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Hi Everyone.  ROTC Scholarship Consulting’s LTC Rob Kirkland appeared on the Getting In:  A College Coach Conversation Podcast on April 29, 2020.

Getting In is the leading podcast regarding college admissions in the United States.  It is hosted by Elizabeth Heaton, a former admission officer at both the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University.

You can listen to the podcast episode at this link:

The two questions that have been raised by applicants who are rising high school seniors is whether the requirements or timelines will be changed for the SAT/ACT standardized tests and the impact of the cancellation of extracurricular activities (sports, volunteer opportunities, community service) to applicant competitiveness.

Note there has been no official notification from Army, Navy, or Air Force ROTC so this post is our best conjecture regarding the way ahead.

Regarding SAT/ACT:  ROTC relies a great deal on standardized tests to select applicants and they will not want to waive that requirement.  Early communication from ACT and SAT indicate that they plan to increase the tests available in the Fall of 2020 and/or there will be at home remote proctoring options.   A possible outcome is that early boards in October and November will be postponed to December to allow for applicants to take the test in the fall and allow for a level playing field.

Regarding extracurricular activities:  ROTC will take into account the challenges students face regarding cancellation of leadership opportunities.  There may be additional guidance in the application that allows the applicant to reflect the activities that he/she would have participated in had COVID-19 not caused these cancellations.  Many organizations such as Boys/Girls State give credit if you were selected to participate in these programs.  The emphasis will be in not penalizing candidate for lack of opportunity.

(of course)….we will be sure to continue to update you on this situation!

ROTC Scholarship Consulting

Hi Everyone. If you would like to schedule a 30 minute phone call with us to discuss the ROTC Scholarship, please do so at this link: https://calendly.com/rotc/general-telephone-conversation. We look forward to talking with you!

Hi Everyone. The latest episode of the ROTC Scholarship Podcast is up. This episode looks at the ROTC Fitness Test with military fitness expert and former Navy SEAL Stew Smith. You can access the episode here or at our Podcast link on this website.

 

Hi Everyone.   We just wanted to let you know that the ROTC Scholarship Podcast up.  The first episode is about the ROTC interview process and tips on how to prepare and do well.

Here is the link to the Podcast.  You can also access it on the menu at the top of our website.

We plan to post episodes twice a month.   Here is a list of some of the future topics I plan to cover:

ROTC fitness tests (with fitness expert Stu Smith)

ROTC Nursing

DODMERB Physicals

A parent’s perspective on the scholarship process

Room and Board Match and the ROTC Scholarship

Public vs. Private School considerations

Civil Air Patrol and enhancing military propensity

Air Force Type 1, 2, 7 and financial considerations

The Army ROTC psychological test

JROTC programs

Tips on ROTC program visitations

Army Minuteman/GRFD scholarships

Army Early Commissioning Programs (ECP)

Senior Military Colleges (SMCs)

ROTC and enhancing college admission chances

High school activities—good, bad or indifferent

 

If anyone has any suggestions of topics you’d like me to cover, please let me know.

Finally, if you like the podcast, please give a positive review on whatever platform you listen to.  It will motivate us to continue doing this.   As an aside, we didn’t realize how tough doing one of these Podcasts are until we tried it!  It gives us a great appreciation of those that are done well.

U.S. Army Cadet Command WILL conduct the 3rd National Scholarship Board beginning on 23 March and they currently expect to announce scholarship winners around 2 April, 2020. The situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic is still evolving and plans can change, however, they fully expect to complete the board on time. They will do their best to keep us informed of any changes to this timeline. Stay tuned.

Hi Everyone. ROTC Scholarship Consulting’s LTC Rob Kirkland appeared on Your College Bound Kid’s Podcast over several episodes in late January and early February 2020. You can listen to the entire interview here: https://yourcollegeboundkid.com/2020/02/06/interview-45-rob-kirkland-on-what-you-need-to-know-about-rotc-scholarships/

All,

We’ve done an initial analysis on the Army ROTC candidates who we advise. We have controlled for most of the other variables as my work with them helps them max out other areas such as activities, essays, and the PT test. They are all similarly prepared by me for the interview. We do everything that we know to give them the best shot at competing.

The only area one cannot control is how well a candidate does in their actual interview and how the interviewer writes it up.

Bottom line: We had no “winners” who got below a 29 ACT and a 3.4 GPA. All our “winners” (We put this in quotes because dislike that designation) received four-year scholarships. [We don’t think many (if any) 3-year scholarships were awarded off this first board].

We think ROTC may be holding back some four-year scholarships for the second and possibly third board for candidates who apply late or who will be getting a second look. We don’t know how many–but it does provide some hope for those candidates who “just missed” on this board that they may receive a four-year scholarship in January or possibly March. [For those of you reading this who well below the 29 ACT/3.5 split, a three-year scholarship off the January/March board is probably most likely for you at this point].

Which brings me to an important point of this post—the interview. The interview write-up in particular is read closely by board members and weighs heavily. We have discussed this issue and the interview in general in previous posts.

If you were a candidate who had at or over 30 ACT/1400 SAT with mid 3s GPA or higher and felt you did well in other areas you could control, your interview likely did not go as well as you had hoped or the write up was not strong. [Factors such as a particular activity (class president, student council) designated major, or school choice probably had little or no bearing on your overall selection (or lack thereof)].

Questions you may ask yourself at this point about the interview are the following:

1. Did you visit the program you were interviewing several weeks or months before your interview to learn more about Army ROTC and get to know everyone?

2. Did you get to meet the person who was likely going to interview you?

If your answers to either #1 and #2 was “no,” then you probably could have done a bit more to ensure that your interview was a success.

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The Army ROTC scholarship process is not perfect. It is certainly better IMHO than the Air Force and Navy scholarship process but there are some things that you can’t control for and even explain sometimes. We continue to learn more every year we do this.