<p>I believe that when you apply to a SA it is just to that SA (which is an officer training school in and of itself). It has nothing to do with ROTC scholarship opportunities at other schools. ROTC scholarships must be applied for. They do not fall out of the sky.</p>
<p>Seems like the D can’t do anything to please the mother. Knowing that mom is uncomfortable with the $$ of Wellesley - and here she does something about it -and mom’s not happy?</p>
<p>When did I say I wasn’t happy about this? I’m euphoric! Beginning sophomore year, her tuition will be paid for because of the ROTC scholarship. The comment about having to have passed AP classes with a 5 is disturbing. I don’t think D ever had a 5 in any of those courses…only 4’s.</p>
<p>How did she get this scholarship???</p>
<p>jym626: still trying to figure this out. Person who sent her e-mail was out of office on Friday. She sent him back questions. I am sure I will have answer on Monday.</p>
<p>Why don’t you simply ask your daughter???</p>
<p>*** ETA Here’s Wellesley’s AP credit policy <a href=“http://www.wellesley.edu/esp/entering/academics/ap[/url]”>http://www.wellesley.edu/esp/entering/academics/ap</a> Need those 5’s (except in Calc) as was said above.</p>
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<p>Given that the very first post mentioned how liberal Wellesley was, I think the perceived politics of W, I can believe that, actually. </p>
<p>I live in a very conservative area. I can certainly imagine lots of conservative families around here being willing to pay for top-cost private schools but having a gut reaction against W because it’s liberal. Not that other schools aren’t liberal, but they might know that Hillary went to W so they KNOW it’s liberal.</p>
<p>Also, a lot of people outside the Northeast just aren’t that up on LAC’s in the northeast so even the great schools just aren’t on their radar the way Notre Dame, Georgetown, and Duke are. Note that all of those have sports programs that would make them more known than a school like Wellesley.</p>
<p>Could the email have been spam? </p>
<p>We got a very realistic email from Southwest Airlines to check in for a trip we were NOT taking. When we called SW, they were already working on the spam issue.</p>
<p>I don’t believe you can get an ROTC scholarship without applying for it. Period. Getting accepted to a service academy and then NOT accepting that offer would NOT be the red carpet to an ROTC scholarship without application.</p>
<p>Someone is telling a tall tale here.</p>
<p>Thought it was a phonecall… Now its an email?? Whats the straight story??
Again, there are still pieces missing. Where is your daughter and what does she say?</p>
<p>Okay - credentials first. H & I are both West Point grads and current liaison officers for WP. We work with a lot of candidates applying to both academies and ROTC and are supposed to know about both. Oldest son is a firstie (senior) at USAFA. Middle son is in NROTC at MIT (so OP - feel free to contact me if you’d like). </p>
<ol>
<li><p>The scholarship OP mentions is VERY likely. 3 year scholarships are becoming more the norm these days as it’s win-win for everyone. The military doesn’t put out any money (scholarship) to the student until they’ve been in the unit for a year and kind of proven themselves and haven’t dropped out or failed PT tests or classes and are actually invested in the program. Also prevents people from doing it for one year just to get the money. All 3 year scholarships begin at the start of sophomore year (once they’ve committed to the military). The AF does this as well. I’ve never seen this offered for Navy in advance - they do have 3 year scholarships but would only be given by the unit after freshman year. </p></li>
<li><p>Lists are shared between the academies and ROTC. West Point gives a list of QNS (Qualified/Non-Select) candidates to any ROTC school that asks. A lot of times they’ll give the list of anyone who applied at all that they have stats on. My son attended WP’s summer seminar so they had his ACT scores and initial info but he never applied there. He was offered 3 year scholarships (AROTC) to Vanderbilt and Michigan Tech. He did NOT do any kind of AROTC application. This has happened with several candidates I’ve worked with as well. Some schools do this; others don’t. When I was in WI it seemed like we saw it from Michigan Tech and Oshkosh - definitely not Madison. But again, it’s a no risk proposition for the Army - they get a year to “check out” the candidate before they have to pay any money and if they don’t measure up in any way, they won’t ever get that money. If they do, then they’ve gained a potential top officer.</p></li>
<li><p>I will say though that I think it will be VERY hard to do this with the commute. The main reason my son’s NROTC unit has lost mids has been due to that hassle, and they’re coming from Harvard/Tufts. Wellesley is a lot further and a lot harder to get to from what I’ve understood - they can’t just jump on the T. Harvard has had enough kids lately to run a car over for the main events (PT, group labs & events) but they still have to do some of the class-specific things on their own (ie if it’s just a freshman class and there are only 3 of them, they’ll have to take the T). If there aren’t enough other students that they don’t run some kind of car/van for them for ROTC, I really don’t know how she could do it. I know there are hourly shuttles to MIT from Wellesley but don’t think early enough for PT. Plus the timing would be really hard. My son has ROTC activities every day M-Th plus about every other weekend (granted this is Navy, but he says the Army unit is even more active). She’ll be losing about 10 hours a week just commuting (I’d guess more personally), not even counting the major commitment time ROTC takes as a whole. </p></li>
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<p>The general advice given to ROTC students/parents is to never accept a scholarship to a school that you couldn’t afford if you had to without the scholarship. I’d just be very leery of her getting there, loving the school but realizing partway through the first semester that she just can’t possibly juggle the ROTC commitment and commute. Then what?</p>
<p>Thank you Marcie…hope what you posted is what happened to this student.</p>
<p>I totally agree with your last paragraph…the family needs to feel comfortable with the finances without the ROTC scholarship. This kid will have to DO all of the ROTC requirements freshman year without compensation. </p>
<p>Personally, I would have chosen the SA over ROTC if I had wanted a career in the military. But that is me!</p>
<p>marciemi-</p>
<p>Up until maybe 2 weeks ago, the OP’s dau was going to go to the AFA. Only recently did the Wellesley WL come through and the shift occur. Are you saying that WP would have shared a list with the ROTC schools in this case when (a) it looked like the student was going to the AFA and (b) it could /would all happen within a week or 2 (not sure when the student told AFA she had a change of heart), and ROTC would out of the blue offer a scholarship to a student who had not applied and who turned down a SA appointment?</p>
<p>jym - I’m saying a lot of it is independent. Her daughter might have filled out something for WP at some point. The MIT AROTC unit may have asked her Regional Commander or the academy as a whole for a list of any females who they have any record of who aren’t attending WP and then cross-checked that and found she was accepted to Wellesley. They probably have no idea of USAFA. It’s all “pick and choose” as to who finds out what. We tell students to accept all ROTC scholarships until they actually show up at the academy. My older son accepted USAFA, AFROTC and NROTC. The final deadline to decline isn’t until around May so it’s possible the MIT unit got in some late declines so decided to offer the money elsewhere. </p>
<p>Actually that timing makes a lot of sense. I Day was Thursday - once you swear in, your ROTC scholarships are immediately invalidated (so you can’t go for 3 weeks, decide you hate the academy, and then go to a civilian college with the ROTC scholarship you had as well). So it’s possible that I Day at both AF and Navy last Thursday released a list of names/SSN’s of people who were or weren’t there to agencies requesting it. Again, my son was offered the Vandy & MI Tech AROTC scholarship while he’d already accepted USAFA and the other two ROTC offers so a lot is independent. </p>
<p>But personally my guess would be what I said in my first paragraph. Wellesley/MIT unit could even have asked all the academies, figuring females applying but not attending already accepted at MIT/Wellesley/Harvard/Tufts, etc. would be a short list and if someone had applied in any way to one of the academies that maybe they’d have a shot of pulling them into AROTC.</p>
<p>Fascinating, marciemi. It will be interesting to hear the whole story.</p>
<p>Thumper - there are pros and cons between ROTC and the academies as of course I’m sure you realize. And in general, yes, being an academy grad can be an advantage over being ROTC from Podunk U. But just like any job, how you perform once you’re there has far more weight than where you went to school (whether we’re talking an engineer who went to MIT vs. State U or a lieutenant who went to USAFA vs. ROTC). </p>
<p>One other thing to consider though. My middle son had appointments to both USAFA and USNA and chose ROTC at MIT due in a large part to the size of the unit. Rather than being one of 4000 students at an academy, he’s one of 35 or so students in the NROTC unit. Which means that he gets some incredible opportunities. They frequently have admirals/top ranking officials there and of course everyone is involved. He went to a leadership conference his freshman year that had only firsties (seniors) from academies attending. They pretty much get what they want as far as summer training because there are so few of them (he just got home this week from being on a fast attack sub out of Pearl Harbor - his first choice). At an academy you’re just a number - at a top ROTC unit (and this includes MIT/Harvard for obvious reasons, but also others like Notre Dame) everyone up to the top commander (a Navy Captain), will know you by name and all about you.</p>
<p>Checking for understanding! This young lady will need to fulfill all of the ROTC requirements freshman year without compensation. Then if she continues, will receive the scholarship for subsequent years.</p>
<p>^^^Yes, that is correct. </p>
<p>My S1 would have been competitive for a SA slot but decided that he wanted to have a regular college life along with the military training since the military would be his life after graduation. He attended a big state u. with a large active NROTC unit. He held several leadership positions over his four years there. His unit also had some older prior enlisted guys who gave them a lot of insight about the real military life.</p>
<p>Upon graduation, ROTC grads and SA grads are on a level playing field.<br>
S1 applied for and was awarded a highly competitive Spec. Ops slot in his senior year.
His best friend/roommate got the same assignment. Their state u. was the only civilian college in the country to get two guys in that year. </p>
<p>My point is it’s all about commitment, drive and hard work no matter where you go to school. He’s a LTjg EOD officer…marciemi knows what that is:) </p>
<p>I agree that commuting to another school for all ROTC classes/ activities would really make it much more difficult. S1’s unit did all sorts of extracurricular things…selling t-shirts at athletic events, going on weekend outings,marching in parades, competitions with other units in their regions, etc.</p>
<p>My daughter will be a junior at Wellesley in the fall.</p>
<p>Our older daughter just graduated from a college which was not a highly selective LAC, so I did notice what you “get for your money” at a school like Wellesley (we are full pay).</p>
<p>Highly engaged students. Wellesley students are smart and focused on their studies. Students do the readings, ask good questions, participate in class discussions – this is far from a given at many institutions of higher learning.</p>
<p>Wellesley alums can audit any class at Wellesley at no charge.</p>
<p>Small classes and professors who want to teach. Many classes are less than 20 students, and even large classes have less than 100 students. My daughter works closely with her advisor, and students are in a good position to get meaningful recommendations as they apply for summer internships and for graduate school.</p>
<p>Great learning opportunities at no additional cost. My daughter, who is majoring in Astronomy and Geosciences, has had paid research positions both summers. Last summer she lived on campus at Wellesley, this summer she is working with an MIT professor and is living in an MIT dorm (Wellesley students are the only outside students permitted to do so.) In January, she participated in a three week astronomy field camp in Flagstaff, AZ offered through MIT. Only six students participated. She received credit, stayed in a house with the group, and made a trip to the Grand Canyon. All expenses were covered with the exception of a $250 contribution towards travel costs.</p>
<p>Traditions and contact to alumna. Your daughter will attend a full week of orientation with only other first-year students on campus. This will give her a chance to make social connections prior to classes starting, and will include participation in long-standing traditions (I won’t give away what they are!). Her class color is green. When Madeleine Albright visited, she did a stint making sandwiches at an on campus cafe, revisiting her college job.</p>
<p>Some pampering not provide elsewhere. For at least some sports teams, the college does the laundry for workout clothes. Students living at a distance are provided with boxes which are stored on campus during the summer. The college president hands out treats on Halloween. They provide puppies to lower stress at exam times. The honor code is such that most exams are not scheduled exams but students choose when they want to take them. They are provided with a study week prior to exams.</p>
<p>Just a taste of what your daughter has in store…</p>
<p>Edited to add: I know an ROTC student lived on my daughter’s floor last year, as I saw her army gear outside her room. I can imagine that the ROTC students form a tight bond.</p>
<p>
Is this the difference between an enrolled cadet vs a contracted cadet? [FAQ</a> | ARMY ROTC @ MIT](<a href=“http://army-rotc.mit.edu/faq]FAQ”>http://army-rotc.mit.edu/faq)</p>
<p>Dang, the Army must be really hard up to search like crazy for candidates that didn’t even apply, and award them scholarships. I thought that people were competing like mad to get them.</p>