Are you not a senior?
Students typically start ROTC in their freshman or sophomore year of high school. If you start ROTC later, some people might question your motives.
It sounds like you’re grasping at straws to get funded and to get in free somewhere with prestige. As previously mentioned, a lot of schools that fund students want the top 5% of the class. That was the case with our children and what I experienced while working at a high school.
If you’re considering doing ROTC now, in order to get into a school later, the ROTC obligation comes with strings. In other words, your priorities are all messed up if you’re considering it for funding and admission.
This is not Boy Scout obligations; this is very different. You’re planning for a career in the military. You don’t get to decide your school schedule. They do. It’s the military. They will run your life for a minimum of six years. My neighbor did this, but she did it because she knew from the start that she wanted a military career and used the ROTC’s resources. The education benefits came later.
Put affordable safeties on your list; if you’re able to get in anywhere else, great.
If you plan on going there, just to be there for a year, and then try to transfer out, then you don’t understand what a safety is. Transfers tend to get limited aid. Going in, with one foot out the door does not bode well for you.
You need something, that you can afford, where you would be happy to attend, without being obligated by military service.
Your EC’s are not going to compensate for your grade point average and your class rank. The posters here have given you good recommendations. Use the help they’ve given you to direct your applications. And keep the applications to a minimum because you have to write all of their essays; it takes a lot of time.