pilot). But I actually hadn’t even been looking into scholarships, and had no idea what a navigator was. Good thing it all worked out! And I just had a year in community college, taking fun (music, easy science and pe) courses, so I had a high GPA. They didn’t care what the classes were, I’ll bet they still don’t-just the GPA, testing and the major. Maybe someone can verify this.</p>
<p>So, I just looked online and found this link: [U.S</a>. Air Force ROTC - Scholarships - In-College Scholarships - In-College Programs](<a href=“http://www.afrotc.com/scholarships/in-college/programs/]U.S”>http://www.afrotc.com/scholarships/in-college/programs/)
It sounds like they still have those 2 and 3 year scholarships, so if a kid is already in college, they haven’t missed the boat, they can still get them. And some detachments may be relatively easy to get them in, especially if you have an engineering major. I’m too lazy to reread the old posts but I don’t think anyone had brought the in college scholarships up.</p>
<p>Bullet: Yes, economy plays the role in determining the scholarship competition in that more candidates are applying for the ROTC scholarship. PMSs also told me that to make it worse, they are actually projecting a lower DEMAND for officers as they anticipate troop pull out from Iraq, etc, plus the projected budget cut is about 20% and instead of cutting funding from vital projects that are crucial NOW, they are cutting scholarship funding that won’t have immediately deleterious effect on their operation </p>
<p>In short, more candidates are applying due to the economic pressure, while Army is reducing the total number of scholarships available. Double whammy… I have a friend whose son got a full 4 year scholarship last year. My kid missed that window. Sigh…</p>
<p>Busdriver: Yes, I was using the “wall ins” metaphor for these 2-3 year scholarship. These are “campus” scholarships, as opposed to national scholarship that is managed by the central command and comes with 4 year guarantee and TRANSFERABLE to other schools. At least, this is the case with Army. I claim no knowledge for other branches, though I suspect they may have similar (if not identical) practices. In some campuses with very well regarded battalions, campus scholarship is very easy to get (during last few years, at least). However, in some other battalions, it’s very difficult to get. It depends on how much money the battalion is able to secure, which in turn, depends on how well they are regarded by the brass in the central command somewhere up there, God knows where!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The question is how do you know which school/batallion combination is a safety? </p>
<p>And another question is within a batallion, how do they allocate what would appear to be a more limited number of scholarships (or do they?)? If you list a less popular school at a more popular batallion - one that is trying to build its numbers - does this affect your chances of getting the scholarship? </p>
<p>So many questions.</p>
<p>I wonder if it would be appropriate to stop by or call up the battalion, and ask them how many scholarships they have and how likely it would be for the child to get a scholarship, based on their test scores, GPA and whatever else. I would hope you could get a straight answer. Might that be the way it works?</p>
<p>We stopped by the host school office for 2 of the schools on goaliegirl’s list while touring schools recently. They thought that a 25 ACT would be competitive this year (for a student with a solid GPA and reasonable EC/sports/interview) and they had 18 scholarships to give out (among a dozen schools) this year. And this was one of the larger batallions (~150 cadets). Doing the math, clearly they have given out a lot of local scholarships (which doesn’t seem to be happening much right now).</p>
<p>busdriver:</p>
<p>the answer to your question is yes. Usually, they give you a pretty good answer. of course, they will never say: with that stat, you are in. However, you can judge by the tone of the voice, etc. Note though that their input is largely limited to “yes, I would love to have this kid in my command, and I believe with his stat, I believe he has a good chance of getting into the school my battalion is serving”. Some PMSs have told me that some of the best candidates they saw and recommended to the central national command for scholarship failed to get admitted to the university. In a couple of cases, they intervened, and it worked out. In some cases, it did not work out. The relationship between the ROTC commanders and university adcoms really depends on the schools and the battalions. One PMS told me that out of X number of schools my battalion serves, I have a tremendous influence on adcoms of school A, no influence on adcoms of school B and School C, etc. If they (PMS) really like you, they will work for you behind the scene if they have “that” kind of relationship. In such a case, just think of it as “one giant and sticky hook” the candidate has for college admission process (just like the commonly understood hooks like sports, legacy, URM, etc). </p>
<p>Goaliedad:</p>
<p>The best way to find out is to call the battalion officers. Ask simple questions like: what % of your cadets have 4 year scholarship? How many cadets under your command are coming from each school your battalion is serving? I have asked those questions and got very straightforward answers. if the cadets are evenly distributed among the schools the battalion serve, then you can factor that into your decision. Of course, there are battalion that serve only one large school. In that case, the decision is simpler: you need to get into the school, and stand out among the ROTC bound kids who apply to that school. </p>
<p>One way to find out how popular the battalion is among candidates is to ask this question:
At what round of selection board meetings have the spots in your battalion been filled? If they are filled early on, it’s a popular battalion or a battalion with VERY LIMITED scholarship spots. If it’s not filled till later, you have more leeway. One PMS told me that his battalion spots are not filled till May even though only 30% of the cadets are on 4 year scholarship: so, I guess it’s not exactly winning the popularity contest among the candidates/ROTC hopefuls with good enough stats to pass the initial bar by the central command.</p>
<p>Incidentally, the simplest way to find out how they stand in the eyes of the central command (the standing of the battalion itself, that is) is to ask what % of their cadets have full 4 year scholarship. If the answer is 100%, that’s a very good news: that means that they are regarded very well by the brass, and they have the money to show for it. In my search, the battalion that has the 100% rate was one serving only the private schools with very expensive tuitions. So, it’s not like the scholarship money is allocated to more “cheaper” schools. </p>
<p>However, now that I am hearing about budget cuts, I have no idea how it will work out now: will they start “favoring” kids who are applying to cheaper schools so that they can stretch the dollars while producing the comparable number of ROTC scholars??? I have no idea. That said, though, they wouldn’t want to let a outstanding battalions wither and die by now putting enough money on the table, would they? The caution is, if you are listing 7 schools, and they all happen to be expensive private schools served by battalions that also support cheaper state schools as part of the cross town affiliate schools, you might want to think twice: they can fill most of the spots for the battalion by giving scholarship to kids going to cheaper schools.</p>
<p>In terms of guessing “what combination of battalion and school” should be considered safety? Ah… this is where it becomes art, rather than science. First of all, we all know what reachy, match, and safety means for college admission. I believe you should use that first since the kid has to be accepted to the school: otherwise, the discussion of the battalion is a moot point. Of course, as I mentioned above, if the kid is a borderline case, and he got the scholarship to the battalion, and the battalion officers have a “right kind of relationship” with the school adcoms, then, the influence works both ways. </p>
<p>My advice for parents/students? Let your fingers do the work: call battalion officers, as many as you can stomach. Call several officers in the same battalion - each has a different angle. Some of them are NOT as clueful as his/her colleagues. Some are willing to share a lot of info, and some are very coy. Don’t worry about appearing as an overly “engaged” parent of a “passive mamma boy/girl child”. They don’t ask for your ID. You can collect all this info anonymously. </p>
<p>I know some of the parents may recite this “kids must take initiatives” mantra. I don’t think gathering ROTC scholarship information falls into this category. The whole process is shrouded in mystery: the web site gives you diddley #$%& worth of information: nothing on what really goes on to select Johnny over Mary for scholarship. AND, calling the PMS and “leading” them to divulge all sorts of “really useful” information goes WAY BEYOND the pay grade of a teenager. I highly doubt that the PMS would have divulged as much candid information as they have with me if a teenager called them instead. Some even gave me tips on how to build an scholarship application package for maximum impact on their point system (which is NEVER articulated and published anywhere).</p>
<p>I am going to have a round of calls again next spring (around March/April), and collect information for how this admission/scholarship selection cycle worked out with new budget cuts and what not. The way I see it, for my S2, this effort is worth $180K. In terms of return on investment, the time I spend on gathering information is about the highest ROI activity I can think of!</p>
<p>Again: if you find useful information, can you please share with us all?</p>
<p>hyeonjlee,</p>
<p>You bring up some interesting things that I’m not sure we have information on.</p>
<p>For example goaliegirl’s top school choices look like this (not in any particular order)
- A lesser cost private in hosted by a higher cost, larger more prestigous private.
- A second-level public hosted by another similar second-level public in a batallion of sister (public) schools.
3&4) 2 fairly good privates hosted by a large State U public. - A lower-cost private in a unit hosted by a second-level public with other mixed privates and second-level publics.</p>
<p>Looking at these various units, if the Army is giving them a budget of $X of scholarships and that budget is consumed as the Army awards (and the unit accepts) recipients, then units like #5 on my list have an incentive to accept students at the lower-cost publics, maximizing the number of recipients and therefore cadets in their units. This could hurt private schools in mixed units. It could also hurt OOS candidates at any public (ouch for us).</p>
<p>Now if the Army is allocating X number of scholarships (regardless of $$$) to a unit, then the local needs of the unit (balancing the number of cadets at the schools where they offer classes for example) becomes a more important determinate in which candidates a school accepts.</p>
<p>Clearly, competitive units recognize that they now can be more choosy in which candidates they accept. Meanwhile units that “don’t fill up until May” may suddenly find out that they are filling in April, as the more competitive units decline candidates who now get offers at the less competitive units.</p>
<p>And this whole situation really changes how goaliegirl and I will need to approach the hockey/ROTC match. Entering this situation with a growing number of scholarships available mentality, we were thinking that we would have a scholarship offer before or at the time where a match is made hockey-wise (January). </p>
<p>Looking at this year’s board dates and how the first board has been very slow in processing and from the word on the other board very selective choice, it would appear that the 2nd board offers will be on the table in late December/early January, with the 3rd board selections notifications coming in February.</p>
<p>It is starting to look more like she will have to commit to a coach without knowing whether that school’s unit will have scholarships when her time comes. This of course could affect how willing some coaches are to commit to her (not knowing financial situation is settled). This could put us at a disadvantage at some schools. </p>
<p>I know there is one school that would definitely wait for her to commit until the end, as it is neither a highly competitive school or hockey program. I suspect the unit is also one that is not highly sought after (no school draws from a wide region). However, this is probably the school/team that is the lowest on her list, if I know her thinking. </p>
<p>It sounds with each passing board that you are not selected by, the further up your list non-competitive units should be. I’m thinking that #3 and 4 (and perhaps #1 above will probably move down the list as the more competitive units fill up.</p>
<p>So many things to consider.</p>
<p>goaliedad,</p>
<p>the national scholarship is funded by the central command. As such, the local battalion does not have to worry about how expensive the tuition is at school A vs. school B, both of which the battalion serves. The local scholarship decision may be influenced by the tuition price tag (I haven’t verified this: I am just guessing). </p>
<p>PMSs were all guessing what the budget cut implication may be for the balance of national scholarship vs. local scholarship. They were guessing loud with me that probably it affects the local scholarship more than the national scholarship. One PMS of a battalion that had the luxury of handing out local scholarship to “walk ins” was musing that perhaps he won’t be able to give money to walk-ins anymore. </p>
<p>I understand that if the candidate stayed “engaged” with the PMS of the battalion s/he is interested in, and especially the PMS interviewed the candidate, the PMS may do a lot of “hand holding” through out the whole process. One PMS even told me that if my son is interested in his battalion when he applies for scholarship next year, he will work with him on the application (feedback, advice, etc), and even do “mock interview” to get him in the best shape possible. If your daughter haven’t done it yet, perhaps she can open a channel of communication with PMS of the battalion she ins interested in???</p>
<p>You mentioned that this year, the selection board decision did not come out soon enough, and stated in passing that the later boards would be highly competitive. Where did you get this? What else are you hearing?</p>
<p>hyeonjlee,</p>
<p>Glad to hear that the units are not punished for accepting a more expensive scholarship. It does simplify the thinking for prioritization purposes.</p>
<p>With regards to the delay in the boards, I’ve been monitoring the chat over at serviceacademyforums. The paper letters from the first board which was supposed to start September 30th (from other posts the actual start date was around Oct 6) just went out November 5 (although it looks like the electronic status change occurred a couple days earlier). Considering that they give the recipients 30 days to choose a school (I would assume here from either the date of the electronic posting or the letter date) and that they cannot award a 2nd set of scholarships until they know what is left over from the first set, their scheduled date of November 30th, is already impossible to make. Even after the 30 days of notification, the board needs a few days to tally up the results before starting their work on the second board. </p>
<p>The 3rd board is scheduled for January 5. If they are already a week into December before they start the 2nd board (and these boards I am told take at least a week), clearly 30 days of recipient decision from that 2nd board will push out that January 5 date for the 3rd board.</p>
<p>You can see where this is going.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if this is typical (I didn’t follow this last year). Perhaps I worry a bit too much.</p>
<p>I know that the 4th board is not scheduled until March, clearly not a situation we don’t want to be in. At this point, goaliegirl would be a walk-on anywhere she goes, as the decisions in her sport are generally made during the winter. And with goalies, the 4th goalie at a school, is as welcome as a skunk at a garden party (at least with the other goalies). Some coaches are OK with 4. Others welcome more competition. Others yet will not even entertain the 4th at the tryout and only seriously consider ones they invite (mostly a minority, but it does happen).</p>
<p>At this point (she had a delay in finishing her PFT this week as she took an injury in field hockey, UGH! - but she should get that in this week), we are all done but the waiting, although we scheduled a Dec 14th ACT, just in case she doesn’t get that notification in the 2nd board (she should not need it for admissions at her schools). That is about the only thing (other than fall sport awards or being elected captain of the ice hockey team) that can affect her score at this time.</p>
<p>I’m still trying to wrap my head around these rumored reductions in the number of scholarships, considering the Army’s desire to add 5000 more officers in the next few years. Confusing the situation more, you’d think they’d give more local scholarships to the units if they need these junior officers sooner (fewer years in the pipeline). </p>
<p>Perhaps the army is not happy with the results of the walk-ons? I do have to admit that the ones who join as sophomores and juniors are probably more likely to be ones who are there for the scholarhsip money (as opposed to being after a military career from the get-go) after looking at the mounting student loans and the inability to finance college through home equity loans anymore. I would be curious to find out the retention rates (after the 8 req’s years) of officers commissioned as 4-year scholarship winners vs. 2 and 3-year scholarship winners.</p>
<p>I guess I’ll get with goaliegirl around Thanksgiving week and try to work out a strategy for prioritizing schools, should the 2nd board not yield an offer. </p>
<p>I think this is worse than dealing with the admissions issue for us. There is historical statistical data for admissions that help you see where you are at. Cadet Command is opaque and the units, while often helpful, may not be in the loop (as judged by the head-scratching about campus scholarships).</p>
<p>wow: your D’s situation is the most complicated one I heard: ROTC, school, and the sport team. You have to coordinate all three? Like playing three chess games all at once!</p>
<p>For your D: </p>
<p>You know, with national scholarship, you can request a scholarship transfer from School A to School B. There are two issues with that:</p>
<p>(1) Tuition differential: if school B’s tuition is much higher than school A, this may decrease the odds of getting the transfer request approved.</p>
<p>(2) the spots: some battalions have lots of spots for scholarship students, and some battalions don’t. This is the the actual number of ROTC cadets, it’s the spots for ROTC cadets with national scholarship. If you request a transfer to a battalion whose national scholarship spots are already filled, then you are out of luck. With regard to spot, if both school A and school B are served by the same battalion, it shouldn’t be problem since the spot has been reserved already under your D’s name. HOWEVER, if the tuition difference is big, it may be a still a problem.</p>
<p>As for my son, the battalion he is interested in most only serve private schools, which is a good thing since transferring scholarship among these schools shouldn’t be a problem. (well, even among those, there is a difference, but not like in state public vs. expensive private). </p>
<p>My 2 cents for your D is, make a decision anyway on the school/sports team in case the scholarship issue is still up in the air, and then if the scholarship is awarded to a different school, see if she can get the scholarship transfer request approved.</p>