<p>I am interested in going into ROTC, and I was wondering how ROTC works. Does one first apply to ROTC and put their ROTC scholarship on a college application or does one first apply to college and once accepted, then apply for ROTC? Does ROTC help one's chances of admission? If one gets an ROTC and chooses not to accept, can he/she still apply for financial aid? Basically, how does ROTC work? I've looked on the Army website, but I cannot find the answer to those questions.</p>
<p>Your apply directly through the service -
[GoArmy.com</a> > Army ROTC > Overview](<a href=“http://www.armyrotc.com%5DGoArmy.com”>http://www.armyrotc.com)
<a href=“https://www.nrotc.navy.mil/[/url]”>Naval Education and Training Command - NETC;
[U.S</a>. Air Force ROTC - High School](<a href=“http://www.afrotc.com/scholarships/applynow/highSchol.php]U.S”>http://www.afrotc.com/scholarships/applynow/highSchol.php)</p>
<p>An ROTC scholarship helps pay for your college education but you do have a commitment to accept a commission and serve as an officer for at least 4 years.</p>
<p>Apply for your scholarship and to colleges concurrently. The application will ask you for a list of colleges. List those you will apply to. Try to have at least one match and a couple of safeties on your list.
The earlier you apply the better your chances of receiving a scholarship.</p>
<p>ROTC probably doesn’t help your chances of admission much. It’s possible to receive a scholarship to a school but be rejected by admissions.
You can apply for financial aid AND a ROTC scholarship.</p>
<p>Also, there are students in ROTC; and there are students in ROTC with scholarships.</p>
<p>Acceptance in ROTC does not guarantee the scholarship.</p>
<p>I would point out that in my experience that the competition between Army ROTC and Air Force ROTC scholarships varies greatly. Army scholarships are within reach for many high performing students whereas AF scholarships seemed to be extremely competitive. Also keep in mind, once you are in, your major is dictated by your scholarship (usually technical in nature, although I believe foreign languages are also very popular) and if you change your major, not only do you lose your scholarship, but you may also be required to pay back your scholarship. Not trying to scare you away, many students find success in ROTC.</p>
<p>Also, you apply to both independently (I believe the AFROTC deadlines were around February when I applied a few years ago).</p>
<p>edit: come to think of it, i believe that you had to have initiated the application process the summer before your senior year of HS. In february of your senior year, you submit your most recent grades, get interviewed, and take a physical fitness assessment.</p>
<p>AROTC is a course that anyone can sign up for during the first two years of college. If you are not on scholarship there is no service obligation. After the first two years, you need to be contracted to the Army to remain in the course. This is a great way for kids to try ROTC and see if they like it.</p>
<p>AF and Navy scholarships are more competitive than Army, true. This is because we are fighting two ground wars. The Army is expanding and in great need of Jr Officers while the AF and Navy are downsizing. Nearly every student who qualifies will receive an Army ROTC scholarship.</p>
<p>A couple more things - you need to qualify physically and medically. You must take and pass the APFT twice a year to retain your Army scholarship. Navy and AF also have physical fitness tests.
To qualify medically you will be given and physical exam and must complete a medical history. The Dept of Defense Medical Review Board (DODMERB) will determine if you are qualified medically.</p>
<p>ROTC is one of a few venues to receiving a commission in the US Military. Commissioned officers represent about 20% of the military and outrank every enlisted member. They get paid quite a bit more, too, on average.</p>
<p>If you’re considering a long military career, the military academies generally will give you the best job selection immediately after graduation, so consider that, too.</p>
<p>I received a four year type II AF scholarship, which pays 15k a year in tuition, plus books and a monthly stipend. A type I AF scholarship (full tuition anywhere) is given mainly to highly highly qualified people, those who speak a middle eastern language and electrical engineers.</p>
<p>Apply for a ROTC scholarship your senior year (I believe the deadline was around December). You will need to take a PT test, have a DoDMERB Physical and interview with a liaison Officer (usually an LtCol or so). If you don’t receive a scholarship, don’t lose hope! You can sign up for ROTC at most colleges and compete for a two or three-year scholarship there. I believe most ROTC scholarships are given out in the collegiate level, not high school. Even if you don’t earn a scholarship, after two years you will commit to being an officer and will receive a monthly stipend of around $400-$500 for the months you are in school until you graduate.</p>
<p>ROTC in college is composed of three things mainly: a one to four hour academic course (depending on what year you’re in and branch), a multi-hour weekly “leadership laboratory” and 2+ Physical Training meetings. PT occurrence varies by branch and school. At my school, AF PT meets twice a week, but Army meets three times a week.</p>
<p>Army is MUCH easier to get than Air Force. At my college, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, EVERY single cadet in the Wabash Valley Battalion is on a 100% tuition scholarship once they pass the PT test, whereas I was the only AF cadet on a high school scholarship in my year.</p>
<p>If you do receive a scholarship, you will be expected to participate in summer events most to possibly all summers - so don’t plan on doing a lot REU’s or internships once you start college if you’re in ROTC.</p>
<p>The military is great for some, but it’s not for everyone. Don’t worry though - if you get a scholarship, you can “try it out” for the first year and leave before your sophomore year and not owe a cent (at the academies, I believe you can walk away after two years).</p>
<p>Oh yeah, many schools, including mine, will give you free room and board if you’re on an ROTC scholarship - some schools will even pay the difference and give you 100% tuition if you only receive a partial scholarship. If you do receive a scholarship be sure and research these schools. I believe Illinois Institute of Technology and Portland University are two to get you started.</p>
<p>I don’t believe there are restrictions on majors for Army and Marines doing ROTC.
There are restrictions for Navy and Air Force. You will find Army ROTC units to be found at many more colleges/universities than Navy and Air Force. </p>
<p>My S did NROTC. None if the schools he applied to ( all large publics) would pay for room and board of scholarship recipients. So don’t count on that. You usually find that info. on the school’s website if that is a concern.</p>
<p>On the Navy ROTC app. a public univ. had to be one of your top three choices of schools.</p>
<p>ROTC scholarships pay for tuition and fees, books, uniforms and pay a monthly stipend (directly to the student) that increases each yr. as you advance through the program.</p>
<p>If you are truly interested, get started early on the app. S submitted his in late Aug or early Sept. of his senior yr. He received his scholarship letter in late Oct.</p>
<p>One last thing, don’t do it if you’re just in it for the money. The military is looking for people committed to serving as Officers. It’s OK to be interested but unsure if it’s for you. Lots of people are. Just be sure that the part you are interested in is being an Officer serving your country rather than the $$ it offers to help you attain a degree.
ROTC is a great program but it is a lot of work. If you’re not really interested in military service, you will be unhappy.</p>
<p>Good Luck.</p>
<p>Your major is not dictated by ROTC scholarships. They are major-free, even the Navy and Air Force ones. I won a Navy ROTC scholarship myself with a plan to major in political science; one of my close friends in college had a Navy ROTC scholarship and she majored in history. You don’t lose the scholarship if you change your major in Navy or Army, although they do have a preference for science/math majors.</p>
<p>Even the Navy ROTC scholarship page says on it that no particular major is required, but you have to take certain classes (a year of calculus, a year of physics, a year of English, and the national security policy class) The Air Force prefers technical majors and and East Asian and Middle Eastern foreign language majors, but they will take any major. You just have to apply in a certain major to the program, and then be accepted into that major at your school of choice. With the AF you may lose your scholarship if you change your major</p>
<p>Also, there’s no physical fitness assessment before you get the scholarship. The physical assessment with DoDMERB happens after you are accepted, during the summer before your freshman year. You have to pass it to maintain your scholarship, but if you keep up with your PT schedule it shouldn’t be too hard. I got my DoDMERB papers in around May of my senior year.</p>
<p>Just remember – if you do ROTC, you are commissioned as an “unrestricted line officer.” That means that you can be assigned virtually any job, and you won’t work in some top specialties like intelligence. If you want to be pre-med, there’s no guarantee that you will go into that specialty or even be allowed to attend med school right after college – you have to apply for that, and it is VERY competitive.</p>
<p>You should only apply for an ROTC scholarship if you are actually interested in serving with the military for at least 4 years of active duty and 4 years inactive ready reserve (which means you don’t have to do anything and you don’t draw pay, but if the military needs you, they will call you and you have to report).</p>
<p>You can still apply for other financial aid – I received a Naval ROTC scholarship, but turned it down in favor of a better institutional scholarship I received. (I wish I had still participated in ROTC, though – I could’ve gotten a commission and served in the Reserves, and the Navy has a Research Psychologist position that I would loooooooove to have. Now I have to go to OTS if I decide to do Reserve components.)</p>
<p>I’m afraid the poster above gave out bad information, at least as far as Navy ROTC. </p>
<p>As of this year your major DOES matter for Navy ROTC. 85% of the 4-year scholarships now must be given to technical majors - engineering and hard science. If you are majoring in anything else you are competing in a very small pool of 15% of available scholarships max. Not impossible but the odds are low compared to before. </p>
<p>The other bit of bad info given was regarding changing your major. If you are a Tier 1 or Tier 2 technical major with a scholarship and you change your major to a non-technical Tier 3 major you automatically lose your scholarship and have to pay back any money received to date. So you can’t game the system by saying your are majoring in Engineering on your app and then changing to Economics Sophomore year. </p>
<p>All of this information is on the Navy ROTC site.</p>
<p>julliet - When I applied for AFROTC, I was required to submit a physical assessment. It did not have to be done with a military official, only had to be signed off by a high school faculty member or administrator. Also, I did not mean that you were REQUIRED to pick a technical major, but as Iron Maiden pointed out, a very significant portion are given to technical majors - 85% he says from the NROTC website. I was told the same was true for AFROTC back when I applied 2 years ago.</p>
<p>Our son was awarded a 4-year NROTC scholarship to his 2nd choice university and is “in the top 4” on the waiting list to have it transferred to Penn State - his 1st choice. Does anybody have any idea if it is likely to transfer at this point, and if so, when? We have heard that academy students tend to hold on to their ROTC scholarship offers until they actually start at the academy, which I believe is July 1st. We’ve got our fingers crossed that it will transfer…and hopefully before our first tuition payment is due in August! Any info would be greatly appreciated!</p>
Almost all of you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.
Yeah, well, all of these posts prior to yours are almost seven years old, so things may have changed.