ROTC Experiences?

[easypeasy]

Good, bad, ugly? I know nothing but am helping a kid we are close to navigate his options and interests.

AFROTC and NROTC (with an eye on the Marines) is what he’s most seriously considering. 

Already in college, starting sophomore year. Preliminary research looks like students can apply/join soph year and perhaps earn a 2-year scholarship?

This is a very athletic kid who never considered military until after starting college. 

Thank you for any input or guidance!

[*LC]

One of mine had a roommate who was in Army ROTC all 4 years. I do not remember any issues. This student came from an Army family and was aware of/prepared for the service commitment after college.

 

According to the AFROTC webpage, you can start ROTC after you start college. “If you’re already in college, it’s not too late to experience the benefits of joining Air Force ROTC. In order to be eligible, you must fulfill all requirements and must have completed at least one term as a full-time student.”

I wonder if opportunities are school specific, because the first two hits for my search were for specific college AFROTC programs and both mentioned needing to have x years of college left. One of the college mentioned two years and the other said contact them to check eligibility.

One of my college roommates married someone in AFROTC our senior year, and their kids are eligible for in-state tuition at our college (and others in that state) because that is where he was commissioned. (The right words aren’t coming to me this morning, but that is what it means.)

[El...]

I went into the AF through college ROTC, back in the day. It was a very good thing for me. 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Two of my kids went through ROTC.

Is ROTC available at the college where the student attends? Might be hosted on campus or at another college through a crosstown agreement.

Their best starting point is to reach out to the ROTC units associated with their college. Usually the unit has a staff member designated as a "recruiting officer" who might be a military member or a civilian staff.

It is possible for students to start as sophomores, but they would want to act as soon as possible, so they can add the appropriate ROTC courses and start doing military training with the unit.

[maize]

It's been a few years, but I joined AFROTC at the beginning of my sophomore year and commissioned when I graduated. They did help pay for my last two years of school.

ROTC was the best part of college for me, I loved all of it.

[easypeasy]

11 hours ago, Sebastian (a lady) said:

Two of my kids went through ROTC.

Is ROTC available at the college where the student attends? Might be hosted on campus or at another college through a crosstown agreement.

10 hours ago, maize said:

It's been a few years, but I joined AFROTC at the beginning of my sophomore year and commissioned when I graduated. They did help pay for my last two years of school.

ROTC was the best part of college for me, I loved all of it.

What was the time commitment in "real time" (I've often found that what things say online isn't always quite accurate...) in your experiences? Were you/your students able to "do anything else" or did ROTC take up most of your time?

In my mind, this student would have to essentially quit every extracurricular to wedge this in amidst a challenging academic calendar. They attend a top-tier university and the academics match up. 😅 But, maybe I'm wrong about that? I do not know.

For this student, ROTC is hosted at a neighboring university - maybe a 15 minute jog?

I wish they'd come to me at the end of their freshman semester and asked for some guidance. School is starting now and they call me with this last week! lol I'm not sure there is enough time to process information/make a decision/apply/begin!

[Lecka]

I think just sign up for the class and give it a try?  But be aware he may have to go to PT early in the morning and have some weekend commitments.

If he wants to be competitive as an active duty military officer he needs to get really into ROTC because they get points that counts towards being active duty (instead of national guard) and what branch.  There are no branch guarantees for officers, at least in the Army.  
 

Accepting the 2-year scholarship may come with a 6-year military commitment.  
 

This can really vary because some people are competing for active duty, while others just want to be in the national guard.

 

So — if he’s already a student somewhere, he can just go into the office and talk to each branch.  He should probably try to join this year or start attending PT and events this year (or what is possible).  It might be possible to just attend PT and see how it is.  
 

A question to ask is what their Seniors are commission into, are they commissioning into the most competitive fields if that’s what he wants.  Some programs can tend to put more into competitive fields.  But it can just depend, what an individual student is doing really matters.  
 

The main thing is — does he want to be a military officer.  That is the purpose of ROTC.  Or does he want to see if he might like it — that also works.  

[Lecka]

So, some people are trying to be the top cadet because they are trying to get the most prestigious schools and summer programs and branches and all these things.  They want to be the ROTC commander (or sergeant major or whatever — there are leadership positions for every year in college) their Senior year etc etc.

 

Then other students are doing the minimum requirements and don’t want to be active duty, they want to be in the National Guard.  They are focusing more on their future civilian life and career.  They are choosing to do an internship related to their major, not an extra optional summer program. 
 

So it really depends on what someone’s goals are!!!!!!

Edited August 18, 2023 by Lecka

[maize]

12 hours ago, easypeasy said:

What was the time commitment in "real time" (I've often found that what things say online isn't always quite accurate...) in your experiences? Were you/your students able to "do anything else" or did ROTC take up most of your time?

In my mind, this student would have to essentially quit every extracurricular to wedge this in amidst a challenging academic calendar. They attend a top-tier university and the academics match up. 😅 But, maybe I'm wrong about that? I do not know.

For this student, ROTC is hosted at a neighboring university - maybe a 15 minute jog?

I wish they'd come to me at the end of their freshman semester and asked for some guidance. School is starting now and they call me with this last week! lol I'm not sure there is enough time to process information/make a decision/apply/begin!

If he's going in as a sophomore he may need to double up on the ROTC classes that are usually spread across freshman/sophomore years. I did that; they were easy classes. Time commitment that sophomore year was maybe 6 hours per week required. I did more than that, but by choice. Moving forward, there can be bigger time commitments that come with cadet leadership positions. We had plenty of cadets though who were doing extracurriculars and working part-time. 

[Lecka]

As well, some people will have a goal of paying for college.  Other people will have a goal of becoming a General.  
 

It really makes a big difference!  

[maize]

For Air Force ROTC, almost everyone commissions into active duty Air Force. It sounds like army is different. I didn't know anyone who went National Guard or Reserves. 

[Lecka]

He also might not have to take the Freshman class if he starts as a Sophomore.  I think it could go either way.  
 

There may be a required summer program between Junior and Senior year.  

[Lecka]

Where my husband worked (Army) it was about 50/50 between active duty and national guard, but some people actively wanted national guard and had already been drilling with their unit before they came to college.  

[Lecka]

I wonder if your state has a big Air Force National Guard that would need officers?

The state we lived in had a few large Army National Guard units and wanted people who were from those parts of the state and would like to live fairly nearby to drill with them.  
 

If there hadn’t been I think there would not have been as many going to the National Guard.  They did seem to mostly go to their hometown or near-their-hometown units, but I think if they moved they could join in another place.  But I don’t know very much about the National Guard, my husband was active duty.  
 

Edit:  the program he worked at had a paid recruiter and was supposed to also find people for the national guard.  

Edited August 18, 2023 by Lecka

[easypeasy]

Thank you all for the information!! Incredibly helpful. 🙂

[Sebastian (a lady)]

On 8/18/2023 at 1:06 AM, easypeasy said:

What was the time commitment in "real time" (I've often found that what things say online isn't always quite accurate...) in your experiences? Were you/your students able to "do anything else" or did ROTC take up most of your time?

In my mind, this student would have to essentially quit every extracurricular to wedge this in amidst a challenging academic calendar. They attend a top-tier university and the academics match up. 😅 But, maybe I'm wrong about that? I do not know.

For this student, ROTC is hosted at a neighboring university - maybe a 15 minute jog?

I wish they'd come to me at the end of their freshman semester and asked for some guidance. School is starting now and they call me with this last week! lol I'm not sure there is enough time to process information/make a decision/apply/begin!

Have they reached out to the units at the college to ask about schedules? This varies greatly based on the unit, service, and major.

My two kids were in radically different settings. One at a senior military college with a Corps of Cadets and the other at a highly selective university with a dozen cadets across all 3 services who all had to travel to other colleges for ROTC classes and training.

One found that the Army-centric Corps experience was laid on top of the Navy ROTC requirements and a technical major. He didn't have time for other clubs.

The other was in several clubs, like the large space club and a religious org. He was a TA for a summer course, did a lobbying trip to DC, and did a summer abroad. But he also couldn't do one senior honors program, because the required meetings were scheduled on the same day of the week as his ROTC classes. He had a long commute once a week (90 min each way).

One did an additional term beyond 4 years, which ROTC paid for.

Both had ROTC leadership experiences senior year, which had an additional time requirement. I think in both cases, the Naval Science classes were on top of major/graduation requirements. Both had to take a year of calculus and a year of physics. For the engineer, this met major requirements, but it was extra for the humanities major.

Both are successfully commissioned and generally enjoying their service community. We only paid for food and housing for 8.5 years of school between the two of them.

But I'd say neither of these are exactly typical ROTC experiences. The senior military colleges with a Corps are large, but most ROTC units are stand alone without this additional layer of military responsibility and organization. Most ROTC students don't drive as far as my middle one did.

The ROTC units available to the student are going to give a much better explanation of what the student should expect, including if they would have to double up on any classes or summer training to catch up.

Also, ROTC is really a 2+2 program. All programs require that midshipmen and cadets be recommended and approved for the upper level of participation the last two years (Advanced Standing in Navy ROTC and Professional Officer Course in Air Force ROTC). Without approval, neither participation nor scholarship continues. This is another reason the student should be discussing options with those who know exactly what they'd have to do to be successful.

 

[Lecka]

Where my husband worked, that is where the points system came in.  It was based on points.  My impression is people just saw they weren’t going to have enough points, and didn’t want to do more to get enough points, and just dropped out on their own.  But there were a lot of openings where my husband was, too.  
 

Where my husband worked, there was one ROTC building and there were two programs, Air Force and Army.  They had almost nothing to do with each other.  They had separate recruiters, separate classrooms, separate everything.  They did not have much interaction.  They don’t have the same recruiting goals, they aren’t looking for the same kind of students to recruit or they have different standards.  
 

So make sure to talk to every program individually.  And if the first one talked to sounds very onerous or like they are just not that interested in him, it could be totally different at another program.  
 

I haven’t kept up, but while my husband was in the Army, sometimes the numbers were going up, they needed more people, or the economy was better.  Then recruiting standards are lower and/or there are more spots.  Other times the Army is reducing numbers and they need fewer people, or the economy is worse.  Then recruiting standards are higher and there are fewer spots.  It makes a big difference.  I don’t know how it is now.  And sometimes the Army might be reducing numbers (and recruiting fewer) but maybe the Navy never expanded and now doesn’t need to reduce.  So it can just depend.   

 

A good student in a competitive major at a competitive school might also just be a desirable person to recruit.  He is not only compared to people at his school, he’s compared to people in general and might be pretty desirable.  
 

My husband’s program was one where the top cadets wanted to join the Army Infantry and that is just not how all programs are or what they even see as a goal or what they are looking to produce.  Someone who might not be who they are looking for (so much) might be a top person down the hall with the Air Force, and vice versa.  
 

I think they are drawing different people interested in different things, too.  Like — is this someone who wants to jump out of airplanes?  Or not?  If you want to jump out of airplanes, you need to do x, y, z.  If you don’t want to, you don’t need to do x, y, z.  Then you do whatever is needed to do that thing.  And, you are probably around people who think jumping out of airplanes is kind-of stupid.  Or just don’t think about it at all.