I’m considering transferring to Texas A&M and am in Air Force ROTC and Air National Guard, so I looked into their program.
They’re historically regarded as one of the best universities for ROTC and I started looking up vides and then got confused… but someone please help clear this up for me: how does their ROTC program work? Is it for Marines? Is it joint with Air Force and Army?
On their website for AFROTC it was strictly Air Force uniforms, then I watched videos of Texas ROTC and they were dressed like Marines. Along with that, how serious/competitive is their ROTC program down there?
A&M is one of the few schools with all branches of ROTC program. The program is VERY VERY serious. The Corpsnpf Cadets have 2600 Cadets, not all of them are in ROTC program. All Cadets live in the dorms together and wear uniforms whenever they are going into any buildings on campus. It’s a bit interesting transferring in from another school because of all the traditions. Would you be transferring as a junior? Is highly recommend you going to visit them.
The uniforms worn by the Corps at A&M are unique to Texas A&M’s Corps of Cadets. A casual observer will not be able to pick up on the differences you are looking for to find out if you are looking at an Army, Air Force, Marine, etc. unit. A&M’s Corps of cadets is composed of a mix of ROTC cadets and students (Drill & Ceremony cadets) who are in the Corps to take classes towards earning their leadership program certificate while the cadets with a military contract take the traditional ROTC classes appropriate for their branch of service during the jr/sr years. The Corps is a special part of Texas A&M. They are considered the “Keepers of the Spirit” and maintain and share much of the history and traditions of the school from back when it was a small all male military college.
Sam Hawes is the current Corps recruiter. You can find his info on the Corps staff page at the A&M website. He’s a good guy (Yeah, all recruiters seem that way, but Sam really is okay). He has fielded some questions from my high school kids that are laughable compared to the more relevant ones you’ll be asking. Just tell him you have no idea what you’re seeing on the web and ask him to translate what you see online from Aggie into English and he’ll square you away. As noted above, a visit is key at some point in your process.
I was an undergraduate at A&M in the 70’s. Back then, many corp members struggled with their classes because the time commitment for the mandatory corp activities was intense. I wonder if things have changed since then.
The avaerage Corps GPA is over 3.0. They’re really emphasizing academic excellence.
@gogogogobruins
I think @whatisyourquest is simply suggesting that corps members would have higher GPA’s if they didn’t have the time commitment that the corp requires. I don’t think he is saying that corps students are academically bad.
^ Yes, I did not mean to imply that they were academically inferior. And perhaps the time commitments have reduced. But back in the 70’s I was classmates with corp members that really struggled to keep up. They weren’t able to participate in group assignments outside of class, and they frequently seemed very tired and bleary eyed. As I recall, they had mandatory drills very early in the morning. And, of course, the construction of “bonfire” was not voluntary for the corp. Bonfire was a very big deal back then.
I was there at the t.u. game when the bonfire collapsed! They still do morning formation at 5:55 but the Corps is really emphasizing that the Cadets are students first so now they’re exempt from corps activities if it conflicts with a class.