What kind of people join ROTC in college?

[Margo out of lurking]

Regular people? Geeks? People who couldn't get accepted into a military academy? Just a normal mix of students who join because they kind of like it and get leadership skills, scholarship money, and commit to the service after school?

 

My dd has expressed an interest. :svengo: I know next to nothing about it.

[msk]

Among people I've known, it's been the last group you listed ("normal mix"), and the scholarship money was a big factor. I wasn't in it myself though, hopefully others will chime in.

[tammyw]

My husband got a full ROTC scholarship to Carnegie Mellon, and since his parents didn't have a lot of money to contribute to a private college, this was a fabulous deal for him. He's nearing his 20 years commitment to the Marines, and I'm so excited to be so close to the end.

 

He's a really smart guy but pretty normal. His career goals were to be a pilot, and that was another reason for him to look at a military career.

[yellowperch]

My DH was ROTC at Cornell. He joined soon after the Marines were attacked in Lebanon back in the 80s. He felt called to service, seeing other young men his age putting their lives on the line for their country. The college money didn't hurt. Joining ROTC transformed him a frat-boy football player to a much more serious person.

[Lolly]

Possibly my ds. He would really like to attend the Air Force Academy, but that is exceptionally difficult to get into. He is very interested in military service and sees ROTC as a good first step. I am not as certain. We are just starting to consider options. I have much trouble seeing my baby in the military.:001_huh:

[redsquirrel]

Lol, my nephew is currently in it at Cornell. Money was not an issue for him. he wanted to join military. His dad is an air force academy grad. His parents were very, very firm that college HAD to happen. This way, he gets both. he gets his college degree and he gets credit for ROTC.

 

Mostly I think he likes doing all the training.

[JFSinIL]

One of our nephews went to college via ROTC - now he is in Army Corp of Engineers. He did one tour already in Afghanistan.

 

Another nephew went straight into the Air Force from high school. He may or may not go to college later. Obviously he is starting off a much lower rank then the ROTC kid.

[Melinda in VT]

My brother did Navy ROTC in college. He more than fulfilled his initial required commitment and is now in the Reserves.

 

I know the scholarship money enabled him to attend a school he could not have afforded otherwise, but he had also been interested in military service since he was pretty young and also applied to Annapolis.

[Sherry in OH]

Regular people, for many reasons. The beginning ROTC classes are open to all students. Some students take them as fun electives. Students who continue into the advanced courses are seeking scholarships, military careers, or have a desire to serve their country.

[dkholland]

My dh also went Navy ROTC...to GA Tech! he was the son of a navy chaplain who is deceased. He did not decide to do it until his senior year at the advice of a family friend. He thought it was a great introduction to the military. Except for a few times a week you have to drill, you basically get to live a normal college life. Then you spend the summer doing Navy stuff...like trying out all the different branches of he Navy (flying, submarines, aircraft carriers.) Some of his friends in ROTC were also part of fraternaties. All the people we know who have gone throgh ROTC are from well-off families, are quite smart, and had a plan. My husband knew he wanted to study aerospace engineering at GA Tech and the scholarship helped him to acheive that goal. I know what I think of when I think of a 'geek' type and I didn't see any then. His brother also went to college, Clemson, on an Army ROTC scholarship.

 

HTH

[Cinder]

Dh and I were both in AFROTC and neither of our families could have afforded college otherwise. Dh wanted to be an AF pilot and had been accepted to USAFA but decided he wanted to go to a regular college instead. For me, mom said, "Either get a scholarship or join the military." So I did both.

 

We had a good mix of people in spite of being heavily geek--we were at an engineering school, after all. My freshman roommate decided to apply for a 3-year scholarship and joined sophomore year. She saw it as a good scholarship and future job opportunity.

 

Yes, normal mix. I think if you're at a smallish school like I was the normal mix will be a bit different. But at a larger university there is likely to be more variety in the mix.

[Michelle in MO]

If I remember correctly, Dr. Benjamin Carson, the pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins University (see his biography, Gifted Hands for full details) was a member of ROTC while he was in high school. His strong performance in ROTC enabled him to get a full scholarship to Yale, and from there he went on to medical school. Some of his notable surgeries include the separation of conjoined twins who were joined at the head; he also pioneered the hemispherectomy, which can help control seizures.

 

I read this book years ago, and Dr. Carson is a model of achievement. So, my guess is that the ROTC can provide a solid open door for motivated young people.

[Mama Geek]

My dh also went Navy ROTC...to GA Tech! he was the son of a navy chaplain who is deceased. He did not decide to do it until his senior year at the advice of a family friend. He thought it was a great introduction to the military. Except for a few times a week you have to drill, you basically get to live a normal college life. Then you spend the summer doing Navy stuff...like trying out all the different branches of he Navy (flying, submarines, aircraft carriers.) Some of his friends in ROTC were also part of fraternaties. All the people we know who have gone throgh ROTC are from well-off families, are quite smart, and had a plan. My husband knew he wanted to study aerospace engineering at GA Tech and the scholarship helped him to acheive that goal. I know what I think of when I think of a 'geek' type and I didn't see any then. His brother also went to college, Clemson, on an Army ROTC scholarship.

 

HTH

 

GO TIGERS!!! Totally off topic, but I had to get my word in for Clemson:lol:

[tntgoodwin]

First, some people may be thinking of JROTC. That is the high school one. ROTC is for college. Several of the officers over me were ROTC. I would think it attracts the same time of people who want to be military officers. Intelligent, motivated, leaders for the most part.

[....]

Regular people? Geeks? People who couldn't get accepted into a military academy? Just a normal mix of students who join because they kind of like it and get leadership skills, scholarship money, and commit to the service after school?

 

My dd has expressed an interest. :svengo: I know next to nothing about it.

 

My sister. She's a Lieutenant now. She was in ROTC during Nursing School.

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

For those mentioning it as a source of scholarship money at university--please keep in mind you are obliged to serve in the military at the end.

 

I am not saying that as a negative point or a reason not to do ROTC just a reminder.

[Mrs Mungo]

My dh went to a military academy for high school (it was what he wanted). They had a junior college with an accelerated ROTC program. He was commissioned with his Associate's and then served 2 years as a 2LT in the National Guard while finishing his 4 year degree.

 

It is a great source of scholarship money, especially if you want to serve your country in the military. BUT, keep in mind that it is like any other job. You need to develop skills that are prized by the military. Not everyone is chosen for active service.

[Crimson Wife]

Regular people? Geeks? People who couldn't get accepted into a military academy? Just a normal mix of students who join because they kind of like it and get leadership skills, scholarship money, and commit to the service after school?

 

My DH is a bit of a math & science geek but he was also quarterback of his HS football team until a knee injury ended his playing career. He got appointments to all 3 service academies but chose a ROTC scholarship at Stanford because he wanted to have a normal college experience. I'm glad he did because that's where we met :D

 

He served 5 years active duty. Originally it was supposed to be 4 but he got "stop-lossed" a year because of 9/11 and the conflicts in Iraq & Afghanistan.

 

Aside from the college money, the Army really helped him mature and get some great leadership experience. It also helped him win acceptance to a very competitive MBA program after he finished his service obligation.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Regular people? Geeks? People who couldn't get accepted into a military academy? Just a normal mix of students who join because they kind of like it and get leadership skills, scholarship money, and commit to the service after school?

 

My dd has expressed an interest. :svengo: I know next to nothing about it.

 

I would label them as normal but high achieving people. In many ways getting an ROTC scholarship is as competitive as getting into one of the academies. So a student has to not only qualify for acceptance at the college, but also qualify for a scholarship. (It is also possible but less common to join the ROTC unit without being on scholarship.)

 

They tend to be pretty dedicated to their studies, because dropping below a certain gpa means losing the scholarship and I think because they also tend to already have their eye partly on what they will be doing after graduation.

 

In addition to the extra courses during the academic year, there will be summer training that might include things like going to sea for three weeks, spending several weeks experiencing different service opportunities, working with an aviation squadron or an army unit, or going to a military training command. Usually pretty interesting stuff that exposes them to what life is like in the military on a day to day basis.

 

Once commissioned, there is no difference among officers in terms of daily job or career advancement (in other words, it's not a case of academy folks having a huge leg up or of ROTC grads getting the leftover jobs).

 

The website Today's Military does a good job of pointing parents and students toward good information on different programs. One thing that I like about this site is that it includes even the more obscure programs that a recruiter might be less familiar with.

 

I do interviews for the Naval Academy and I always recommend that candidates also apply for ROTC. It is a great way to prepare for and earn a commission. Since ROTC units are all at civilian schools, there are some degree opportunities that don't exist in the academies (thinking for example of the young officer with a degree in symbolic systems who so impressed my dh once).

[Crimson Wife]

Once commissioned, there is no difference among officers in terms of daily job or career advancement (in other words, it's not a case of academy folks having a huge leg up or of ROTC grads getting the leftover jobs).

 

Technically, this is the case, but it was my observation that in practice there tended to be favoritism towards the West Pointers. However, the 3 ROTC graduates of elite schools in the squadron (my DH and the Dartmouth and MIT grads) got lumped in with the academy grads for this kind of favoritism. It was a weird dynamic that may have been unique to this particular unit, I don't know.

[Dad 4 Boys]

I went through the AFROTC program at the University of Missouri in the 80s. Our detachment had a normal mix of students and personalities. I consider myself to be quite normal, not geeky but not the starting quarterback or frat boy type either. It was a great opportunity for me.

 

Other than room and board, my engineering education was completely paid for by the USAF. I spent a few years on active duty and decided that the military was not going to be my career. I was planning to be an engineer in the Air Force when I got my commission, but was given the chance to become a navigator during my junior year of college. That sounded cool, so I signed up and eventually became a combat qualified B-52 navigator. Flying on the B-52 was fun, but there wasn't much need for a B-52 navigator in the civilian world when I got out. Luckily, I had the engineering degree upon which to fall back.

 

My 15 year old DS has aspirations to go to the Air Force Academy, but is looking at AFROTC as well. We'll see.

[unsinkable]

Can you join ROTC without getting a scholarship?

[KellyGirl]

Can you join ROTC without getting a scholarship?

 

Yes. My sister, who never liked sports or doing anything physical joined ROTC while she was in college. I think that the scholarships were only for people who signed on to go into the military after college. I think there was also some rule about how many semesters you could be in ROTC if you didn't go into the military.

 

I'm not sure what first possessed my sister to join, but once she got there she decided that crawling through mud, running through the woods, and shooting semi-automic weapons was really fun.

[HayesW]

I went to Vanderbilt. It was my experience that folks who joined ROTC were mostly really smart kids who couldn't afford the high tuition. Smart kids, they got into Vandy, of all types. I knew fraternity boys and sorority girls, my big sister in my sorority was a ROTC girl and she is still enlisted, band geeks, friends from my major of Special Ed, and lots of others.

[Cinder]

Can you join ROTC without getting a scholarship?

 

Many people join ROTC without scholarship. Some are just curious and are checking it out to see if it's something they want to pursue. Some want to pursue a military career but want to major in something that there aren't scholarships for or they couldn't get a scholarship for some reason. Scholarships are tough to get, so even if you do choose a major for which scholarships are available you may not get selected for a scholarship. The military branch decides how many of which majors they need and apportion the scholarships to reflect that.

 

If one continues ROTC into Jr year they are committing to service and will need to sign papers. At that point, even though not on scholarship, they will receive a small stipend (like the scholarship students do) while in school. They incur the same service commitment as a scholarship student does.

 

ROTC is just one way to earn a commission--you get your training while still in college. Someone could also choose not to join ROTC and pursue training separately and full-time through the services' Officer Training/Candidate Schools.

[Mary in VA]

My husband for one. Normal but a little on the geeky side in high school :001_smile: (but so was I) Straight A's, valedictorian, musician. He wanted a military career and had thought about the AF Academy. Two friends a couple of years older went, and when the came home on leave advised him against it. So he didn't even apply and went ROTC instead. He had a full ride ROTC scholarship, saved his money during the first four years and was able to pay for law school out of own pocket. He graduated with no debt and then spent 21 years on active duty in the AF. It was perfect for him.

 

Mary

[Dad 4 Boys]

My husband for one. Normal but a little on the geeky side in high school :001_smile: (but so was I) Straight A's, valedictorian, musician. He wanted a military career and had thought about the AF Academy. Two friends a couple of years older went, and when the came home on leave advised him against it. So he didn't even apply and went ROTC instead. He had a full ride ROTC scholarship, saved his money during the first four years and was able to pay for law school out of own pocket. He graduated with no debt and then spent 21 years on active duty in the AF. It was perfect for him.

 

Mary

 

Out of curiousity, why did his friends advise him against it?

[Mrs Mungo]

I went to Vanderbilt. It was my experience that folks who joined ROTC were mostly really smart kids who couldn't afford the high tuition. Smart kids, they got into Vandy, of all types. I knew fraternity boys and sorority girls, my big sister in my sorority was a ROTC girl and she is still enlisted, band geeks, friends from my major of Special Ed, and lots of others.

 

You mean she is still in the military? Officers do not enlist or re-enlist. They have service obligations, but otherwise they are indefinite. For example, an ROTC scholarship carries an 8 year service obligation. It can be served as a combination as active duty/reserves/inactive ready reserves. You also incur service obligations for other things-military schools you attend, moving, etc. I know it might seem nit-picky, but if parents of young people who are considering service as an officer are reading, it's better that they understand it's different than the enlistment period served by someone who enlists in the military.

[SailorMom]

It is a noarmal mix - but only those who are actually dedicated will make it. It is quite strenuous, with a lot of commitment outside of school.

There are reasons to avoid it, even if you want to ba an officer. For some, it is just too much - an overwhelming amount of work - added on to stressful classes. Also - my DH decided on OTS (he was enlisted at the time) rather than ROTC for a number of reasons.

As far as "not making it" into the Academy - there are MANY officers who wouldn't touch that place with a 10 foot pole.

There is no one right way of the three to become officers, but ROTC is cetainly a great way to avoid college debt IF a person is already committed to a military career.

[BarbecueMom]

It is a noarmal mix - but only those who are actually dedicated will make it. It is quite strenuous, with a lot of commitment outside of school.

There are reasons to avoid it, even if you want to ba an officer. For some, it is just too much - an overwhelming amount of work - added on to stressful classes. Also - my DH decided on OTS (he was enlisted at the time) rather than ROTC for a number of reasons.

As far as "not making it" into the Academy - there are MANY officers who wouldn't touch that place with a 10 foot pole.

There is no one right way of the three to become officers, but ROTC is cetainly a great way to avoid college debt IF a person is already committed to a military career.

 

I don't know about the pole, but you can't be married while attending a service academy, AFAIK. DH and I got married after his sophomore year of college, and several of his fellow ROTC cadets were also married. I always thought the yearly ROTC ball was more officer wives training than anything. :tongue_smilie:

 

The nice thing about ROTC, if you decide to go Guard or Reserve instead of Active Duty, is that that you graduate with a security clearance and military experience that is helpful in the civilian workforce (and with a scholarship, no debt!). DH is starting a new job on Monday in a senior IT position with a DoD contractor at the ripe old age of 26. His career wouldn't have been on a "fast track" if he had no prior experience in defense and no clearance. He's an officer in an Army Reserve unit as well.

[SailorMom]

Many - not all :) It is funny the strong opinions I hear about all three (there are positives and negatives all around).

It is a very personal decision, and I know that each officer I know has a reason for the direction they went to get where they are - my point was simply that the Academy is not looked at as the pinnacle of officer training by a good portion of the officers themselves (again - this is based on those I know - so personal experience).

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Technically, this is the case, but it was my observation that in practice there tended to be favoritism towards the West Pointers. However, the 3 ROTC graduates of elite schools in the squadron (my DH and the Dartmouth and MIT grads) got lumped in with the academy grads for this kind of favoritism. It was a weird dynamic that may have been unique to this particular unit, I don't know.

 

I think it does depend on the unit and even the particular point in time in the unit. I was a Naval Academy grad and learned that it ought not be the first thing that I mentioned when meeting other officers. There was a not subtle expectation that academy grads thought that they knew more than they really did at the ensign level. This was back in the day when there was still a school for ensigns before they went to their first ship. My observation was that the academy grads were often less mature about things like drinking and getting studying done just because it needed done, rather than because they were told to sit down and study.

 

I would say that a year into the first shipboard tour, you would not have been able to pick out the academy vs. non academy officers. There were stellar examples from all the commisioning sources and some really negats from each too.

 

When I checked into my second ship, my XO mentioned that the CO had hoped for a wardroom of all ROTC men from the South. When I pointed out that Texas wasn't the South - it was TEXAS, the XO busted up laughing and told me that I'd just scored a trifecta of not being any of what the CO was hoping for.

 

So there is anti academy bias too. (And not all of it unwarranted, at least back in my day.) I know many Marines who are especially loathe to mention being USNA grads as junior officers.

 

However, what I meant more by my observation was that there was no official policy about preferring academy grads, as there might have been back in WWII or Viet Nam era days when one was seen as "regular" or "career" military and the other as something less. My observation dealing with senior officers is that commissioning source only tends to come up during football or basketball season.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

You can also take the ROTC specific courses (like leadership or military science or military law) if you are not in ROTC (though few do, since you have to pay for the credits like any other course and it may only fill elective requirements in someone's requirements). I think that a few universities may still have an auxillary where students can be participate in the unit without incurring an obligation. I'm not sure if this is still common outside of colleges with a historic Corps like Texas A&M. (FWIW, my mil was in Angel Flight, an Air Force auxillary, back in the 1960s, which always cracks me up.)

[Mary in VA]

Out of curiousity, why did his friends advise him against it?

 

When a student goes to one of the academies they are immediately in an extremely instense military enviornment. They aren't concentrating merely on academics, but have the military system to learn, stress from upperclassmen as part of it, physical training, etc. It is a stressful enviornment 24/7. They told my dh to go to a regular college where he could do his "own thing" academically without the stress of the academy. They called some of it "Mickey Mouse" and one of them ended up dropping out later. My dh has a wide range of interests, including piano, singing, and composing. He was an engineering major. So by going to a regular college he was able to focus on his major and do very well, be involved in the music program (graduated with enough credits to almost be a double major) and choir, AND ROTC.

 

None of this is meant to criticise the academies. For some people it would be a very good fit. His friends knew my dh's personality and felt a public university would be a better fit.

 

Mary

[vonfirmath]

My husband was in ROTC for a time -- enforced somewhat by his parents in order for them to pay for his education. He felt it was really good for him--he needed the discipline and authority figures that were not his parents-- but is also glad he flunked out of joining entirely (could not do enough pushups in the time period I believe)

 

My BIL went all 4 years at Texas A&M and decided not to enlist because he met my sister and got married instead.

[Debbie in OR]

My very *kewl*, very athletic brother who could have/almost did go to the Air Force Academy but fell in love and got married instead and who is now a pilot in the Air Force, working on a Masters in Aeronautical Engineering. Still the kewlest (and wisest) man I have ever known. :001_smile:

[Mejane]

My cousin joined while attending Embry Riddle, became an Air Force pilot, and is now a commercial pilot. He's a great guy, so I'd say really cute, smart, sweet people join ROTC. :)