This might be a little bit of a read, but here I go. Basically my dream was always to go to one of the Service Academies (mainly Merchant Marine or Naval), but I had a really awful year. My 6 semester gpa was a 3.729 unweighted with lots of hard classes and everything, but due to a lot of things going on in my life (parents getting divorced, dad always harassing me) I got a 2.1 gpa this semester. Even though I’m a recruited athlete, both the Naval Academy coach and the Merchant Marine coach told me I screwed up bad and if I just didn’t mess up so bad this semester I would have automatically gotten in. Anyways, I applied to two other schools (University of Arizona and Washington State University) and got in. I got a 30,000 a year scholarship to University of Arizona and a 4,000 a year scholarship to Washington State University. I’d be majoring in computer science at both schools and doing ROTC (I did not apply for the ROTC scholarship though I would just sign up once I got there). Anyways, the only issue for me is what ROTC program I want to do since WSU only has Army ROTC, while University of Arizona has Naval ROTC. Also, since I’m basically getting full tuition payed at University of Arizona from the scholarship, but their ROTC programs DOES NOT cover housing and only tuition, which is basically useless to me since I already have pretty much full tuition covered, whereas at WSU you can chose whether you want full tuition or 10,000 a year towards room and board (I’d be rushing a frat though so I don’t know how much that would cost). Basically I’m just wondering which would be a better option for me since WSU would come down to about just 7,000 a year for tuition since I would chose the room and board option, while University of Arizona would come out to like 12,000 a year because they don’t pay for room and board. Also my end goal is to be Special Forces /Operations (Seals, Green Berets, etc.). So which school would be the better option for me?
Arizona. It’s a large school with so many options. The ROTC program is terrific, I had several friends who did Navy. Tucson is a fun college city. It is worth your serious consideration.
The question is: Is Arizona worth $20,000 more than WSU?
WSU is not very academically strong on paper. However, the alumni network is incredible. Grads look out for each other and I have seen graduates make employment decisions based on both graduating from WSU. Pullman is not pretty and Tucson would be a more appealing location.