How to accept/transfer an Army ROTC scholarship

So I’ve been watching the discussion board churn over the last couple days.  The results of the last board were released and everybody is asking how to accept their offer, and how to transfer their offer. I see a lot of sketchy, misinformed advice being given.  When I see that it usually prompts me to think blog post. Lately, before I write anything I check the Additional information tab on the application website.  Cadet Command has done a fantastic job making that the go to place for good information.  Unfortunately for some reason most applicants (and their parents) haven’t figured out how to open that link and read the information.  Being the lazy blogger I am, I’ve pulled that information out from behind the curtain.  Here’s what the Additional Information tab has to say:

Accepting the Scholarship

Those applicants selected for an Army ROTC scholarship have tasks that must be completed in order to accept their scholarship. Please understand, the act of accepting your scholarship does not obligate you to join the ROTC program, it does not commit you to military service and it does not commit the US Army to pay the scholarship. The act of accepting your scholarship merely reserves you a place should you become fully qualified and choose to contract. This creates different decision points where you will be able to choose among options or change your mind.

After you are done with this section, please see the sections on Payment of Benefits and Becoming Fully Qualified.

1. Once you have been notified and receive you scholarship offer letter, you will have to make your first decision. The scholarship offer letter will tell you what type of scholarship you have been selected for and to which schools the offer(s) have been made.

2. Based on when you receive you scholarship offer, you will have other decisions to make:

– Scholarship Offers made in October/November. Cadet Command understands that most schools haven’t released even their early admissions decisions at this point. Select the school you would most like to attend where you received an offer. Do not wait to find out if you’ve been admitted before you accept your scholarship because Cadet Command will likely withdraw the scholarship offer and there is no guarantee it will be reinstated. If you later receive a negative admissions decisions to the school you selected, you can request to transfer your scholarship to a school where you have been accepted. The step for requesting a transfer are below.

– Scholarship Offers made in January/February. Many schools have released early decisions but regular round admission decisions haven’t been made for most. The intent is the same for offers made in October/November above. Select the school you would most like to attend where you received an offer. Don’t let the deadline pass waiting to see if you were accepted. Reserve your scholarship and request a transfer if necessary.

– Scholarship offers made in March/April. Most schools have released their regular round admissions decisions during this time of year with April 1st being the date for many. You should have a pretty good idea what your options for where you can go to college next year. You must still return your acceptance paperwork.

3. Based on what school you received your scholarship offer, you will have other decisions to make:

– I got an offer to my primary school. This is easy, accept the scholarship to that school.

– I didn’t get an offer to the school where I’m going. You must still select one of the schools on your offer letter because this reserves the scholarship. You can still request to transfer your scholarship to that school. That doesn’t mean you write in the school you want to attend and send that back. See the instructions for requesting to transfer your scholarship below.

– I’ve not been accepted to that school yet. Based on the admissions decisions of a particular school, you may not know if you’ve been accepted yet – that’s OK. If it’s your first choice or the only offer you received, accept the scholarship to that school. If you later receive a negative admissions decisions to the school you selected, you can request to transfer your scholarship to a school where you have been accepted.

– I didn’t get into that school. If it’s the only school where you received an offer, accept the scholarship to that school and request a transfer.

– I didn’t apply to that school. As discussed in the instructions for picking schools, it is your responsibility to apply to all of the schools you list in the application. That being said, you obviously cannot use the scholarship at a school you’ve not applied to or been accepted to. You will need to request a transfer. The step for requesting a transfer are below.

– I was wait-listed for that school. You have a couple of options. If that is the school you are most interested in attending, accept the scholarship there and wait for your admissions decision. If you get in, no further action is required. If you don’t get in, request to transfer.

– National Decision Day. May 1 is known to some as National College Decision Day, as it is often the deadline for students to make deposits to attend the college of their choice. Cadet Command will make every effort to ensure transfer decisions and scholarship offers have been made by this date. It is still your responsibility to do whatever is required by the college/university to reserve you place at that school.

4. The letter you receive likely indicated you are not considered medically or administratively qualified yet. Please see the section on DoDMERB Medical Examinations and Becoming Fully Qualified. They will better explain what that means and what the next steps include.

Here’s the information regarding a transfer.  Read carefully, because it says exactly what I have always said.  File upload is your best bet.  Accept one of your offers, write a statement regarding why you want to transfer, and include your letter of acceptance to the school you want to transfer to. Scan and upload.

Requesting to transfer your scholarship

Please understand, while Cadet Command always tries to accommodate where you want to go to school and what you want to study, there is no guarantee your transfer will be approved.

1. There are many reasons why a transfer may not be approved

– There are a finite number of allocations at each host program. When that program fills up, your transfer will likely be disapproved. The number of allocations by program can change from year-to-year and are based on many factors which may include: classroom size can only accommodates a certain number; mission requirements at that program; and the number of Cadre at that program. Typically, larger universities have more allocations but that’s not always true. Contact the host program Cadre for more information.

– The combination of college major and school aren’t always conducive to the ROTC training requirements. Contact the host program Cadre for more information but this usually only applies to nurses.

– Just because an ROTC Cadre member at a college says the transfer should be approved, doesn’t always mean it will. This also does not guarantee the transfer will be approved.

2. To request a transfer, you must first accept your scholarship to one of the schools where you were originally offered. If you have already done that, submit the following documentation:

– Brief statement indicating why you want to transfer. There is not set format but please make it legible and do not write it directly on your scholarship acceptance form.

– Copy of your university acceptance letter.

– You can submit a request to transfer at the same time you accept your scholarship. Submit both sets of documents at the same time.

3. Cadet Command accepts paperwork the same for pretty much any document you may need to send us. Pick one of them; NOT all of them. The most preferred and fastest are listed in order below:

– Upload the files individually to your File Upload tab of the application.  This is by far the fastest and easiest. If you don’t have easy access to a scanner, you can always take a picture of the form with a smart phone and upload that. Just make sure you can read it.

– Email the file to your processor directly or use the central email address. USARMY.KNOX.USACC.MBX.TRAIN2LEAD@MAIL.MIL   From there, your processor will upload the document to your File Upload tab just like how you do the same thing.

– US Postal Service or one of the commercial vendors are the least preferred because they are the slowest and require additional handling. Plus, there’s no sense in spending money when you don’t have to. From there, your processor will scan the document and then upload it to your File Upload tab.

– Only using the first method is there a reliable manner to track if Cadet Command has processed your paperwork from start to finish.

– When you upload your acceptance paperwork to the File Upload tab, the document type is “Letter of Intent and Acknowledgement.”

Have you processed my paperwork?

Once you have been awarded an Army ROTC scholarship, the most important tab in your application becomes the Selection Status tab. It can answer whether or not we have received and processed your paperwork. Here’s how:

Scholarship Acceptance

– When you submit you acceptance paperwork using the File Upload tab, there will be a yellow flag next to the Name of Document (the type of document not the actual name you gave it) and the status will indicate “Pending” in the Approved column. Once we have received your document, the status will change to “Approved.” This doesn’t mean the action you requested was approved, it only indicates the document was received, it is legible, and we understand your intent for submitting the document.

– To see if it has been processed and approved, go to the Selection Status tab. When you received your initial scholarship offer, the Selection Status tab indicated which school(s), what type of scholarship, and the acceptance status. Your scholarship status will remain as “Pending Acceptance” until Cadet Command receives and processes your acceptance paperwork. Once Cadet Command has received and processed your acceptance paperwork, the status of your selected offer will change from “Pending Acceptance” to “Offer Accepted.”  Any other school(s) you were offered will be removed from the page.

Transfer Requests

– Submit your paperwork as discussed above. The File Upload tab is the most expedient method. The approved status you see next to the document type does not indicate the request to transfer was approved, only the document was received and we are working your request.

– The Selection Status indicate the originally accepted school until we have processed and approved the transfer. Once approved, theSelection Status tab will indicate your offer has been accepted to the new school. The old school will disappear from the list.

– Some requests take longer to process depending on where you are requesting to transfer.

Hope that helps.  The sooner you make up your mind and take action, the sooner Cadet Command can make their decision and you can start planning for the Fall semester.

Congrats on getting that scholarship offer!!