I understand that I might have to be overseas, but a large portion of the military overseas is currently not in active warzones. I have been a “government” kid overseas in 2 different countries and although their job is demanding, they aren’t sweating their balls off 16 hours a day. Im wondering is it truly so wrong to be motivated partially by the money when doing the rotc scholarship. And although I may not be absolutely pumped to join, doesn’t everyone hate things they’ve never tried before?
The hours and locations one works are not necessarily going to be the same for all positions within the military, and one may not have the same type of hours/location for all four years. But people often don’t get much (or any) choice in terms of where they are stationed, and limited options with respect to career. Additionally, one never knows when things will change geopolitically, and based on my observations of the last couple of years, I would not be banking on a peaceful existence in the military for the next 8-13 years (i.e. college + 4-10 years in the military). Moreover, serving in the military should not be equated to serving in the Foreign Service or working for an agency like USAID. They are very different things.
I don’t think most people hate something they’ve never tried before. They might be anxious, nervous, excited, but hate? Not in my experience. And if you hate the idea of doing something, I would in no way, shape, or form think about committing to it for years. If you want to take an ROTC course your first semester at college to see how it goes, sure. Sign the paperwork to do something you hate full-time for an extended period of time? Absolutely not.
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This poster is attempting to use the military as a financial crutch, not a primary goal, so I have nothing to add beyond what has already been said. Besides:
How could anyone be more enlightening than dad?
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If the goal is to save your parents’ money, then you can get a full tuition scholarship at many schools - you should be able to get a 36 on the ACT with enough practice, which would qualify you for the presidential elite scholarship at Alabama, for example. There are also lots of selective merit based full tuition and full ride scholarships (like Stamps at various universities, Park and NCSU) which you have a reasonable chance for, given your strong extracurricular achievement.
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You’re a fantastic fit for the military. The question you should be asking is whether or not the military is a good fit you.
If you’re writing in depth on a specific activity for an essay or supplement, then I would leave that out of the EC list. In particular I would try to focus on the watchmaking (unusual, you can talk about the people you made them for) and drone building (talking about your paid customers) as well as anything service related like your paid STEM counselor position, SAT tutor, or summer fast food job. You would be surprised how much of a plus a summer fast food position can be, especially if you’re able to write maturely about it.
You could merge the drone and aircraft building, or leave out the aircraft building and focus on the drone building, which is where you have more demonstrated achievement.
I would not bother writing about the crypto trading unless there’s something special about it, and it would be my first to drop off the list.
When asking your counselor to write the letter, include the Bausch and Lomb award in your brag sheet and ask the counselor to write about why they nominated you in their letter.
You speeding faster and faster on the road as a metaphor for your desire to improve would feel reckless, your drone designs getting faster and faster each iteration as a metaphor for your desire to improve would be a much better metaphor.
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Thanks for the essays advice
I know they are not the same as U SAID but alot of them overseas run security at embassies and consulates, although may be long hours, it isn’t sweating in a desert in the middle east
I’m looking forward to it
Are there any other engineering schools you think I should apply for?
Just make sure you talk to (or at least red about the experiences of) a wide range of military folks - like in the army/navy/air force subreddits
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“Other daughter” is currently in flight training with the Army; she did ROTC in high school and in college at TAMU. She had a full ride with the generous help of their newly created Patriot scholarship. Keep in mind ROTC and engineering are both time consuming and rigorous; it’s not an easy path. If you’re truly committed to doing ROTC, I would suggest adding it to the list.
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Please keep in mind that if you enter the military and are deployed overseas, you won’t get the option of where the military sends you.
Only choose ROTC, or any other military headed career if you are open minded to serve anywhere where you are asked to serve. If this is primarily a key to financing college, I would suggest finding more affordable colleges. @ChoatieMom
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Another thing - if you are accepted for the ROTC HSSP, then since tuition will no longer be a constraint, you might as well have applied for the best universities cost notwithstanding.
Family friend- two kids in the military, identical path (Naval Academy). Two years apart. One kid spent the bulk of the commitment in an air conditioned office somewhere in the Southwest (but weekends off in Vegas, so not too remote) programming, debugging, etc. One quick tour at a coastal location (San Diego) which was described as “heaven on earth”.
The other had three deployments to hostile off-shore locations in the Middle East, missed the birth of the first child but courtesy of the commanding officer, was allowed a Satellite call after wife delivered.
This isn’t summer camp and you don’t get to choose the geo-political environment you want to serve in!!! We all know people who spent their military service in Hawaii, gorgeous places in Western Europe, interesting spots in Asia. And most of us adults also know people who won’t or can’t speak about what they saw (recently, I’m not talking about Korean War vets) in Baghdad, Afghanistan, or helping to process Syrian refugees who had been gassed by their own government.
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Did you look into these schools I mentioned in post #42? If you could say what interested (or repelled) about those choices, people can give much better suggestions.
Is $60k still the budget, or did that number shift once you talked with your family?
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Places like UT Austin will be out of your budget unless you’re set on ROTC, in which case you can also apply to WPI, embry riddle, CU Boulder (their top major is aerospace engineering), CWRU, maybe even MIT as a reach.
If cost is a concern, then you can look at places like Cooper union (low tuition, mech E, no aerospace), UAlabama Huntsville (good scholarships and Huntsville is an aerospace hotspot), NCSU (in state, Pace scholarship is a possibility)
You can look here for a big list of merit scholarships: Reach4College.com - College Merit Scholarships - Google Sheets
Another financial safety is USU - you will get full tuition with their scholarship index, and ROTC can then go towards housing. USU is strong in aerospace, with https://www.sdl.usu.edu/ often hiring USU students. But, it’s far from the typical hypersocial college experience
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Sounds good
Yup I heard that they have a great ROTC program there